It's the double edged sword of sexism. A mix of being afraid of being seen as sexist and sometime actully being sexist.
Boys don't get good role models because no one thinks about them as need one. They also don't register that boys CAN look up to females. Crazy people pick apart female characters. It's assumed that ALL females are supposed to be rolemodels. If a female isn't perfect someone will complain. In the end all your left with are bad rolemodels for everyone.
There is an unlying assumption that "real" men just don't need rolemodels and they have so many men anyway so who cares; well all females should BE rolemodels that any negitive female is thus a bad rolemodel meaning most people just won't let female character BE just characters.
It's not always the creators fault, sometimes the people watching or the moral gaurdians just assume they are writing a female character as a bad person because they must believe ALL women act that way or are bad. Or they will latch onto a trait that is seen as sterotypical. For example, you have a girl who likes to cook and clean - regardless of anything else she does someone will say she is a bad rolemodel for this reason. Wouldn't matter if she was an action girl who takes down tanks fo a living with her bare hands. Cooking and cleaning must mean she is an attempt to say "women should stay in the kitchen". It speaks more about the people watching really.
The fear of being seen as sexist can also lead to double standards where women can do most anything to a man in things like sitcoms (which families often watch together) and childrens shows (even male targeted ones) and get away with it; making her a terrible rolemodel anyway, but she's assumed to be strong and right because she's a female so she has to be or it's sexist.
On the other hand Bella IS a bad rolemodel because she supposed to be a rolemodel. Not sure if Edward is supposed to be a rolemodel and since no one judges male characters anyway (and a large part of her fanbase is crazy) it doesn't trigger anything in people.
In the end it's all very scary to me. I just wanna see characters as characters and I feel this kinda stuff gets in the way of my enjoyment of thing. [sigh]
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Date: 2010-12-18 09:53 pm (UTC)Boys don't get good role models because no one thinks about them as need one. They also don't register that boys CAN look up to females.
Crazy people pick apart female characters.
It's assumed that ALL females are supposed to be rolemodels.
If a female isn't perfect someone will complain.
In the end all your left with are bad rolemodels for everyone.
There is an unlying assumption that "real" men just don't need rolemodels and they have so many men anyway so who cares; well all females should BE rolemodels that any negitive female is thus a bad rolemodel meaning most people just won't let female character BE just characters.
It's not always the creators fault, sometimes the people watching or the moral gaurdians just assume they are writing a female character as a bad person because they must believe ALL women act that way or are bad. Or they will latch onto a trait that is seen as sterotypical. For example, you have a girl who likes to cook and clean - regardless of anything else she does someone will say she is a bad rolemodel for this reason. Wouldn't matter if she was an action girl who takes down tanks fo a living with her bare hands. Cooking and cleaning must mean she is an attempt to say "women should stay in the kitchen". It speaks more about the people watching really.
The fear of being seen as sexist can also lead to double standards where women can do most anything to a man in things like sitcoms (which families often watch together) and childrens shows (even male targeted ones) and get away with it; making her a terrible rolemodel anyway, but she's assumed to be strong and right because she's a female so she has to be or it's sexist.
On the other hand Bella IS a bad rolemodel because she supposed to be a rolemodel. Not sure if Edward is supposed to be a rolemodel and since no one judges male characters anyway (and a large part of her fanbase is crazy) it doesn't trigger anything in people.
In the end it's all very scary to me. I just wanna see characters as characters and I feel this kinda stuff gets in the way of my enjoyment of thing. [sigh]