something about taking a character, who was sexually assaulted in the past+was physically assaulted in front of us as a (femme-presenting) healthcare worker, and ignoring any of her actual qualities to use her as a cutesy naive self insert to ship with whatever white boy of the week, is so vile to me.
sure i have issues with emma's characterization, as this sometimes overly peppy, self-sacrificial person, who was going to be a literal nun, before switching to nursing-thereby painting nursing staff as these saints who can and should take whatever bullshit is thrown at them. but the crap ive seen in her tags makes me wonder if these "fans" ever took the time to actually try and figure out what her internality or motivations might be.
there was so much that could have been explored in her backstory-and hopefully they actually do so in the future-and instead, what such a large portion of the audience took from everything, was to infantilise her, and make her into a pink princess aesthetic rather than a person. hell, even the fics where i've seen her shipped with joy, seem to want to turn her into this innocent child, with no actual agency, while also actively ignoring her afro-caribbean roots.
nursing is a fucking hard profession. you do an insane amount of work, only to be overlooked and underappreciated. and emma is a full grown woman, who is passionate about her field, likes to connect with her patients, is deeply empathetic, and was badly hurt while trying to care for a patient, but still wanted to finish out her first day on the job. and honestly she deserves so much better than some of the crap some of the fandom wants her to represent.
