#misogyny in fiction

[dizzyhslightlyvoided]

man. once you start noticing it, you kind of don't stop.

oh, in this narrative music video about a funny bird man setting people on fire, when he kills men, he does it in a quick and perfunctory manner, but whenever he kills a woman, it spends ... slightly too long showing her looking terrified out of her mind and just sort of sitting there helpless.

oh, this blockbuster superhero movie gave the only woman on the superhero team a character arc which begins and ends with "is afraid of one of the male heroes". plus it does that whole routine where "female character looks like she's being tormented physically and/or emotionally by male characters, but then it turns out She Was The One In Control All Along And It Was All A Ruse! ... except ultimately the whole thing is inconsequential, either because the situation she was in was entirely irrelevant to the main plot or because the plot contrives that she can't actually make use of whatever she was getting out of it, which means that on a meta level the writer just had her getting tormented for its own sake." it does this twice, in fact, once with each variant. and in the latter instance it's later revealed that the main villain actually was hitting her where she lived.

oh, this action manga introduces a cool and competent female character on the heroic side, then she loses her fucking arm and spends the next zillion chapters doing nothing except lying in bed and gritting her teeth from the pain.

oh, a trillion other examples of this exact kind of thing.

it's just kind of ... really tiresome. it's really obvious when you know what pattern to look for.

[crownspeaksblog]

I'm watching the episode where this lawyer thinks that aliens are after him and in this episode shawn and gus meet a nerdy old friend of theirs who's pretending to be a jock and especially lying about who he is to his very hot wife..

and i know that the show wants me to feel bad for this man for hiding his "true self" and interests.. and i did at first but when i give it an extra 10 seconds of thought i think that's fucked up for the wife..

imagine how violating it must feel after you find out that your husband has been lying about how he is just so he can have sex with you.. all of the time that this woman thought she was bonding with this man was just him lying and pretending just so he can sleep with her.. what a piece of shit and the worst thing is I'm so sure that some men are like this..

[langernameohnebedeutung]

ngl, I'm beginning to take issue with how in conversations about anti-intellectualism almost automatically, the face of girls and women will be slapped on the problem.

[jo-zed]

Can I be honest? Too many of you act like everyone ships with or likes men, and I’m sick of it. Stop using “he” in your posts to mean “they.” (Why can “he” be used in a gender-neutral context, but not “she”? I won’t spell it out for you.) Lesbians should not have to create separate tags and blogs to feel a little included in an exclusive, man-obsessed community with misogynistic tendencies—yes, even if you are a woman. No, I don’t care if you’re heterosexual or only have male F/Os. I also don’t care if you’re a gay man. If it wasn’t clear, your orientation is not an excuse for misogyny.

They practically beg you all to give their woman-centered work the same love. And what do you do? Ignore them. Why, because it’s not relatable? You don’t ship with women, so you scroll past it? You don’t know if any of your followers ship with women, so it’s a “waste.” It’s a waste to show lesbians you care because care obliges you to act. You like doing nothing (and your men). Then, when these blogs stop posting, deactivate, or tell everyone they hate the community’s diehard misogynists, you pretend to care.

Fix it, community. Stop telling lesbians that you care about our misogyny problem when you don’t. You fucking don’t, but you lie anyway. This goes past seeing male F/Os as the default now. Fix your misogyny, your male centrism, your woman-excluding ways, or lesbians will never feel safe here. It’s not hard. It’s not hard to care about the ones who only like women or exclusively focus on their female F/Os. It’s not hard to make the community less hostile to lesbians. It’s not hard to be better for lesbians.

If it is, you’re just a misogynist. Simple.

