April 8th, 2013

“Mary Sue” = misogyny

Posted to my Tumblr, saving here.

The term Mary Sue comes from a parody fan fic that basically mocks, dismisses, degrades and otherwise tears down women’s fantasies. The character was gendered for that very reason. The fact that women having self insert power fantasies is something to be mocked and trashed.

Then the term started being applied to female characters from other fiction. The term is used to discredit, dismiss, degrade, mock, and otherwise tear down those stories too. It’s basically saying “Hey, women shouldn’t be strong and you women shouldn’t have any kinds of fantasies of power of any kind’ MARY SUE! Feel bad about that!”

Then people started forcing male characters into Mary Sue, they equated them to being a women, to being female and then shaming the character for it. They called male characters Mary Sue, just so they wouldn’t look sexist, despite the fact that pretty much every male character out there is a self insert power fantasy. Hey boys get to be Goku and Naruto and women get to be…. uh…. nothing. Women don’t get a fantasy that is just simply accepted without being torn to shreds in some form or fashion.
(example of the Avatar creators mocking Katara/Zuko pairing fans at a convention.)

Which s why using the term Mary Sue for any character is sexist and misogynistic. You are saying women’s fantasies are something to be shamed and they are inherently bad thanks to the character. Then trying to apply it to male characters just o justify you using it. (like how some people will call men whores just to feel good about calling women whores, and say “I use it for everybody”)

So if you want to keep using that term, you are not being feminist, you re being a misogynist and I don’t really want to know you’

March 23rd, 2013

LET’S HATE!!! Ar Tonelico – 10

We escape from Bourd, learn synthesizing, relate better to our magical tools… I mean Reyvateils (really just check out that verbage), and meet a new character that will show up later.

Rrha ki ra tie yor ini en nha
Wee ki ra parge yor ar ciel
Was yea ra chs mea yor en fwal
Ma ki ga ks maya yor syec

Continue–>

March 9th, 2013

LET’S HATE!!! Ar Tonelico – 09

We get to see the mind rape of the Tenpa Reyvateils and also get to know that Misha is “pure” as she refused because “she’s special” and is saving herself for Lyner.

This is form the old batch, had to do some editing so it took some time.


Rrha ki ra tie yor ini en nha
Wee ki ra parge yor ar ciel
Was yea ra chs mea yor en fwal
Ma ki ga ks maya yor syec

Continue–>

October 22nd, 2012

Liking Problematic Stuff PT II – The Oppressor is YOU!

The first part of my post on Liking Problematic Stuff was from mostly the oppressed point of view. Liking something you know is actively oppressing you.

Now i want to focus on the “allies”, the oppressor (also known as the people with privilege) because I’ve heard a lot more shit from them. Namely “I like what I like!”.

First of all, why does YOUR comfort trump my right to be a human being. Yes, you as the oppressor are actively oppressing me if you say something similar to that as you consume the oppressive shit. Being a good ally is about changing your likes (and possibly your dislikes) in order to be less oppressing. Keeping the status quo does nothing. If you’ve ever said that, take your badge off now and burn your “I am a good ally” t-shirt.

Why? Because you are the target audience! If you buy that problematic show/game/book you are telling the companies “Hey I’m your target audience and I like this stuff!” They can ignore the parts where you said it was sexist as all hell or the racism was ramped up to 11. They made a sale to their target audience and they an count that on their marketing sheet as “It’s working!” It’s only when something ISN’T selling that they might actually look at the response and go “Oh! Our target audience doesn’t like this problematic shit :X!”

“But if I stop liking this stuff I won’t have anything to watch/play/read!” There are plenty of other things to watch/play/read. Saying this just means you want to be lazy and continue to be an oppressive douche. Remember what I said about changing your likes. Yes you have to change them! You have to actively go outside of that little box and find something new.

You like Dead or Alive? Try a different fighting game that isn’t a pile of misogynistic shit.
You like ecchi/harem? Try something that isn’t labeled as ecchi, dump anything ecchi from your likes and focus on the shows that want to tell a story over degrading women. They are out there.
You like Family Guy? Try one of the other less oppressive adult cartoons out there. Look into the ones that have come before. I hear “King of the Hill” is far better than Family Guy. (Not saying it’s the best mind you.)
You like Dresden Files? There is a ton more books out there in that genre that isn’t oppressive as all hell. Try looking for books from people not white, possibly not male, and possibly not straight too.

Being a complicit target audience is the worst thing you as an oppressor. You are telling the creators of these things that “YES! Keep making them and ignore the non-target audience. I’ll keep buying them!”

October 22nd, 2012

Liking Problematic Things Pt I

I’ve been analyzing the statement “As a feminist it’s OK to like problematic things” however then my brain runs aground on the paying companies to make problematic things. To me I think it should be, “It’s OK to like problematic things as long as those problems don’t (keep) get(ting) funded” :P I mean that’s where I have the problem. People paying full price for such problematic thing. I see it as dog training, you don’t give a treat to a dog before it does the trick, you give it to the dog after. So giving the full price to company is telling them “It’s OK to do this” VS buying it in the bargain bin, used, downloaded, etc whatever media it is. I guess that the part rubbing me the wrong way, the funding of problematic stuff. If your buying problematic thing at full price, you aren’t sending any kind of message, other than they can make problematic thing and get the hefty profit for it. If you tell the dog to sit and it’s not sitting, why are you rewarding it?
If it’s bargain binned or used, they aren’t quite going to get any more money from it as retailer won’t stock the thing, and in the case of used, they don’t see ANY more money.

You’d give them the full price when they release the media without the problematic things. Like after the dog has done the trick you reward it. So you tell company to “stop doing problematic things and you’ll get all of the money”. That’s fair IMO. ._.