every year, my tastes are not your tastes (and that is ok)

[wisdomeagle]

oh dear.

Skimming Yuletide letters and the "I want my men to be MEN! MANLY MEN! Not teenage girls!" makes me want to go, "I want my teenage girls to be GIRLS! Teenage girls! Not manly men." But I would be 100% okay with trans fic for my teenage girls, so it would be a lie. (Well, sort of. I don't think Tina Hakim Baba will ever be a ~manly man~, which doesn't mean Tina will never be a man. Maybe I will say it: TEENAGE GIRLS! I want my teenage girls to be girly girls. Even if they are boys.)

(Of course, I am also okay with my men acting like teenage girls, see also Joss Whedon's pink backpack.)

Comments

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

*nods a lot*

I think that sometimes, when people say that, what they mean is "I want the male characters to be the same people they are in canon, and not given stereotypical female traits because of the idea that gay men are girly, especially if they enjoy receptive anal sex." This, I think, is a fair point. (ETA: Obviously I'm presuming slash here, but that's the usual context for this kind of thing.)

But sometimes they're just idiots who have contempt for femininity and think men should be MANLY.

[wisdomeagle]

Agree. (I'm reminded of why saying, "I want good characterization," is so tempting and yet so hopeless, because people who write outrageously ooc fic... don't do it on purpose). And I'm okay, even, with, "I don't want this character crying/sharing his feelings/wearing a pink backpack, since he doesn't in canon. (I wouldn't be interested in such a character most likely, but that's the your-tastes-are-not-my-tastes issue.) I think it's the shorthanding of "teenage girl" = "all that is awful."

[raedbard.livejournal.com]

I think I saw that one too. :(

[wisdomeagle]

:(

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Wait, who is saying that about what fandoms?

[wisdomeagle]

Someone is WRONG on the internet! (I don't remember; I don't think I actually recognized the fandoms, I was so busy being struck by the "teenager girl" thing.)

[alyse]

Someone on my flist has actually seen a dear yuletide letter containing the phrase 'no girl cooties'. Which made me rage.

As I said to her, no one would dream of saying 'no gay cooties' or 'no non-white cooties' or 'no disabled cooties' or 'no trans cooties' (or I would damned well hope not), but it is still acceptable in huge swathes of fandom to be blatantly misogynistic.

[wisdomeagle]

Oh, EW. :(