NO DISCOURSE TAGS. I WILL BLOCK YOU IF YOU TAG THIS AS DISCOURSE.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Term:The Orihime treatment

Definition:When a female character is extremely interesting and a super good person with very cool skills that're essential to the plot and has a male love interest who is as enamored is with her as she is him but she is written in a way that heavily mirrors irl autistic girls instead of pick mes so she is insulted rentlessly by the fandom for 'weird','creepy','desperate','useless','fake' and even sexually degraded even if she's canonically underaged because failing at 'performing' girlhood 'correctly' is seen by society as deserving of violent humiliation or 'not an actual real kind of woman and was just made up by incels'

Cause:Not being able to get a real problem or anyone in your pants

[nebulouscoffee]

The thing about Kai Winn's storyline ultimately being a tragedy is, it's not only a tragedy because her fate (in the eyes of the non-linear Prophets) was already known and nothing she did or said was ever going to make them acknowledge her- not only because she wanted so badly to have a big role to play in the grand, historic story of the newly independent Bajor and just couldn't handle the fact that she was never meant to- not only because the Prophets spoke to Sisko and Bareil and Kira and literally even Quark but not her- not only because she was deceived and raped and killed in the end- but most of all because, it was partly her love of Bajor that killed her.

Think about it- her whole regression during that final arc with Dukat is so tragic precisely because she was THIS close to redemption! Throughout the show, we see that her brain processes information in very rigid, binary ways: if you are not my ally, then you are my enemy. If you disagree with even one of my opinions, you are my enemy. If you refuse to endorse and support me in this mission, you are my enemy. That's part of why she's so easily swayed by fascist rhetoric, I think- she's just unable to cope with nuance. (This is foreshadowed in 'Shakaar', where she puts the whole of Bajor under martial law just because Shakaar disagreed with her over how she was handling soil reclamators.) Her personal narrative is I am the one who will save Bajor -> anyone who gets in my way is my enemy and therefore an enemy of Bajor -> I must stop them using any force necessary for the good of Bajor because I am after all the one who will save Bajor.

But when Sisko discovers the city of B'hala in 'Rapture', she is for the first time forced to accept the truth that he really hasn't been faking this whole "talks to the Prophets" thing- he's the real deal. We learn later on (when she tells "Anjohl" about how she honestly felt nothing the first time she saw the wormhole open) that a small, small part of her actually always doubted the existence of the Prophets. Now, she is faced with definitive proof that they are not only very real, but they also really do have a bond with Sisko. And for a while, she even comes to terms with this! In fact, at the end of the episode, she and Kira have possibly their first completely honest exchange:

KIRA: Maybe we're the ones who need to trust the Prophets. For all we know, this is part of their plan. Maybe they've told Captain Sisko everything they want him to know.  WINN: Perhaps. I suppose you heard that Bajor will not join the Federation today. The Council of Ministers has voted to delay acceptance of Federation membership.  KIRA: You must be very pleased.  WINN: I wish I were. But things are not that simple. Not anymore. Before Captain Sisko found B'hala, my path was clear. I knew who my enemies were. But now? Now nothing is certain.  KIRA: Makes life interesting, doesn't it?

Like, YASS babygirl- you too can learn to handle nuance!! I believe in you!!💪💪

And later on, at the onset of the Dominion War, she comes to Sisko for advice herself. She doesn't want to see her planet colonised again, and she's even willing to put aside her desire to be the main character to ensure it doesn't happen. Driven by pride and the need for power as she is, she is also driven by the desire save Bajor (and preferably be the one saving Bajor, which is the subsection of this desire that ultimately ends up being her downfall) - and she does briefly decide that cooperating with the Emissary is the best way to do this! I think about this scene from 'In The Cards' so much:

WINN: ... I have asked the Prophets to guide me, but they have not answered my prayers. I even consulted the Orb of Wisdom before coming here and it has told me nothing. So I come to you, Emissary. You have heard the voice of the Prophets. You were sent here to guide us through troubled times. Tell me what to do and I will do it. How can I save Bajor?  SISKO: You want my advice? Then this is it. Stall. Tell Weyoun you have to consult with the Council of Ministers, or that you have to meditate on your response. Anything you want, but you have to stall for time.  WINN: Time for what?  SISKO: I don't know. But I do know the moment of crisis isn't here yet, and until that moment arrives we have to keep Bajor's options open. I'm aware that this is difficult for you, given our past, but this time you have to trust me.  (Winn holds Sisko's left ear.)  WINN: Very well, Emissary. We put ourselves in your hands. May we all walk with the Prophets.

