#idpickyoufirst

[bluejelloanddietcoke]

#Idpickyoufirst - Why We Should Stop Hating on Female Characters

So I don’t really want to consider myself an expert on feminism. I’m not. I’m just a 21 year old female who tends to align herself kinda left of center when it comes to social issues, but something that I’ve heard a lot of talk about in feminist theory, and I think it should be applied to media as well. 

So when my modmates and I talk about media in terms of feminism (which, in my hippy dippy mod full of media makers is a pretty common occurrence), one of the biggest things we talk about is female friendships. Are women pitted against each other? Do the women in it like each other, find ways to empower each other, and support each other? Or does the underlying message seem to be that other women are enemies, especially when it comes to men.

Anyway, that’s another topic for another blog post. Right now, I want to talk about how this idea and the idea of supporting the women in your life (you know, in that scary world of ‘reality’, whatever that means) intersect. Because most people, at least in the lefty hippy dippy circles I tend to run in, seem to understand them separately, but they don’t really understand them together.

I propose that we, as a feminist and fandom community, start treating our female characters how we want to be treated. Whenever I see a character in a fandom getting a lot of hate, 9 times out of 10 that character is female (note: not a real statistic. I’m just hyperbolizing the fact that’s it’s common). Why is it that people who proclaim themselves to be feminist take such pleasure in tearing female characters down? Why don’t we lift those characters up in a similar fashion to our mothers, sisters, and friends?

Feminism means something different to everyone, even if the basic idea is the same, and we’ve come a long way since the days not too long ago when we weren’t allowed to vote, but looking ahead, let’s stop putting down female characters because they don’t fit our idea of what a “strong female character” should be. In fact, can we just get rid of the term “strong female character” altogether? Strength is important, yes, but strength can and does mean different things to everyone, just like feminism. The term I’m choosing to use instead is “dynamic female character”. This, to me, implies one simple thing: that she’s three-dimensional, that she’s allowed room to live, that she’s allowed to have flaws. There are plenty of female characters in our media today that I don’t like as people. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate them as characters, and I think that’s a really important distinction we as viewers need to start making.

We are in a unique position with our access to technology. Networks and producers have to listen to their viewerships. They are more responsible for maintaining contact with fandom than they ever have been before. So let’s stop asking them for “Strong Female Characters” and start asking them for women as real and alive and imperfect as every male they show us. I think they’ve got the “gun-slinging, badass, invincible lady” trope down. Let’s challenge them to write us now, and just like our definitions of feminism or strength, that in itself will give them a billion new voices to work with.

[wlfgrrl]

art by @Cazdinal

#IdPickYouFirst  (x) (x) (x)

[kat-cornwell]

idpickyoufirst replied to your post:The thing that annoys me most about 50 Shades of...

HOW ABOUT THAT BEAUTIFUL VERSION OF CRAZY IN LOVE BY BEYONCE THEY USE IN THE TRAILER SMH THIS TRASH MOVIE DOESNT DESERVE IT

I'd forgotten about that! This soundtrack should simply be different versions of Never Gonna Give You Up, sung by the top 12 worst reality show contestants, played on a kazoo.

[hekahte]

another day of me getting stuck taking cabs, another day of me looking incredibly cute and semi-unapproachable (also idpickyoufirst is my twin)

[doloreshaize-archive-blog]

ok ok ummm draw mandy milkovich and olivia benson

a masterpierce

[hekahte]

first day of the semester selfies. bad news: i spent $25 worth of cab fare bc my transportation closed for the day because of the snow. good news: i was rly feelin the whole oversized sweater/legging/messy hot look today

[bisexualelena]

I've got thick skin and an elastic heart

[bisexualelena]

idpickyoufirst replied to your post: will i ever get over my giffing slump ...

tbh when u make the Elena elastic heart set im going to faint and be unconscious for like 2 days maybe it’s gonna fuck me up that bad

i'll tag you to make your destruction much more convenient :))

also thank you your tweets earlier reminded me how much i wanted to make an elena set to the song :P