#also funnily enough the phenomen is similar to how woodes rogers reinvents Eleanor post death i think

[maremote]

(don't reblog pls)

I have difficulty articulating this but the nature of a very specific type of positive approach a lot of people take to female characters in media makes me deeply uncomfortable. Specifically I'm talking about a phenomenon in fanworks & meta discussions where a female character is sidelined for discussions of male characters, yet still present, except in her presence she's like this patient, wise, chiding figure; which might not even particularly be in character, but it's this weird like mothering valorization where she becomes this emotional guru who figures out the main men's emotional issues better than them and she's there for maybe two seconds to be the smart emotional support and then gets sidelined. It feels weird to me because it doesn't feel like a subversion of demonization; it just feels like a different type of dehumanization. The character gets flattened out and robbed of a lot of complexity so we can focus on the main men but we don't have to feel bad about it because she's there and she's perfect so it's fine!!! Idk it especially happens with women of color and it's definitely unconscious for a lot of people i think but the whole "woman as emotional and moral compass" still bothers me put some respect on my ladies' names!!! Actually engage with them as characters pls and thank you

This is difficult to see in any single work, but it does absolutely make itself clear if you look across a wider range of works and discussions, obv not every single work has to include in depth discussions of every single character, i just wish ppl engaged with female characters esp those of color with the same level of nuance that they give male characters, also this is not to say you can't portray a woman as emotionally intelligent, wise or patient, many female characters are that, but it is not all they are, and when male characters are given such range in fan interpretation while female characters are reduced to the same few qualities well. Bad taste in my mouth!