![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrotJust read a comment on my flist by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
copracat in which she made a fascinating point about character bashing in fanfic, which I wanted to expound upon.
It's a well-known phenomenon in fandom, that any character who comes between a pairing will be hated by some fans of that pairing. While it's not the only source of character hate, hatred of the interloper is perhaps the number one reason for char bashing. Sometimes the hated characters will simply be absent from fanfic, or otherwise ignored. But sometimes the chars will be bashed - portrayed in extremely negative, often wildly OOC ways, as scheming, selfish shrews out to ruin love affairs. When it comes to m/m pairings, such romantic interlopers are nearly always female characters (since almost all slashed male chars are canonically heterosexual, so their only canonical romantic partners are female. The reverse can be true with femme-slash pairings; Joxer was hated by some fans for being a potential threat to Xena/Gabrielle.)
copracat points out that such interlopers are a standard trope in romance fiction. A stock female villain in romances is the woman is trying to come between the lovers: "generally shallow, beautiful outside but ugly inside, a harpy to women and a sweet charmer to men, and will do anything to win the hero from the heroine." This is a classic figure: Cinderella's stepsister, Ursula in Disney's The Little Mermaid (Gaston in Disney's Beauty & the Beast is a male variant.) Her love isn't genuine; it's greed, fueled by envy and resentment, wanting what should rightfully be the heroine's. She's an obstacle in the path of True Love, and for a happy ending to be achieved, she must be defeated, losing everything she's unfairly taken.
Like most fiction tropes, this may not be a story that appeals to you personally, but it's one that works for a lot of people; it's a trope because it's emotionally satisfying to many. It's arguable whether it's intrinsically misogynistic; at least in traditional romances it's less blatantly so, because the villainess is losing to a heroine. When this trope is applied to a m/m slash pairing, then it becomes more problematic, because it's vilifying the major female character in the story.
The other problem is that in the original romances, the female villain is supposed to be hated; that's her role in the story, and to like her you must read the text subversively. But when a female character from a non-romance is cast as such a female villain, then that's a subversion of the original text, and is therefore nonsensical to anyone reading the text straight. Moreover, even if you do like slash, if you're not the sort of person who likes this particular romance trope, then the bashing can seem like pointless, malicious cruelty.
A basher who casts a female character as the evil obstacle in a slash pairing isn't necessarily doing it because they want to make people hate the character, or even because that's actually how they view the character; it's because it's how they want to view the character, what is the most emotionally satisfying way to see them, properly fulfilling their role as villainness. In the same way some fans "love to hate" the textual villains of a series, so do some bashers "love to hate" the chars who are villains in their personal reading of the canon, and enjoy fanfic that supports this view, enjoy seeing them get their just desserts - especially if it's never going to happen in canon.
If you are a fan of the bashed character, you may be frustrated with such OOC portrayals, but it will do no good to argue with a bashing fan. Part of the trait of a good female villainness of this style is that she's got the hero snowed; arguing her good points is only evidence that she's successfully fooling some of the audience, too. (Hence the seemingly paradoxical accusations laid on some characters, that they are simultaneously perfect Mary Sues and helpless, useless, pointless characters - the villainness's Mary Sue-ness is that she is perceived to be perfect, while in fact having no real skills beyond duplicity.) And liking this trope may slip over into misogyny with fans of strictly m/m slash who never like het pairings, because pretty much all female characters can be viewed as possible threats to slash pairings, and therefore all of them may potentially be cast as the hated villains.
But much fanfic in general is about casting characters in new roles, about telling different stories and using different tropes than are seen in the canon. And with many fans liking a good villain to hate in their stories, it's hardly surprising that a canon char may be relegated to that role.
(For the record, I'm not into this trope myself; I like my antagonists in shades of gray, and I don't care for villains in love stories. But that's just my personal taste, and I don't feel that fans who enjoy more black-and-white, straightforward tropes are in the wrong for liking them.)
copracat in which she made a fascinating point about character bashing in fanfic, which I wanted to expound upon.It's a well-known phenomenon in fandom, that any character who comes between a pairing will be hated by some fans of that pairing. While it's not the only source of character hate, hatred of the interloper is perhaps the number one reason for char bashing. Sometimes the hated characters will simply be absent from fanfic, or otherwise ignored. But sometimes the chars will be bashed - portrayed in extremely negative, often wildly OOC ways, as scheming, selfish shrews out to ruin love affairs. When it comes to m/m pairings, such romantic interlopers are nearly always female characters (since almost all slashed male chars are canonically heterosexual, so their only canonical romantic partners are female. The reverse can be true with femme-slash pairings; Joxer was hated by some fans for being a potential threat to Xena/Gabrielle.)
copracat points out that such interlopers are a standard trope in romance fiction. A stock female villain in romances is the woman is trying to come between the lovers: "generally shallow, beautiful outside but ugly inside, a harpy to women and a sweet charmer to men, and will do anything to win the hero from the heroine." This is a classic figure: Cinderella's stepsister, Ursula in Disney's The Little Mermaid (Gaston in Disney's Beauty & the Beast is a male variant.) Her love isn't genuine; it's greed, fueled by envy and resentment, wanting what should rightfully be the heroine's. She's an obstacle in the path of True Love, and for a happy ending to be achieved, she must be defeated, losing everything she's unfairly taken.Like most fiction tropes, this may not be a story that appeals to you personally, but it's one that works for a lot of people; it's a trope because it's emotionally satisfying to many. It's arguable whether it's intrinsically misogynistic; at least in traditional romances it's less blatantly so, because the villainess is losing to a heroine. When this trope is applied to a m/m slash pairing, then it becomes more problematic, because it's vilifying the major female character in the story.
