I guess I have to disclaim that I'm really utterly out of touch with any media created in this country-- I focus almost entirely on Japanese media. I can't really comment on the problems in fandom of western media, and in the past, I've failed to include female characters in slash fiction because either the fiction focused only on the main pairing and therefore there were no other characters male or female or, less often, the female characters were so sexist in their absolute nature that I did not want to include them at all.
Which leads to the second point-- I agree that female characters are held up to a horrible set of standards, but for me personally, as a writer and a reader, the things that frustrate me in female characters (again, in Japanese fandom) is that they embody practically 1950s "female" values and are only driven by love and their desire to cook and clean. I'd like to put in the caveat that the only fandom that I currently read het fiction for is Bleach, where I find there to be female characters that actually have strong motivations and characters. The typical Japanese "love interest" who faints over her boy and worries about how useless she is to him makes me sick. So while I can't speak for other people or other fandoms, I feel that the lack of female characters in my writing does not stem from misogyny within my own person but rather in the original work.
Thanks for the links! I haven't looked at them yet but I will make sure to take a look.
And that sounds awesome, sure. ^^ I don't promise that I'll read all of them, but that sounds great. Like I said above, I have read works with strong female characters, but my main fandoms don't tend to overlap with those, and I feel that my choice to write slash fiction doesn't make me a misogynist. I have to admit, I'm a bit skeptical about your second point, because even in my brushes with the American mainstream media (mostly TV shows), the women are created, to some extent, within the stereotype that women's first priority is love, and this is a trope that drives me absolutely insane. I don't mean to argue that there is no sexism in fandom nor stemming from fandom, but I really do hold that slash fans aren't MORE sexist than any other group, and that often there is more misogyny in het fic, and additionally, that much of the problem stems from the original works. My knowledge is almost completely limited to the Japanese media, but I hold by that belief.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-06-08 04:13 am (UTC)Which leads to the second point-- I agree that female characters are held up to a horrible set of standards, but for me personally, as a writer and a reader, the things that frustrate me in female characters (again, in Japanese fandom) is that they embody practically 1950s "female" values and are only driven by love and their desire to cook and clean. I'd like to put in the caveat that the only fandom that I currently read het fiction for is Bleach, where I find there to be female characters that actually have strong motivations and characters. The typical Japanese "love interest" who faints over her boy and worries about how useless she is to him makes me sick. So while I can't speak for other people or other fandoms, I feel that the lack of female characters in my writing does not stem from misogyny within my own person but rather in the original work.
Thanks for the links! I haven't looked at them yet but I will make sure to take a look.
And that sounds awesome, sure. ^^ I don't promise that I'll read all of them, but that sounds great. Like I said above, I have read works with strong female characters, but my main fandoms don't tend to overlap with those, and I feel that my choice to write slash fiction doesn't make me a misogynist. I have to admit, I'm a bit skeptical about your second point, because even in my brushes with the American mainstream media (mostly TV shows), the women are created, to some extent, within the stereotype that women's first priority is love, and this is a trope that drives me absolutely insane. I don't mean to argue that there is no sexism in fandom nor stemming from fandom, but I really do hold that slash fans aren't MORE sexist than any other group, and that often there is more misogyny in het fic, and additionally, that much of the problem stems from the original works. My knowledge is almost completely limited to the Japanese media, but I hold by that belief.