In the earlier seasons, Winn would often casually make claims that the Prophets had "told her" something, or that she was just "doing what the Prophets asked"- and her political position as Kai always allowed her to just lie about being in contact with them all the time. Now, you can see the sheer humility- the embarrassment, even- on her face as she (for the first time) openly admits to Sisko that she has never actually heard them speak before; and that they clearly "prefer" him. Yes, there's some (understandable imo) bitterness here- but not at him, at THEM. And when she tries to read his pagh at the end- something she probably does to dozens of people every day, most of whom would unquestioningly believe anything she declares afterwards- she doesn't even try to pretend she felt anything there. It's one of her most genuine moments in the whole show, you can just SEE the redemption arc in reach and it's so heartbreaking!!

I think 'The Reckoning' is a huge episode for her too, for many reasons- but let's talk about how it sets up this fascinating parallel between her and Kira (who Odo describes in this episode as having "both faith and humility"). The Prophets choose Kira as their "vessel" because she was "willing"- meanwhile, Winn was right there just begging to be a part of this! Here she is, with a Prophet right in front of her face- and she prays and postures and begs and prays some more, all just to get ignored. Kira's brand of faith is very, "I am ultimately insignificant and I surrender my power and my body and pagh to the Prophets"- Winn's is more, "if I do all the right things, then I will be able to prove to the Prophets that I am worthy of their attention, worthier than everyone else, and maybe then they'll appoint me the saviour of Bajor! It's My Destiny, You See!! (Why Isn't This Happening For Me??)" And the events of this episode are kind of a big slap in the face to her honestly, because they sort of prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Prophets have no interest in her. Maybe stopping the battle was also an attempt at regaining some kind of agency with them- I DID THIS, I pulled a switch and it had a direct effect on the Prophets, so there!! (Whatever that effect entails). She does care about Bajor. Of course she does. But her ideal configuration of Bajor involves her being a major player in its salvation, which she was just never meant to be. And this is why she's so tragically susceptible to Dukat's manipulation- he was the first person ever to tell her everything she always wanted to hear.

And the intriguing thing about Dukat's deception is, it doesn't all fall apart at one go. It falls apart in layers. And this makes for some excellent, excellent Winn characterisation imo.

First, she thinks the pah wraiths are the Prophets- and they tell her, hey, The Sisko has faltered, Bajor needs you, and only you can fix this. Good lord, imagine finally getting to hear those words after a lifetime of silence! And it's very telling that her first reaction isn't to gloat like she would've in the earlier seasons, but instead to humbly- even anxiously- pray. Bajor needs her, the "Prophets" have asked her to do something, this is her moment! Then, this random lovely Bajoran farmer comes in and tells her even more things she has always wanted to hear- that her activism during the Occupation (ignored by Kira and Sisko alike) saved lives, that he always wondered why the Prophets would choose an alien as their Emissary, that surely Sisko and his followers were mistaken- and finally, "our world will be reborn- with YOU as its leader". Sounds good, right? But THEN she finds out she's been speaking to the pah wraiths and the lovely farmer is a devil worshipper actually. And she tries the "wash away my sins" approach- she wants some kind of quick fix ritual that will "purify" her, so she can continue to be Kai the right way. She even admits to Kira that she's always been power hungry and she wants to change- and I believe her! Unfortunately, Kira then tells her something she doesn't want to hear- that she has to step down as Kai. And surely that can't be, right? She's the saviour of Bajor! She's so complex... it's not simply her love of power that this scene reveals imo, but more significantly, her inability to see herself as not a vital part of Bajor's history; of this whole larger narrative. Like-

WINN: I'm a patient woman. But I have run out of patience. I will no longer serve gods who give me nothing in return. "GIVE ME"!! ADAMI MY BESTIE MY GIRL MY BUDDY THEREIN LIES THE PROBLEM!!!

