anneapocalypse:

As a sidenote: I really would like to see us think more critically about the argument that fandoms as a whole relate less to female characters because female characters are almost always worse written than male characters.

I will never argue that there isn’t bad writing for female characters in our media, however:

I submit for your consideration that we are also conditioned to be far more forgiving of bad writing for male characters. 

In a fandom at large, we are far more willing to do the legwork to “fix” poorly-written male characters–to fill in the gaps in their arcs, to write in miles on miles of backstory where canon gives us none, to headcanon fathoms of hidden depth where canon does not supply it. Hell, we do this for well-written characters! It doesn’t even have to be about fixing anything. Whatever canon supplies us, fandom is sure to add just as much of their own and then some.

But not for women. Female characters, rather than getting this kind of treatment from fandom, are more likely to be ignored and dismissed entirely. It’s not simply that their writing is weaker. It’s that they aren’t considered worth the effort of further exploration.

But the fanon that adds depth and nuance to male characters becomes so widely-accepted, so axiomatic that often it feels like those characters must be better-written that they actually are. That they must be deeper, more complex, better developed. We don’t recognize how much of that depth and complexity is of our own making. We aren’t taking credit for our own work.

And in fandoms where there is a lot of communication between creators and fans (which, this days, is basically every fandom thanks to social media), I’d argue that this can have a reflexive effect. Creators note which characters get the most discussion and fan attention, and are therefore more likely to give those characters further development in the source material. So if you actually feel that creator neglect of female characters is a problem, ignoring or dismissing those characters in fan activity is the opposite of a solution.

I would also argue that the prevalence of this argument has a really deleterious affect on the corners of fandom that do enjoy focusing on female characters and their relationships. By dismissing female characters as “badly-written” and therefore not worthy of the interest and exploration and transformation that is widely considered fandom’s very purpose, we also dismiss the fans who do want to put the legwork into finding depth in those characters. We dismiss the women who relate to female characters more, and we dismiss their genuine love and passion for these characters as a chore rather than a joy–and that is, frankly, a little insulting.

I’m glad to see these things being discussed, but I am continually disappointed to see this argument repeated uncritically. I don’t think it presents a particularly accurate or illuminating picture of the situation and I don’t think it’s terribly helpful.