![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Requested by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ninja007 on the 1st January, 2014!
Women in fandom, either as characters or the fans themselves
There are so many directions this topic could take - fandom as a female-dominated space vs. fandom as a female-friendly space, female characters and the types of characters that I like vs. the female characters that most other people seem to like...
Okay, well, I guess we'll go with my love of female characters and how that's affected the fannish friends I've made.
I've always been most interested in the stories of female characters - the first fanfic idea I ever raised was a Star Wars fanfic where Luke turns to the Dark Side and Leia has to save her brother and the Rebellion (with the help of her mother). I was eight when I first conceived this idea and immediately knew it was just too big for me to actually complete. (I did write down a bunch of ideas, including the introduction of a Mary Sue character, but it's never been written. I don't know if anyone else out there has ever written it either.)
I guess I've always looked for stories where the hero is someone like me. It didn't stop me from appreciating the male heroes of the books I read as a child, but there was always that little thrill when I found a story that was about a woman; particularly if she was doing non-traditional things or bucking the character trends
Regarding women in fandom...I wish fandom overall were a little more friendly towards the female characters. A little more self-aware of the bias towards males that we all naturally fall into, having been trained to priorities male stories, male feelings, male concerns from a very early age. I wish that society was more forgiving of women who don't meet the "social standards" of beauty - and that beauty wasn't whiteness and thinness and attractiveness-to-men. I wish that we could be more forgiving of ourselves as women, and so more forgiving of female characters, too.
There's a tumblr post about "don't write one 'perfect' female character: write multiple female characters!" Write good girls and bad girls and clever girls and dumb girls. Write socially normative girls and girls who kick the traces into the next county and drag race with their finger out the window. Write quiet girls and sassy girls, and girls who want a man, and girls who want a woman, and girls who don't want anyone at all. Write them having sex and not having sex, with people they care about or as a lone wolf, write them as secretaries and strippers, commanders of battle fleets and corporate sharks - just write them. Write lots of them!
I tried to do this in my Yuletide fic, bringing multiple female characters from across a series into the one story. There would have been much more of this, involving various other female characters, but I ran out of time. Still, what I did seems to have been well-taken, so yay!
Getting back to my regularly scheduled fanfic. There are certain archetypes I prefer to write - stoic, competent, action girls - and certain dynamics I like, too: women working together, (heterosexual) battle couples, gender roleswapping (he's more focused on the relationship, she's more focused on the mission) - but I enjoy many female characters outside those archetypes - it's just harder for me to get in their head.
Regarding the friendships I've made in fandom...
I have had the great fortune to meet a whole load of the most awesome women via fandom. Most of them through our shared love of female characters in fandom, our common interests in writing, and our love of meta and thinky thoughts behind the shows we love.
While I bemoan the lack of fans for the female characters I love, to be honest, liking the archetypes that fewer fans enjoy has cut down a lot of the shit I'd otherw
ise have to wade through online. Because the fans who like these female characters - the ones that don't tend to be liked by the majority of fans - are usually self-aware, open-minded people, who know society skews male but are still going to push for the female presence.
And they are, one and all, quite awesome people to know.
I love you guys! Thank you for everything!!
DW | LJ
ninja007 on the 1st January, 2014!Women in fandom, either as characters or the fans themselves
There are so many directions this topic could take - fandom as a female-dominated space vs. fandom as a female-friendly space, female characters and the types of characters that I like vs. the female characters that most other people seem to like...
Okay, well, I guess we'll go with my love of female characters and how that's affected the fannish friends I've made.
I've always been most interested in the stories of female characters - the first fanfic idea I ever raised was a Star Wars fanfic where Luke turns to the Dark Side and Leia has to save her brother and the Rebellion (with the help of her mother). I was eight when I first conceived this idea and immediately knew it was just too big for me to actually complete. (I did write down a bunch of ideas, including the introduction of a Mary Sue character, but it's never been written. I don't know if anyone else out there has ever written it either.)
I guess I've always looked for stories where the hero is someone like me. It didn't stop me from appreciating the male heroes of the books I read as a child, but there was always that little thrill when I found a story that was about a woman; particularly if she was doing non-traditional things or bucking the character trends
Regarding women in fandom...I wish fandom overall were a little more friendly towards the female characters. A little more self-aware of the bias towards males that we all naturally fall into, having been trained to priorities male stories, male feelings, male concerns from a very early age. I wish that society was more forgiving of women who don't meet the "social standards" of beauty - and that beauty wasn't whiteness and thinness and attractiveness-to-men. I wish that we could be more forgiving of ourselves as women, and so more forgiving of female characters, too.
There's a tumblr post about "don't write one 'perfect' female character: write multiple female characters!" Write good girls and bad girls and clever girls and dumb girls. Write socially normative girls and girls who kick the traces into the next county and drag race with their finger out the window. Write quiet girls and sassy girls, and girls who want a man, and girls who want a woman, and girls who don't want anyone at all. Write them having sex and not having sex, with people they care about or as a lone wolf, write them as secretaries and strippers, commanders of battle fleets and corporate sharks - just write them. Write lots of them!
I tried to do this in my Yuletide fic, bringing multiple female characters from across a series into the one story. There would have been much more of this, involving various other female characters, but I ran out of time. Still, what I did seems to have been well-taken, so yay!
Getting back to my regularly scheduled fanfic. There are certain archetypes I prefer to write - stoic, competent, action girls - and certain dynamics I like, too: women working together, (heterosexual) battle couples, gender roleswapping (he's more focused on the relationship, she's more focused on the mission) - but I enjoy many female characters outside those archetypes - it's just harder for me to get in their head.
Regarding the friendships I've made in fandom...
I have had the great fortune to meet a whole load of the most awesome women via fandom. Most of them through our shared love of female characters in fandom, our common interests in writing, and our love of meta and thinky thoughts behind the shows we love.
While I bemoan the lack of fans for the female characters I love, to be honest, liking the archetypes that fewer fans enjoy has cut down a lot of the shit I'd otherw
ise have to wade through online. Because the fans who like these female characters - the ones that don't tend to be liked by the majority of fans - are usually self-aware, open-minded people, who know society skews male but are still going to push for the female presence.
And they are, one and all, quite awesome people to know.
I love you guys! Thank you for everything!!
DW | LJ