So, okay, fine, now she's swayed over to the side that maybe the Prophets aren't that great, and maybe the pah wraiths are the true gods of Bajor (because they were willing to talk to her), and maybe she's okay working with the devil worshipper. But then it turns out he's DUKAT- and at this point, she's literally murdered someone, she's ready to stop this, to go back to Sisko and set things right- but then the book of the Kosst Amojan lights up because of the blood she spilled. She did that. It happened as a direct result of her actions. She's just so desperate to be acknowledged... to have a role to play in all this, no matter who offers it to her. So the pah wraiths actually giving her a reaction isn't something she can resist. And here's where things get even more tragic.

WINN: But the prophecies! They warn that the release of the Pah wraiths will mean the end of Bajor.  DUKAT: The old Bajor, perhaps. But from its ashes a new Bajor will arise and the Restoration will begin.  WINN: Who will be left to see it?  DUKAT: Those the gods find worthy. It will be the dawn of paradise. And you, Adami, are destined to rule it.  WINN: You're sure of that?  DUKAT: It is meant to be.

Again with the ease at which she's swayed by fascist rhetoric! Let's be clear, she was (and is) absolutely against the Cardassian Occupation. But her worldview is built on the pursuit of being "worthier" than everyone else, of being "closer to god" than everyone else- her expectation of faith is that it's some sort of determiner of who's doing it The Most Effectively, rather than it being a practice- and she just completely misses that any sort of plan that executes masses and spares whoever is deemed "worthy" is... literally exactly what people like Dukat did to her planet. Something something faith as competition, faith as determiner of inherent superiority, faith as a way to gain power via proximity to god… never faith as submission. And the worst part is she’s self-aware. It’s heartbreaking.

And it's about to get even more heartbreaking, because she truly believes she has arrived at her girlboss moment in the finale (I think the tragedy of her being a rape victim and knowing this and having to hide the body of the one (1) person who was looking out for her while being stuck with her rapist speaks for itself.) After kicking Dukat out on the street (lol), she studies the eeevil texts and realises that to set the pah wraiths free, you need to make a sacrifice. So now she gets to deceive him in return. And she does! The look of shock on his face when he discovers she poisoned him is priceless imo, and her triumph as she taunts his dead body, the sheer joy on her face as she casts off her Kai robes, when she recites those incantations and something actually happens- and that too such a large pyrotechnic spectacle- is so sad knowing what's coming. Because ultimately, the pah wraiths want to destroy Bajor, right? And Winn just doesn't. Of course they don't choose her. Of course they choose Dukat over her! She really thought that by tricking and murdering him, she'd made him the unimportant piece of the puzzle, that she was stealing back his thunder- but tragically, it turns out even the pah wraiths see her as disposable. Of course they resurrect Dukat (a man who's proved time and time again that he wants to see Bajor & Bajorans destroyed) and turn her into the sacrifice. The way she screams "NO!" here breaks my heart- she's betrayed her planet, and it was all for nothing. (Dukat's "are you still here?" is particularly devastating.) I think it's very significant that her final words are "Emissary, the book!"- it shows that in her last moments, she's owning her mistakes- she's stepping away from power and putting Bajor first, and leaving her own fate in the hands of the Prophets. Who, of course, once again ignore her, and choose to save Sisko instead. God.

The utter tragedy that even in the pah wraiths' plan, she was just a pawn. That she died at the hands of the gods she thought chose her, but used her, all while the gods she'd coveted her whole life stood by and did nothing. The Prophets chose Sisko because they believed he would put Bajor's interests over even his own- and now they ensure he will be back one day to see the new Bajor. She never will.

