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

"5parrow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

> 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.

Yes, that's my point.
(and let's not forget the gay male 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.

Exactly.  It's especially bad when I come to the ng and see posts with
rather vulgar language about women in the subject lines...  Thank Cthulhu
for killfiles.  d-:

> > 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?

Hitomi had two all by herself.

> I don't see this as explicitly  offensive.

No, the problem is that they addressed this to the audience in a way that
seemed to suggest having a "girlfriend" is something we all should
understand.

> > 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.

Yeah, those last a really long time.
Besides, I'd never be so presumptuous to assume that even all straight
female fans of gay make fans like the same male characters I do.

> The reason why they're directed at female characters is, well DUH,
> the original posters are straight guys.

Which justifies saying, "I like <insert female character's name>".  When it
becomes "Wouldn't you like to have sex with..." or "Surely everyone
likes..." then that person is making assumptions (including that all
straight MALE fans like the same gal they do).

> > 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.

That is so not the same.  Sorry, it's just NOT.

> 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.

I'm not so sure...  I'll get to that in a minute

> > 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.

Are you a guy?  I'm tempted to say, "that's easy for you, as a guy, to
say," but I'm not sure you are.  Maybe you;re just a woman with a different
view on these things than I.

> 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.

Yes, and that's the crux of it... these are slips and blind spots that I
don't make.  That I CAN'T make.  Do you think I can forget, for a moment,
that there are men in this hobby?  No.  There's too many of them, and their
presence is too prevalent in the fandom for me to EVER forget they exist.
Yet is all too easy for fellow fans--and fan mags, and networks, etc, to
not even address me, to act like I don't exist.  Whether they do so on
purpose or not isn't even really the point.  The fact that do is enough to
be upsetting.

Catherine Johnson.
-- 
fenm  at cox dot net
"*Don't* scare the cripple.  My fight or flight reflex is very confused."
      -Kevin Girardi, _Joan of Arcadia_.