Woobie

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Synonyms: woobify, woobifie
See also: Weepy Uke Syndrome, Manpain, wangst, poor little meow meow
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A woobie is a beloved fannish character (often a BSO) who evokes in fans the desire to wrap him up in a blanket and cuddle and comfort him.[note 1] If a character is hard-working, and/or endures difficult circumstances bravely, and/or is often at the "h" end of the hurt/comfort spectrum, odds are good that fans consider him a woobie. The majority of the characters perceived as woobies are white and male.[1]

Woobies, especially if they're the smaller/shorter member of a slash pairing, have a higher risk of becoming feminized and/or infantilized. In fact, some people within fandom think that the process of woobification equates to infantilization and/or feminization of a male character.

The Bad Boy Woobie is a subtype of the genus woobie that may be becoming more common in canon.[note 2]

Popular Woobies in Fandom

Meta

Notes & References

Notes

  1. ^ "A woobie (named for a child's security blanket) is that character you want to give a big hug, wrap in a blanket and feed soup to when he or she suffers so very beautifully." TheWoobie entry at TVTropes (accessed 28 Feb 2010)
  2. ^
    "The Bad Boy Woobie (BBW) is a particular type of character that has become increasingly popular over the past few years (I can think of several older teen shows that did not have a single BBW among the cast regs: Dawson's Creek, The O.C., the early years of Buffy--and I wouldn't be surprised if there were more that I just happen to have missed. Nowadays, though, almost every show I know has a woobie in the cast.)"

    – Field Guide: How to Recognize a Bad Boy Woobie, meta by 12-12-12

    The URL (http://12-12-12.dreamwidth.org/18827.html) has been excluded from the Wayback Machine. Published: 2 Jan 2012. Accessed: 5 Jan 2012
  3. ^ "For certain fans for various television shows, movies or books, woobie means something else entirely. It was popularized by several vocal Smallville viewers who thought all Lex Luthor needed was a good hug. Or something." Dee Stiffler, Gapers Block, "Let Go of the Woobie", posted 1 Aug 2005 (Accessed 28 Feb 2010)
  4. ^
    For the NCIS fandom: Tony DiNozzo. Not that he would admit to being a woobie, but again with the falling on his sword thing. Gibbs occasionally does this too, but Gibbs is kickass enough to plan ahead and never actually get beaten up in the process.

    – quinfirefrorefiddle

    comment at thefourthvine woobie post (2010-02-28).

References

  1. ^ Are woobies necessarily male? Comment discussion started 2 Feb 2010 at thefourthvine's "Woobies Wanted" post. (Accessed 25 Aug 2013)
  2. ^ On the fandomwank wiki entry on Woobie, Lex is referred to as the "ur-woobie" (Accessed 28 Feb 2010)
  3. ^ "historical background" comment referencing Smallville origins on the history of woobies by mecurtin at 12-12-12's "How to Recognize a Bad Boy Woobie" post, 2 Jan 2012 (Accessed 5 Jan 2012)
  4. ^ "I am going to assume that I don't need to say Daniel Jackson or Ianto Jones, right? Those are sort of a baseline." comment by dragojustine, 28 February 2010, at thefourthvine's "Woobies Wanted" post.
  5. ^ Explanation of "D:ean" from a 2011 thread at Fail-Fandomanon
  6. ^ "For the most popular trope, OH NO POOR TONY, see most of the fandom." from *the Popular Tropes section of the Steve Rogers/Tony Stark fanlore page. (Accessed 1 Jan 2012)
  7. ^ "Woobies Wanted - My Shame Is TL;DR — LiveJournal". 2010-02-27. Archived from the original on 2022-04-24.
  8. ^ "thefourthvine Woobies Wanted". 2010-02-27. Archived from the original on 2022-04-24.
  9. ^ "Eliot Spencer, woobie - Epic Rants -- We Read Fic So You Don't Have T…". 2010-12-19. Archived from the original on 2022-04-25.
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