Yes, it was her pride that got her here. Her mean streak. Her inability to cope with nuance. Her inability to see herself as ultimately insignificant. Her inability to surrender to a higher power in any way that didn't involve becoming more powerful herself; more relevant, more "close to god". But it was also her love of Bajor. Because if she'd cared about Bajor less, then maybe the pah wraiths might have chosen her- or at least spared her, or taken her to their realm after she burned, the way they did with Dukat. Now, she ends up being the one thing she never wanted to be: insignificant.

Honestly if I had to summarise the tragedy of her arc in one sentence, it would probably be Kai Winn: Too Evil For The Prophets, Not Evil Enough For The Pah Wraiths. She and Dukat are not the same! She is a perfectly pathetic, sad and wet blorbo and I am holding her gently in my hands while apologising for her crimes <3

[angrylesbianstereotype]

“Why don’t people remember that Skyler and Walt were separated and in the process of getting divorced when she slept with Ted?” They do! The people who insist that it was cheating just don’t believe that a battered woman has the right to leave her husband without his permission, hope that helps <3

[smute]

honestly the problem with booktok (and bookstagram) is not YA lit. it's not about people enjoying books that some might consider "low-brow" or whatever.

imo booktok is the culmination of several problems:

firstly, there's the homogeneity of algorithmic recommendations and the enormous influence those recommendations have on the publishing market. booktok recs tend to be of a very similar style and subject matter. they're easily digestible, easily bingeable titles that arent overly complex. booktok favors stories written by white women, often featuring characters with traumatic backstories and focusing on themes like overcoming adversity and the pursuit of romantic love. they are also usually very anglo-/americentric. none of this is necessarily bad, and none of it is by design, but it's not a coincidence either. it's the result of the constraints of short-form content on the one hand, and on the other, of an algorithm that amplifies, in broad strokes, the preferences of the core demographic of any given group of users.

secondly, it's about the commodification, not of reading, but of being Someone Who Reads Books (TM), which i think is just a particularly obvious symptom of online peer pressure and social-media-driven self-presentation. booktok doesn't encourage you to read, for example, sally rooney. it encourages the cultivation of one's own identity as someone who reads sally rooney. the problem here is not that sally rooney is a shit writer whose work has nothing of note to say. quite the opposite. sally rooney's work is relevant and interesting. in fact, it's being studied by scholars, and even if it wasn't, people can and should be allowed to enjoy some light reading, and yes, even Problematic (TM) fictional characters.

the real problem is the fact that the very nature of how booktok works actively discourages the critical discussion of the stories that it circulates. the problem is not millions of teenagers reading colleen hoover's slop (i love me some slop) – it's millions of teenagers encouraging each other to read and internalize – UNCRITICALLY – hoover's particularly romanticized depiction of abuse. tiktok's algorithm does not foster diversity of opinion. it doesn't foster diversity PERIOD. it doesn't foster slow, in-depth discussion. its only function is *make line go up* – line go up = clicks, views, engagement, money.

due to tiktok's popularity, booktok also has an enormous influence on marketing-related and (apparently, to some extent) editorial decision-making in the publishing industry. this is not just the fault of booktok, goodreads is part of the same problem. i mean, booktok has managed to turn colleen hoover's 'it ends with us' into a bestseller FIVE YEARS after it was originally published. it has also led to publishers dropping authors or DELAYING THE RELEASE of new titles after booktokers flooded the goodreads pages of unpublished books with one star reviews.

as i said, the underlying issue here is not unique to booktok. it's the same homogenization that plagues the movie industry, the tv industry, streaming services, etc. the publishing industry is just particularly vulnerable to such manipulations of public opinion. in the end, tiktok is not a social media app. it's an entertainment app and its content is focused on brevity. the biggest booktokers aren't simply avid readers. they don't post actual reviews of books they enjoyed. they're influencers who receive boxes of books from publishing houses to show off in haul videos like "have you guys heard of squarespace?" and that's it. the level of engagement with the texts themselves is like reading a blurb on the dustjacket, and unfortunately that is reflected in the selection of titles that become popular. if it can't be sold to you in 3 sentences, the algorithm will bury it.

