Female characters have a much lower margin of error to not be dismissed as a "fake girl", compared to me.
You have Mary Sue. The point which you haven't addressed is that males get to be alot more special than female characters before people start throwing the label at them. As you showed, males can be sues, but the tolerance seems much greater for male. Even among female audiences. How else does one explain a panel of female writers who are scared to write females? Do they write their females so differently to their males? Unlikely.
And then even if you can avoid the Mary Sue label, there's the even more derogatory "Man with tits" or "Honorary Male" insult. Where a female character doesn't act feminine enough, she's dismissed as a non female altogether:
^ That's a female author dismissing the likes of Vasquez from Aliens as a non female.
And then if your female action hero can avoid that, she has to avoid being shamed as a slut/whore, a bossy bitch, weak whiner, etc.
Female character: *cries over emotional trauma* Fandom: UGH she's so annoying i hate her all she does is cry and whine and sulk SHES SO USELESS!!! weak female character!! Male character: *cries over emotional trauma* Fandom: o h my gosh. my baby. noooo dont cry ily. precious child. my baby boy. must protect at all cost *tear of inner misogyny rolls down cheek*
It's as if a female character has to walk a tightrope in order to avoid all this complaint. And sad that the downfall of female characters are caused by women.
Everyone knows Dementia Ravenway and Rose Potter are outrageous pieces of Sue crap. That's a strawman argument. And it goes without saying that most characters have their fans. But that doesn't refute the idea that Female characters are being held to an unfair standard not as a one off, but consistently.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Doesn't refute their main argument.
Date: 2014-12-02 02:37 am (UTC)Female characters have a much lower margin of error to not be dismissed as a "fake girl", compared to me.
You have Mary Sue. The point which you haven't addressed is that males get to be alot more special than female characters before people start throwing the label at them. As you showed, males can be sues, but the tolerance seems much greater for male. Even among female audiences. How else does one explain a panel of female writers who are scared to write females? Do they write their females so differently to their males? Unlikely.
And then even if you can avoid the Mary Sue label, there's the even more derogatory "Man with tits" or "Honorary Male" insult. Where a female character doesn't act feminine enough, she's dismissed as a non female altogether:
http://maxthewriter.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/bewarethe-man-with-tits.html
http://www.swantower.com/essays/craft/honorary-male.html
^ That's a female author dismissing the likes of Vasquez from Aliens as a non female.
And then if your female action hero can avoid that, she has to avoid being shamed as a slut/whore, a bossy bitch, weak whiner, etc.
Female character: *cries over emotional trauma*
Fandom: UGH she's so annoying i hate her all she does is cry and whine and sulk SHES SO USELESS!!! weak female character!!
Male character: *cries over emotional trauma*
Fandom: o h my gosh. my baby. noooo dont cry ily. precious child. my baby boy. must protect at all cost *tear of inner misogyny rolls down cheek*
http://fyeahcontroversialcharacters.tumblr.com/page/3
It's as if a female character has to walk a tightrope in order to avoid all this complaint. And sad that the downfall of female characters are caused by women.
Everyone knows Dementia Ravenway and Rose Potter are outrageous pieces of Sue crap. That's a strawman argument. And it goes without saying that most characters have their fans. But that doesn't refute the idea that Female characters are being held to an unfair standard not as a one off, but consistently.