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With all the focus of late on the whole RaceFail issue, I've been wondering how it compares to the feminism issues I've seen in fandom over the past few years. More specifically, and somewhat due to consistent secrets posted to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fandomsecrets, I've given more thought to whether I've been wrong to go with my gut on feminism issues that, since I'm a woman myself, I have more insight into female characters than any boy or man, and at least as much as my fellow female fans. (Meaning, what I have to say about female characters should matter at least as much as someone else with a vagina, even if I don't agree with them.)
With race, I am at the privileged disadvantage, being mostly white European in ancestry. I'm willing to admit I am at a loss of understanding with such issues, so I don't get into discussing them overmuch. I prefer to mainly read and think on those.
But with gender? Especially with female characters who are white like me? Being called out as misogynist and exclusionary for not worshipping all over one here or there (especially considering there are so many other fictional women in various fandoms that deserve my fangirling more, IMO)? Being judged for not wanting to explain why I just don't "connect" with a female character? Give me a break. I'm not obligated to love anything with a vagina unconditionally in real life, so why should I be obligated to do so with a being that does not even exist?
(Brought up because OMG, the proliferation of "you must hate your own snatch" comments anytime a female fan at F!S admits to not liking every female that flashes before her retinas, in any fandom. I like to think it's precisely because I DO largely like myself that I demand quality from the female characters I want to watch/identify with, whether they are heroes or villains. Ditto with male characters, really.)
fandomsecrets, I've given more thought to whether I've been wrong to go with my gut on feminism issues that, since I'm a woman myself, I have more insight into female characters than any boy or man, and at least as much as my fellow female fans. (Meaning, what I have to say about female characters should matter at least as much as someone else with a vagina, even if I don't agree with them.)With race, I am at the privileged disadvantage, being mostly white European in ancestry. I'm willing to admit I am at a loss of understanding with such issues, so I don't get into discussing them overmuch. I prefer to mainly read and think on those.
But with gender? Especially with female characters who are white like me? Being called out as misogynist and exclusionary for not worshipping all over one here or there (especially considering there are so many other fictional women in various fandoms that deserve my fangirling more, IMO)? Being judged for not wanting to explain why I just don't "connect" with a female character? Give me a break. I'm not obligated to love anything with a vagina unconditionally in real life, so why should I be obligated to do so with a being that does not even exist?
(Brought up because OMG, the proliferation of "you must hate your own snatch" comments anytime a female fan at F!S admits to not liking every female that flashes before her retinas, in any fandom. I like to think it's precisely because I DO largely like myself that I demand quality from the female characters I want to watch/identify with, whether they are heroes or villains. Ditto with male characters, really.)
