I think the DUMBEST thing I’ve ever heard is people saying you’re misogynistic for not liking the Light Fury actually like?!?! 😭 you have to actually be dumb to actually think this way sorry but what?
I saw that "argument" to try to take away any kind of criticism over the light fury. It was something like, you are misogynistic because you don't like it being sparkly and girly cause it is for the girls?
Like... There is nothing wrong in liking her, gosh the design is very VERY PRETTY, but if other people are telling you that her purposes are none other than to be female and love interest, then you are not paying attention on the fact that the light fury design is indeed the misogynistic one in the room cause it was the result of a bunch of people with the same mindset of "girls are soft and glittery and pink and like hearts" (they didn't even add her any scars)
They also try to deny this approach by telling people that there are other light furies at the background, like if it was not a copy paste and nothing more. Damn, we don't know if they are males or females, they are just in the background and do not justify anything
It's this fake progressive bs when they try to become so pro girly "living every female character is always morally correct" stuff they don't realize they're doing a full turn around into conservativism. It's not that we don't like girly stuff (hell I DO A LOT) it's how IT'S USED AND ITS PURPOSE AND BY WHOM.
The Light Fury was created sorely to push a heteronormative and misogynistic narrative plain and simple. I will NOT praise MEN that write female characters to serve a singular heteronormative purpose and even worse, purposefully design her TO BE feminine and alluring cause otherwise children will not get Toothless is indeed "in love with a FEMALE dragon" oh no, we need to make her as girly as possible to emphasize that further. Cause Female characters can in no way, shape or form diverge from the status quo of femininity.
It's so painfully transparent that people have no idea what they're talking about when they want to defend the Light Fury in this way in particular. Yes there is misogyny always lurking under the surface and that's why you need the critical skills to understand the discourse in a nuanced way to discuss how female characters are written and how they're utilized by writers for mass media consumption.
Just because it's a female character doesn't mean I can't criticize her writing ESPECIALLY when it HAS BEEN STATED by the director and character designers multiple times WHY she was done this way: because she's only there to serve the male characters and to be a symbol for fertility and reproduction. Plain and simple. Like OF COURSE I'm going to criticize her writing choices when it's so blatantly obvious they created her that way. It's not that I hate HER (what even is there to hate? she has NO personality, no development, no depth, nothing at all... WHICH IS the entire problem), I hate what her existence MEANS and how she was utilized.
The ACTUAL MISOGYNY lies on the refusal to engage with her in a critical way JUST because she's female. It's pandering and excusing her writers for treating her this way. My criticisms of her go SORELY to the writers because I do blame THEM (if there is even a "them" and not Dean fucking all this on his own which YIKES) a lot on how the story went down.
Again, I repeat myself always when I say this, you can LIKE whatever you want, but engage with it critically. To some people they find her cute and her design pretty and you do you. I PERSONALLY cannot separate what the designers have said about her. I LOVE GIRLY STUFF. But I cannot for the life of me like anything that's created with the sole purpose to sell me misogynistic stereotypes and heteronormativity, it's tainted by its use. It takes all AGENCY away from me and her as a character.
And to further my points that it's entirely the writers fault and them not knowing how to write female characters, just look at what they did to Valka. A painfully tragic stripping down of what once was a VERY complex, rounded and complicated female character, to NOTHING. And let's not even talk about what they did to Ruffnut. I think Astrid is the saving grace but I have a LOT to criticize of her in the third movie in particular as well... (the shows are written by different ppl but what they did to Heather was also criminal maybe someday I'll talk specifically about her).
It honestly BAFFLES me how her most rabid defenders pretend they're "progressive" by shitting on anyone that doesn't like her, saying they're misogynists, like?! words mean nothing now... Like no, you're not more feminist for liking all female characters no matter what, no matter who she was written by or why. Again this refusal to demand more from female characters gives men more excuses to keep writing them the way they do.
So no. I will NEVER praise a female character written by men that treat her as nothing but a hegemonic sexy object of desire for the male characters at best and a personification of this cynical toxic backwards message about heteronormativity, "nature", and female character's purpose which is settling down with your partner as an inevitability of life at worst.