[paperlunamoth]

What men mean when they say they prefer fictional women:

Real women aren't willing to do whatever I say and exist as sex objects whose only purpose is to provide me with pleasure. They aren't submissive enough. They aren't slutty enough. They don't worship my dick enough. They don't look and act like hentai characters. Their proportions aren't pornified enough. They don't look like teenagers. They have too many emotions and needs and thoughts and boundaries. They get too upset when you mistreat them. Having a real adult relationship with them where both parties are expected to act like adults and treat each other with respect is too much hassle. I shouldn't even be expected to have that kind of relationship with a woman, anyways. A proper woman should live to pamper and spoil and satisfy her man and I shouldn't have to do anything but enjoy. But real women are too human to be proper women.

What women mean when they say they prefer fictional men:

Fictional men can't beat you. They can't rape you. They can't murder you. They can't trap you for decades in an abusive and exploitative relationship. Once you're done reading or watching whatever he's in, you don't have to worry if a fictional man is secretly much worse than he seems, because everything that he is has already been written down/put on screen. If he isn't canonically a misogynist or a creep or a sex pest, then he just isn't those things, and you know that for certain, and you don't need to worry about it. Fictional men won't start treating you worse once you're married and pregnant. Fictional men won't abandon you when you become too ill to take care of them. Fictional men won't molest your kids. Fictional men are genuine in their sweetness and kindness and general goodness unless explicitly written otherwise, and if they aren't being genuine then you'll be given clear indications of that fact. There are no risks to your safety with fictional men. Even if he turns out to be someone other than who you initially thought he was, what does it matter? He isn't real. He can't really have power over you. He can't really take advantage of your trust. He can't really hurt you.

[queerasian]

sometimes i’ll see people talking about shiv roy esp compared to her brothers (esp roman in season 4) and this is all i can think of

[hellfyre]

everytime i look in the lilith tag I see so much hate and antagonism for her, like my god. we barely know much about her but some people are just desperate to hate on her while woobifying male characters and I can think of one word why.

[evilkitten3]

one of the most frustrating things about reading naruto meta is that every now and then you'll run into a post that's absolutely brilliantly thought out, has stupendous points, and pulls out all the stops on almost every level....

and you just have to stop and wonder how someone can simultaneously be so good at media analysis and so fucking bad at accepting that sometimes authors just cannot and/or will not write female characters on any level

[itsabee]

Will y’all ever make a fic with a fully They/Them pronoun using reader or a male reader?/Gen

Asking as someone who loves your fics but doesn’t use She/Her.

We don’t plan on writing another fic after this one tbh. We think we have exhausted all of our idea.

We have tossed around a male x reader so we could finally romance Liu but I don’t think a lot of people would read it nor would we have the time and energy to finish it as I don’t even know how long HO1C is gonna be.

Also I don’t use she/her and Reagan is a butch lesbian, x readers are more popular when you use a woman and I don’t really have a problem with it. Sometimes you just gotta do what will alienate the least amount of people and that’s she/her pronouns.

[wine-dark-soup]

I think what annoys me about misogyny against fictional characters is that. Ontologically the character stops being a character. She is ontologically a woman now. A woman subjected to the same standards and judgements as a real woman, when fiction is literally the place you show what isn't and what you can't express (hi aristotle). This is why mean women in fiction (it's even worse if they're villains) are so mistreated imo by their writers (sometimes) and the fans alike.

[Dont get me started about how it's worse if it's misogynoir/any form of misogyny against woc/transmisogyny]

In the same work of fiction the imperialist leader who de facto committed warcrimes is everyone's sex pal with complex trauma but the woman who serves him is definitely unredeemable because she committed war crimes. Like.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

I saw something in your review for, I think it was book 54, where you said that you’ve previously compared Cassie to an anti-Susan Pevensie. Where was the post where you made that comparison?

Not on this blog! It was actually a conference presentation I did 10+ years ago. I can summarize what I remember from that paper.

