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Merlin: Can you do me a weird favor without asking any questions?
Gwaine: Isn’t that the bedrock upon which our friendship was founded?
01 Mon Feb 2016
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Merlin: Can you do me a weird favor without asking any questions?
Gwaine: Isn’t that the bedrock upon which our friendship was founded?
01 Mon Feb 2016
Posted Uncategorized
inslowturning: lucyliuism: why-i-love-comics: Groot #6 (2015) written by Jeff Lovenessart by Brian Kesinger IM CRYING ABOUT A FCUKING TREE U …
01 Mon Feb 2016
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and erasure is not okay for the sake of making m/m ships, love love love love, queue, representation matters, this is extremely important
I guess my protectiveness of canon female love interests and my issues with slash culture boils down to a single point:
In the average narrative nowadays your hero is male. The hero’s nemesis? Male too. The hero’s sidekick? His mentor? His friends? Mostly males.
The only slot in a place of prominence reserved for women in this kind of media is that of a love interest.
Romantic narratives are amongst the few kinds of narratives not only to feature women but also to cater to women. Then fandom comes along and systematically takes away those narratives from lady characters and gives them to white male characters in positions of much more visibility than their female counterparts. It turns around and comdemns those few lady-centric narratives as “heteronormative” while conveniently ignoring the fact that the relationship between the hero and his female love interest is the only thing holding a woman’s place in several of the popular stories nowadays. It hates on female characters for occupying those small roles they are given because it believes white men who already have more prominence then women within their canons should be occupying them. It shames people who enjoy such romantic narratives without the awareness that the act of shipping canon m/f pairings is, for many women, not only a preference but an act of reclaiming those few stories they are given.
Now, I’m not saying that slash in itself is the problem here. I think slash is a wonderful tool to fix the pervasive heteronormativity in the media. By all means, slash the fuck out of your favorite dudes, I’m not complaining. The real problem lies on fandom’s imbalance between male and female characters when it comes to whom it decides to focus on. I don’t think you should drop this awesome Stony fanfiction you’re working on and write Pepperony fanfiction instead but, when possible, try to look at Pepper as a character in her own right and not just some element you must get out of the way to make your ship happen. Same goes to Jane, Sharon, Betty, or any other female love interest in any media. Unlearn your defensiveness against them. Take some time to think of their arc and motivations so one day, who knows, you might produce fanwork centered on them (regardless of who gets shipped on it). Women are still a marginalized group in the modern media and they need every ounce of visibility they can get on both canon and fandom, so let’s start expanding this visiblity from the little we’ve got rather than taking it away, shall we?