Re: [OT][STRIPS] Great quotes . . .

Fish Eye no Miko wrote:

> Ok, you know what?  Instead of going 'round and 'round about this, let me
> tell you why it pissed me off so much:
>
> I'm a  fan of a lot of "nerdy" things; anime, comics, fantasy, etc.  Most
> of the fans of these things appear to be male.  Of course, reading about
> it, you'd thing there ARE no women in these fandoms.  How often has AS
> talked about how "hot" <insert female character's name> is? 

I think the problem there is not that they do that, but rather that they 
don't do the same for the male characters/female fans.

> Talked about a
> female character's breasts? 

Which is another problem entirely (not limited to AS), and I'm not going 
to dismiss it. If it's done in a humorous fashion (Being Upfront), it's 
fine, but usually that's not the case.

> What about the "Have you ever had an alien
> girlfreind?" thing (No, I've never has one, being, ya know.. a straight
> woman). 

The fact is that the number of series featuring an alien _boy_friend can 
probably be counted on... oh, one finger? I don't see this as explicitly 
offensive.

> I see "polls" on this and other "fannish" ngs about, "Would you like to
> have sex with <insert female character's name>?"  And don't give me that BS
> that "Gee, maybe they're also talking to lesbian women!" (yeah, right).

Well, no one's stopping you from starting a "...with <insert male 
character's name>" thread. The reason why they're directed at female 
characters is, well DUH, the original posters are straight guys. (With 
some issues, but discussion of those would be digressing.)

> And as for, "Well, they're only addressing the guys."  Really?  Then why is
> that not prefaced with "For the guys" or something?  Without that, it does
> feel like tey are addressing the whole ng, and assuming that we're all
> staight men. 

Not every thread here has to be labelled, stamped and addressed, you 
know. If I start a "What's your favorite Gundam series" thread, it's 
obviously not addressed to people who hate Gundam on general principles.

To be fair, these "have sex with Ayana^H^H^H^H^H<character>" threads 
creep me out just a little, but you seem to have misdiagnosed the root 
of the problem.

> Not to mention the many posts and threads about female
> characters' anatomy, etc.

See above on breasts. Yes, I like breasts, but I prefer to keep said 
liking to myself for private contemplation. ^_^

> It's extremely disheartening be in a fandom and watching fellow fans
> reducing women to body parts, and ignoring the existence of female fans
> altogether. 

Well, I do agree with you to a point. However, you may have 
overestimated the seriousness of the problem. There's a very small group 
of fans here (I'm thinking the Ayanami Psycho Club, but there are 
definitely others) who often behave in that way, but by and large I 
don't get that vibe from the majority of the group. Ordinary people can 
make slips and have blind spots too, contrary to popular belief.

- 5parrow