I think that maybe I didn't explain myself clearly, partly because I went on a bit of a tangent from "femslash" to "writing women in general."
Well, usually when the "why does no one write the women" comes up again, people will say, "Oh, but it's just that the women are written poorly!" To which most of us point out that the poorly written, inconsistently characterized men are also written in vastly more quantities than the women.
The thing is, if someone replies and adds in the excuse, on top of what I just said, "I write Figwit because he has more agency than Arwen does," or "I write Lorne/Parrish because they have more agency than Elizabeth/Teyla," then that's...just another excuse. (Parrish has agency? Figwit? Compared to Arwen, Elizabeth, and Teyla?)
So. I agree that it's not all on the viewers' side. But. When the debate comes up again that there's internalized misogyny in fandom, and that one of the main expression of internalized misogyny in fandom is the lack of fanworks centering on women, the excuses come out to play. If I hear "well, it's not my fault I don't write any women; it's the fault of the PTB because they never create female characters with any agency," I will scream.
We already get enough excuses about how it's not their ~fault~ they don't write women, it's not their problem, it's all on the networks and creators' ends, that's why.
(I am not, and in no way irritated with you, or with the OP of this meta. I want to make that clear.)
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Date: 2011-05-08 02:07 pm (UTC)Well, usually when the "why does no one write the women" comes up again, people will say, "Oh, but it's just that the women are written poorly!" To which most of us point out that the poorly written, inconsistently characterized men are also written in vastly more quantities than the women.
The thing is, if someone replies and adds in the excuse, on top of what I just said, "I write Figwit because he has more agency than Arwen does," or "I write Lorne/Parrish because they have more agency than Elizabeth/Teyla," then that's...just another excuse. (Parrish has agency? Figwit? Compared to Arwen, Elizabeth, and Teyla?)
So. I agree that it's not all on the viewers' side. But. When the debate comes up again that there's internalized misogyny in fandom, and that one of the main expression of internalized misogyny in fandom is the lack of fanworks centering on women, the excuses come out to play. If I hear "well, it's not my fault I don't write any women; it's the fault of the PTB because they never create female characters with any agency," I will scream.
We already get enough excuses about how it's not their ~fault~ they don't write women, it's not their problem, it's all on the networks and creators' ends, that's why.
(I am not, and in no way irritated with you, or with the OP of this meta. I want to make that clear.)