Misogyny in Fandom - Fanlore

Misogyny in Fandom

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Introduction

Media fandom, and especially slash fandom, are predominantly female spaces, so it may seem odd that Misogyny in Fandom has been a topic of discussion for years. Debates about misogyny in fandom generally center on the way fans interact with the source text:

  • when fans dislike female characters, especially women cast as romantic objects for our BSOs;
  • when fans write about the male characters in a fandom and ignore the female characters
  • the rarity of f/f slash compared to the abundance of m/m slash.

Some also see misogyny in certain types of fannish interactions:

  • when we don't take fandom seriously, because it's a girl thing
  • when we accuse other fans of not being able to argue logically because they're women

Disliking female characters

Fannish dislike for female characters seems to happen much more often than random chance or general patterns of character bashing could adequately account for. Almost every fandom has at least one hated female character -- and not a character who is evil in the canon, either. It is not uncommon to find epithet-laden screeds about virtually any woman with screen-time on any fannish show. The level of anti-female character venom among some fans is bizarrely high, especially given the general fannish love for bad-guy characters in our fandoms. Occasionally, communities will be formed with names like "kill [name of female character]", and encourage members to post stories where the character dies in a humiliating way.[1] This type of community is only rarely found for male characters.[2] Thus, meta LiveJournal posts often pose the question "is being 'anti-female character' the same as being anti-female?"[3]

Another fannish trend often attributed to misogyny in fandom is that of stories that do not give the romantic history of their BSOs appropriate weight. For instance, this was a common complaint in Highlander fandom. According to Duncan, Tessa was one of the main loves of his life. He tried to marry her, despite believing he'd never marry. But even gen stories in the fandom tended to make much more of his loss of Darius than his loss of Tessa. It may not be anti-female, but it definitely seems to show that some fan writers value women less. There is also a tendency to kill off female partners to get them out of the way of the desired pairing for convenience, see Mysterious wife plague.

Ignoring female characters

One of the oldest arguments about the treatment of female characters in fanfiction pertains to the comparative enthusiasm for female characters as opposed to male characters in fanfic.[4] This crosses boyslash boundaries; female characters are underrepresented in gen fic as well, although, obviously, less so in het.

Fans who do not consider this an issue point out that they don't have a lot to work with. It's reasonably accepted that Hollywood, at least, is actively opposed to female leads and even female strong characters.[5] The stars of fannish shows (largely buddy cop/sf action shows) tend to be male; bigger parts, better writing. When women are the first or second lead of a fannish type show, they're still usually written by male script writers and still tend not to be well written.[6] It is, of course, difficult to write fic about characters who are consistently minimized and given mediocre characterization.

At this point, the first group of fans usually point out that extremely minor male characters are often fleshed out and given popular pairings.

Even the way that pairings are written can be revealing. SGA het pairings, for example, are frequently written female's-first-name/male's-last-name: Teyla/Sheppard or Sheppard/Teyla, instead of a more equal Teyla/John or Sheppard/Emmagan. Slash pairings are usually written either both last name, or both first name. (Others point out that this happens to Ronon as well, and that it's actually Aliens-get-first-names, Earthers-get-more-respect, rather than just the treatment of women vs. men. [7] This may be argued to be connected to the way aliens are racially coded other, another contentious discussion in fandom.) Then, the McKeller ship is commonly written out Rodney/Keller in a reversal of the norm.

Rarity of f/f

Explanations for this phenomenon include:

  • Even now, there aren't a lot of shows with two strong female characters (especially where one or both of them aren't pining after male characters on the show), and they were even rarer in the '80s and '90s.
  • Straight women aren't as turned on by the mechanics of f/f, so there is no audience. (This argument carries its own baggage by assuming that slashers are overwhelmingly straight women, which is not necessarily the case.[8])
  • We are used to seeing women having intimate emotional relationships, so it isn't necessary to create fictional versions, or easy to differentiate the friendship from a sexual relationship in them.[9]
  • We aren't used to seeing women have intimate emotional relationships in fiction (as the Bechdel Test indicates), and so we have nothing to go on.[10]

Notable Misogyny discussions

Pro-female character fanac

Responses to the lack of fanworks about female characters have often come in the form of fests or ficathons. The Femgenficathon, founded and run by gehayi, was one such response -- originally designed in 2005 to combat the lack of female-character gen in Harry Potter fandom, it became panfandom the next year due to overwhelming demand. Also in 2005, 100 Women was created to celebrate female characters in any fandom. It followed Fanfic100's example and created a chart with 100 prompts that anyone could write for. Galpalficathon, (subtitled I Will Not Be Afraid Of Women, from the lyrics of the song As Cool As I Am by Dar Williams) was a prompt-based ficathon from 2008, specifically for exploring female nonsexual relationships (instead of female characters in isolation or femslash.) Halfamoon is an annual fourteen day challenge celebrating female characters started in 2008.

Resources

References

  1. ↑ e.g. Kill Sam Carter community on LJ
  2. ↑ e.g. Die Ron Die community on LJ
  3. ↑ e. g. Female characters, again, fabu. Accessed 20 November 2008.
  4. ↑ just a typical prototype (that's all that you'll let me be), musesfool. Accessed 20 November 2008.
  5. ↑ "Why film schools teach screenwriters not to pass the Bechdel test", Hathor Legacy blog. Accessed 19 November 2008
  6. ↑ A-G-E-N-C-Y, jonquil. Accessed 19 November 2008.
  7. ↑ Meta/Rant: thetimebeing's LJ: Pairing Names and the Diminution of Teyla and Ronon and Female Characters in General
  8. ↑ poll: ficwriting and sexuality, wisdomeagle. Accessed 20 November 2008.
  9. ↑ Public Post: M/M vs. F/F, tehilis. Accessed 20 November 2008.
  10. ↑ come home before midnight, copracat. Accessed 19 November 2008.
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