People say so much about Vox "because he's from the 50s" I sometimes really question if these people even looked at the character or if they just have a generic 50s man oc they superimpose on Vox. He's sexist, racist, full of toxic masculinity, doesn't know how to do any emotional labour, can't cook, etc. Which yeah, solid villain concept I guess, but also absolutely not Vox lmao. You covered the (not really there) misogyny already super well, his business partners are diversity central, he runs around in heels wherever he goes, he's clearly open minded enough to know what people want and willingly adopt a "woke" public persona for the Vees, and on top of all of it he's also clearly the go to caretaker when it comes to the Vees, managing tantrums and also making sure they do basic shit like eat, which they also actively expect of him to the point Vel just calls Vox directly to go deal with Val when he throws a fit. The only things you can still fault him for (besides the evilness) are the capitalism and the passive racism that comes out sometimes (but which is clearly not something he often expresses or believes very much in because I truly think if he was actively racist towards his very much not white business partners on a regular basis they would have already had a (not at all violent) "talk" about it)
Vox canonically is THE guy that's all about change and going with the times. To the point he physically alters his body by updating his heads. That's not just a random quirky thing he does because it's "cool", that's vital characterization. The idea that HE out of all characters is stuck in the past is so laughable. Mr "such a shaky sense of identity that he will fill literally every role he thinks people would like him in" is for sure unwilling and incapable of change. for sure.
It's even funnier when Alastor is right there. The guy who refuses to adapt to modern technology on principle, hasn't even updated his wardrobe since at least the 50s, and is so set on his principles that he still holds on to stuff like there not being friends in hell, despite, quite literally, having multiple people that would consider him a friend at multiple points in time (Vox, Mimzy, potentially Nifty and Charlie). That's the guy people should focus on when it comes to being stuck in the past, not Vox who bends over backwards to stay with the times
The thing that gets me about the fandom's treatment of Vox is, anyone who genuinely sees him that way is exhibiting the very same prejudices they accuse him of. They are assigning him negative traits on the basis of sex and race, assigning and withholding abilities on the basis of sex and race, and then writing metas that treat the resulting stereotype as who he really is rather than spend any time studying his character.
And then you have Alastor, who is actually much more masculine than Vox is if you judge him by anything other than stature, much more toxic in how he expresses that masculinity, and absolutely more stuck in his ways.
But because he is a Black man who gets along better with women, he gets feminine traits, and feminist perspectives, and his being stuck in the past is, quite frankly, romanticized. He's a gentleman, his aesthetic is comfortably old fashioned, he cares about manners, he never lets his emotions get the best of him.
And he's a protagonist, so his evil acts are often treated as more justified than Vox's. Even though they're both sadistic serial killers who derive entirely too much pleasure from what they do.
Anyway, I don't have much more to add apart from I agree with all of the above. And I can only hope pushing back on the stereotypes will at least loosen their grip on fandom a little.
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