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harborshoreI'm getting a little tired, is the thing. Because I'm not fond of reading fic and being blindsided by the only woman appearing being an evil doctor or a shrewish girlfriend or, for that matter, the understanding girlfriend who gets out of the picture in order to further the love of our two heroes. Or the only girl dying. Or--you know. (Note: none of these examples are taken from a specific story. That's actually part of the problem--they're tropes. And I keep seeing them and many others and I'm so, so tired.)
I realize that it's hard. I realize our culture premiers the Stories of white dudes. I realize fandom is prone to writing m/m, and there is nothing wrong with that. I'm not asking for everyone to start writing femmeslash, no matter how happy that would make me. No, I'm asking for something much smaller.
As usual, I'm fine with being disagreed with: these are my opinions and I'm definitely wrong sometimes. I would ask that discussion is polite and respectful, with all that that implies.
1. Are there any? Any at all?
And I'm not just talking about the main characters--if you're writing Bob/Brian or Brendon/Spencer or Pete/Patrick or Frank/Gerard, I realize that unless you're writing genderswap, they'll be dudes. But it's worth it to look at the surrounding cast and see if all of them are men. Because the world doesn't actually look like that. Truth: I've had people tell me they stay away from stories about women because fandom is their escape from sexism. The thing is, erasure is nothing like enlightenment.
2. Are they the villains?
Believe it or not, if a story has, say, twelve characters, and the two women that appear are both evil/mean/careerist moms who don't care about their kid/abusive/or what have you, that looks a little weird. And it's really hard to read without flinching.
3. Are they the catalyst for the relationship of the two dudes?
This one, hmm. It's about what their purpose is in the story. I'm not saying the best friend of one of the guys can't go, "Call him, idiot," but there's a fine line between helping out a friend and existing solely to get the guys together. It's (in my head) especially problematic if they're dating one of the dudes already and then go, "No, I love you, of course it's okay for you to date him too." Meanwhile they're not interested in the second guy romantically, they're not portrayed as polyamorous, and their relationship with their boyfriend in question is largely absent from the story. That--it's not fair to them. It's fairly possible to deal with existing girlfriends in a way that doesn't suck, promise. And I'm not talking about OT3s, here, I'm talking about two relationships that intersect in a way that makes the woman unimportant.
4. Are they Bad Mothers?
Someone very smart once said to me that if a story explicitly tells us that it's fine for women to not want children but implicitly tells us that anyone who doesn't want a child is a bad person, then the explicit stuff matters less, because what we're shown is that people should want children. Note that I don't think that it's necessarily bad to write about a woman who doesn't want children or who is an actual bad parent, but maybe make sure that's not just counterpointed with dudes who want children and who are good parents?
5. Are they damsels in distress? Do they exist to provide the hero with an object to rescue? Do they have agency?
These ones should be self-explanatory: it's about whether the women can act instead of being acted upon, it's about whether they have a story independent of the heroes.
6. Are they people?
Because you know what? Sometimes I get to a female character in a story and I don't feel like I'm reading about a person, I'm reading about a caricature. There's the Scene Girl, there's the Dumb Blond, there's the Evil and Controlling Mom, there's the girl who exists to be supportive...so ask yourself, are they people?
I'm not saying this is a complete list (feel free to add more in comments), and it's possible I'll add others later when I think of them. Just, please, write me some women that don't make me flinch.
I realize that it's hard. I realize our culture premiers the Stories of white dudes. I realize fandom is prone to writing m/m, and there is nothing wrong with that. I'm not asking for everyone to start writing femmeslash, no matter how happy that would make me. No, I'm asking for something much smaller.
As usual, I'm fine with being disagreed with: these are my opinions and I'm definitely wrong sometimes. I would ask that discussion is polite and respectful, with all that that implies.
1. Are there any? Any at all?
And I'm not just talking about the main characters--if you're writing Bob/Brian or Brendon/Spencer or Pete/Patrick or Frank/Gerard, I realize that unless you're writing genderswap, they'll be dudes. But it's worth it to look at the surrounding cast and see if all of them are men. Because the world doesn't actually look like that. Truth: I've had people tell me they stay away from stories about women because fandom is their escape from sexism. The thing is, erasure is nothing like enlightenment.
2. Are they the villains?
Believe it or not, if a story has, say, twelve characters, and the two women that appear are both evil/mean/careerist moms who don't care about their kid/abusive/or what have you, that looks a little weird. And it's really hard to read without flinching.
3. Are they the catalyst for the relationship of the two dudes?
This one, hmm. It's about what their purpose is in the story. I'm not saying the best friend of one of the guys can't go, "Call him, idiot," but there's a fine line between helping out a friend and existing solely to get the guys together. It's (in my head) especially problematic if they're dating one of the dudes already and then go, "No, I love you, of course it's okay for you to date him too." Meanwhile they're not interested in the second guy romantically, they're not portrayed as polyamorous, and their relationship with their boyfriend in question is largely absent from the story. That--it's not fair to them. It's fairly possible to deal with existing girlfriends in a way that doesn't suck, promise. And I'm not talking about OT3s, here, I'm talking about two relationships that intersect in a way that makes the woman unimportant.
4. Are they Bad Mothers?
Someone very smart once said to me that if a story explicitly tells us that it's fine for women to not want children but implicitly tells us that anyone who doesn't want a child is a bad person, then the explicit stuff matters less, because what we're shown is that people should want children. Note that I don't think that it's necessarily bad to write about a woman who doesn't want children or who is an actual bad parent, but maybe make sure that's not just counterpointed with dudes who want children and who are good parents?
5. Are they damsels in distress? Do they exist to provide the hero with an object to rescue? Do they have agency?
These ones should be self-explanatory: it's about whether the women can act instead of being acted upon, it's about whether they have a story independent of the heroes.
6. Are they people?
Because you know what? Sometimes I get to a female character in a story and I don't feel like I'm reading about a person, I'm reading about a caricature. There's the Scene Girl, there's the Dumb Blond, there's the Evil and Controlling Mom, there's the girl who exists to be supportive...so ask yourself, are they people?
I'm not saying this is a complete list (feel free to add more in comments), and it's possible I'll add others later when I think of them. Just, please, write me some women that don't make me flinch.
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Date: 2010-07-01 09:18 am (UTC)Right! And then when a good story of this kind is written, it's nearly impossible to keep them from falling into the traps set up by all the preceding bad ones. You know? And I'm just so tired of reading stories where the women are plot devices, I'm just so sick of it.