The other problem is that in the original romances, the female villain is supposed to be hated; that's her role in the story, and to like her you must read the text subversively. But when a female character from a non-romance is cast as such a female villain, then that's a subversion of the original text, and is therefore nonsensical to anyone reading the text straight. Moreover, even if you do like slash, if you're not the sort of person who likes this particular romance trope, then the bashing can seem like pointless, malicious cruelty.
A basher who casts a female character as the evil obstacle in a slash pairing isn't necessarily doing it because they want to make people hate the character, or even because that's actually how they view the character; it's because it's how they want to view the character, what is the most emotionally satisfying way to see them, properly fulfilling their role as villainness. In the same way some fans "love to hate" the textual villains of a series, so do some bashers "love to hate" the chars who are villains in their personal reading of the canon, and enjoy fanfic that supports this view, enjoy seeing them get their just desserts - especially if it's never going to happen in canon.
If you are a fan of the bashed character, you may be frustrated with such OOC portrayals, but it will do no good to argue with a bashing fan. Part of the trait of a good female villainness of this style is that she's got the hero snowed; arguing her good points is only evidence that she's successfully fooling some of the audience, too. (Hence the seemingly paradoxical accusations laid on some characters, that they are simultaneously perfect Mary Sues and helpless, useless, pointless characters - the villainness's Mary Sue-ness is that she is perceived to be perfect, while in fact having no real skills beyond duplicity.) And liking this trope may slip over into misogyny with fans of strictly m/m slash who never like het pairings, because pretty much all female characters can be viewed as possible threats to slash pairings, and therefore all of them may potentially be cast as the hated villains.
But much fanfic in general is about casting characters in new roles, about telling different stories and using different tropes than are seen in the canon. And with many fans liking a good villain to hate in their stories, it's hardly surprising that a canon char may be relegated to that role.
(For the record, I'm not into this trope myself; I like my antagonists in shades of gray, and I don't care for villains in love stories. But that's just my personal taste, and I don't feel that fans who enjoy more black-and-white, straightforward tropes are in the wrong for liking them.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-10-16 06:29 am (UTC)It's not that I haven't enjoyed reading a bashing fic or two myself, on occasion. But I've realized that for me it's a way to exorcise anger at TPTB for the way they take a character and completely fail to develop a coherent, relatable characterization for him/her. I loved early seasons Sam on SG-1. Then she suddenly had a huge crush on her commanding officer, and persisted in it, off and on, over the next six years. I was already pissed that Sam promoted young, hesitant, self-doubting Keller to Chief Medical Officer on a war-time outpost, and the left-field love affair with Rodney was the last straw. Lana Lang was never anything but a Mary Sue. I don't mind a bashing fic that reads like extreme sarcasm directed at the writers by emphasizing their poor motivations and adding just as much OOC as the writers tend to from episode to episode. It's more like it's pointing out the misogyny (I hope unconscious) of TPTB in not writing fully rounded, motivated women characters. "If this is the character you're putting on the screen, well, I'm going to take her to the extreme."
On the other hand, I've also read vicious misogyny that makes me cringe for my sex.
And I have no desire to read bashing of characters in a triangle who are actually great characters. I adore Gwen on Merlin, even though I ship Arthur/Merlin (and Gwen/Morgana *koff*). I don't think the writers are doing a great job of really developing motivations behind Arthur/Gwen and Gwen/Lancelot (oh, TV, when will you do it right?!) but Gwen herself is a lovely character and I can only feel sympathetic to her. I also loved Xena/Gabrielle, but I also loved both Joxer and Ares, even though they were "threats." They were still awesome characters!
no subject
Date: 2009-10-16 07:19 am (UTC)YES. This. It's not meant to be hurting the character, or even fans of the character; it's a form of critique. (I wrote a post on this a while back - I don't totally agree with all of it now, but, yeah, I think it's often accurate.)
On the other hand, I've also read vicious misogyny that makes me cringe for my sex.
Sadly, yes, this is true, too. And sometimes the line's not entirely clear, if it's not readily apparent how self-aware the author is, if what they're saying is meant sincerely or sarcastically.
And I have no desire to read bashing of characters in a triangle who are actually great characters. I adore Gwen on Merlin, even though I ship Arthur/Merlin (and Gwen/Morgana *koff*). I don't think the writers are doing a great job of really developing motivations behind Arthur/Gwen and Gwen/Lancelot (oh, TV, when will you do it right?!) but Gwen herself is a lovely character and I can only feel sympathetic to her.
Ditto! You transcribe my brain. I *want* to like Gwen/Arthur, but so far they ain't doing so great convincing me of it. --Though actually I ship Gwen/Morgana harder than Arthur/Merlin. Gaaah, they are so sweet! *hastily uploads Gwen/Morgana icon just for this comment*
no subject
Date: 2009-10-16 07:42 am (UTC)ITA with the Lex = sex part. :DOh, yes, THAT HUG! Forget the stinky boys, Gwen--there's the love right there!
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 12:48 am (UTC)