Becoming an adult is a process that's almost uniformly positive for boys becoming men, but a lot more fraught for girls becoming women. Men often have more status than boys; women often have less status than girls. Boys are lauded for developing (hetero)sexuality; girls are both pressured to and derogated for developing any sexuality. Man-ness is a sign of strength; many signals of woman-ness are also those of weakness or immorality.

Point 1 means that a fair percent of coming-of-age stories, including SF classics, struggle with girls' coming of age. Wendy (Peter Pan) resists growing up just as much as her male costars, but ultimately acts as an adult-ifying force on the Lost Boys. Lyra (His Dark Materials) becomes an adult through becoming sexual, even as her male friend Will becomes an adult through becoming independent. Same goes for Bev (It) — her male friends become adults through facing their fears; she becomes an adult through sex.  So on.

Susan Pevensie (The Last Battle) is the example of this problem that's received far and away the most attention. Everyone from J.K. Rowling to Lev Grossman to Margaret Atwood has specifically called out the line where Susan's brother implies that her interest in "lipstick and nylons" has to do with her denial of Narnia. This criticism ignores the leadership roles Susan takes on in Narnia books 2 - 4, fighting in battles and leading diplomatic missions. But I do agree that "feminine adulthood = no more adventures" is an awful thing to convey to kids.

There are a bunch of attempted "fixes" of this moment, from the ham-fisted (Philip Pullman) to the nuanced (Tamora Pierce) to the blandly inoffensive (Neil Gaiman). [I’ll skip most of this part of the paper.]

And then there's Animorphs, and Cassie. I have no idea if K.A. Applegate or her ghosts were influenced by Narnia — I haven't found any direct commentary — but what I love about Cassie's story is that it's almost the same as Susan's, but framed in a different (feminist) way. Both are female heroes who enter an adventure story, wrap up the adventure, and take on adult identities. Both get one last call to action (Tirian using Susan's horn, Jake telling Cassie that Ax is missing) and both refuse that finalmost call, in the process refusing an early and glorious death in battle. Only the two arcs are framed completely differently.

Instead of Peter complaining that Susan has "lost Narnia," Jake tells Cassie she's "a one-woman army" who is "doing what you need to do and were born to do. Part of what we won was freedom for the Hork-Bajir... your job is to protect it" (#54). He and Cassie discuss that she now has the difficult task of living to maintain the legacy that Rachel and Jara and Arbron died for. Cassie isn't punished by not dying gloriously; she's just taking on a different heroic role that comes with no glory at all.

It's also notable that adult Cassie has become more fashion-conscious ("pestered by Patagonia" for endorsements) and more romantic with Ronnie than she was with Jake. But the fashion thing is neutral and bittersweet because Rachel's not there to tease her, while the romance is a sign she's healthy and adult now. It's the boys who run back toward adventure who are portrayed as wrong (Ax getting his crew killed, Marco's false shallowness, Jake and Tobias's implied suicidality). The girl brave and adaptive enough to become a woman is portrayed in a positive light. Similar story to Susan, but with a very different frame. And in many ways more effectively feminist than having Cassie take on the masculine "glory through death in battle" role would be.

There are a bunch of moments where Animorphs pulls similar framing tricks. "Tom joined the Sharing for a simple, silly reason: a pretty girl" (#6) would, in a majority of 20th century SF stories, have been phrased as the girl having seduced him; Applegate instead keeps the agency where it belongs through showing that it's silly to join a cult over a crush. Rachel responds to a boy in her class cat-calling her with "Of course I look good... I almost always do" (#32). When he calls her "stuck-up", she says "That's right, I am. Now you know the difference between good looks and a good personality." She's not denying her beauty or the work she puts into it; she's owning it and also not letting a boy own it.

In conclusion: Animorphs is great.

[artform-virtue]

i’m sooooo sick of people acting like romance is an inferior genre. like show me in your pretentious litfic books a story where a fat woman gets to fall in love. show me where queer people get to be happy while experiencing virtually no homophobia. show me the space where the male gaze is practically nonexistent. go on, don’t be shy!