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kathleen_daileyThis 2019 thread on Plaidadder's Tumblr raises points that have bugged me for decades about some writers' (far too often, women writers') unwillingness to use their skills and their imaginations to discover the truth about canon female characters.
I know that I've talked and written and raged about this topic for years (most often when I'm triggered by someone complaining about a canon female character "getting in the way" of a twoo-wuv m/m ship), but the issue persists.
IMO, the whole discussion on Plaidadder's blog is well worth reading. In whetstonefire's words,
Plaidadder says, rightly,
In the case of the canon character I've written most often, five decades of pro and fan stories have (mostly) denigrated, ridiculed, and distorted her onscreen actions and--crucially--her motivations. This Tumblr discussion reminds me that I'm not the only writer and reader who has felt compelled to look for the truth behind the representations, and misrepresentations, of women in canon.
I know that I've talked and written and raged about this topic for years (most often when I'm triggered by someone complaining about a canon female character "getting in the way" of a twoo-wuv m/m ship), but the issue persists.
IMO, the whole discussion on Plaidadder's blog is well worth reading. In whetstonefire's words,
So to get the same level of comfortable ownership and sense of depth and desired themes out of a majority of the shallow caricature women that people do out of the bland background men, it generally requires two to ten times the mental effort, much of it spent in a negative emotional state as one confronts the factors causing this woman to be difficult to empathize with, digs under what’s there, and brings out what could be. [Emphasis added.]
And after all of that, you know perfectly well the whole time, a minority of the fandom will even be willing to care, and the odds of drawing hostility specifically for presenting this person in a good light are generally much higher. (This also means you’re more likely to have spent the whole work process in isolation, incidentally, rather than in the cheerful glow of group-brainstorming.)
Plaidadder says, rightly,
So you can work with canon female characters–-you can make them central to the story–-no matter how paltry or how bad the canon characterization is. And when you have . . . be prepared to cherish each kudo you receive individually, because they will not come in waves. The number of people who bemoan the absence of fully realized female characters in both canon texts and fanfiction is much, much larger than the number of people who actually want to read stories in which female canon characters are central.
In the case of the canon character I've written most often, five decades of pro and fan stories have (mostly) denigrated, ridiculed, and distorted her onscreen actions and--crucially--her motivations. This Tumblr discussion reminds me that I'm not the only writer and reader who has felt compelled to look for the truth behind the representations, and misrepresentations, of women in canon.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-12 05:01 pm (UTC)But it is crazy sometimes how fandom will glom onto a m/m pairing that has tiny slivers of screen time and make something super popular out of it. When the female characters get much less love.
MCU was the last fandom I was reading widely in that really did have great fic about Maria Hill, Pepper and Natasha in various ways! That was great. I read less Jane Foster but she was great too.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-12 06:24 pm (UTC)Me too! And I appreciate it when female characters are treated seriously even if they're not the main stars of the show.
But it is crazy sometimes how fandom will glom onto a m/m pairing that has tiny slivers of screen time and make something super popular out of it. When the female characters get much less love.
And potentially interesting female characters wouldn't even have to be in a romantic pairing, necessarily--just recognized as promising raw material for further exploration and storytelling.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the received fannish wisdom was that it was impossible to imagine (and thus write) a relationship of equality between a canon female character and a canon male character. Fifty years and a couple of generations later, one would think and hope that women no longer give much credence to that thesis.
And yet.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-12 06:35 pm (UTC)