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	sarracenia 2010-10-21 04:27 pm UTC (link)
	Granted, I won't start taking Aja seriously until she stops saying that she doesn't talk about women in her own journal because people might get mad at her. Wait what. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

eilan
2010-10-21 07:07 pm UTC (link)

No one wants to hear me talk about how awesome the girls are, do they? All my posts about Emily Blunt basically boil down to EMILY BLUNT IS SO HOT I LOVE HER, and that makes me feel shallow and useless, and I don't like feeling shallow and useless. And I want to talk about how Whip It subverts just about every heteronormative trope in the book, how every girl in it is fabulous, strong, and independent, and how men aren't at the center of their lives, oh my god how amazing, and it's just the best best best thing.

But how can I talk about that honestly on a journal where I spend so much of my time talking about men? And how they love each other, and how great that is that we girls can all stand back and watch them make love to each other, subjugating ourselves completely in the process. And that's icky misogyny on a level that I don't know how to combat. There are so many of you who have pointed out how completely m/m slash fandom reifies exisitng patriarchal tropes and expectations, and you are all 100% right.

I am not aware of her ever starting post about these topics after that.

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	ealusaid 2010-10-22 02:36 am UTC (link)
	She... can't talk about women because her journal mostly talks about men? That's kinda her fault. Nobody's forcing her to write boyslash. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	melyanna 2010-10-22 03:20 am UTC (link)
	I wouldn't try to parse that too carefully. There's no sense to be made in there. (Reply to this)(Parent)

coffee_mug
2010-10-22 12:33 pm UTC (link)

It's puzzling because .. that's not how things work in fandom and she should know it by now. How things work, more or less, is that you talk about something enough, people get curious and start asking "Hey this sounds intriguing, where can I watch it/what is it/would you recommend it to me?".

Everybody told me "The Good Wife has awesome female characters and it's so well-written!" and I got curious and began watching and now tell my flist that it's fabulous and they should give it a go, too.

There's nobody policing your journal but yourself.

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melyanna
2010-10-22 03:45 pm UTC (link)

I'm in NBC's survey pool (don't ask me why, although it's occasionally satisfying to yell at them about things, like how I shouldn't be able to see a woman's nipples in promotional photography), and once several months back there was a list of about fifty shows on various networks. The question was how many I'd heard of. I had only watched five or six of them, but I had heard of all but one or two because of my friends list. I sort of assume that people on my friends list talk about things that interest them and don't worry about talking about things that interest me. Or rather, they don't worry about talking about things that don't interest me.

And hey, it works. I ignore the posts that don't interest me! Sometimes I read them anyway and discover something new. It's sort of fun that way, and I hope others do the same thing.

Speaking of, I need to go talk about Blue Bloods in my LJ.

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	deliciouschaos 2010-10-22 01:54 pm UTC (link)
	Oh my god what is that. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kumquat_of_doom 2010-10-23 02:26 am UTC (link)
	WTF is this bollocks? It's her journal, no-one is going to hunt her down and kill her if she doesn't write about what interests her. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	the_sun_is_up 2010-11-02 06:17 pm UTC (link)
	Slash is sexist and patriarchal, and so the best way to combat this is by... never talking about women ever? Any respect I might have had for this woman just evaporated. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

oddplaces
2010-11-09 02:20 am UTC (link)

To be fair: I think what she's trying to say is, "Slash (and fen thereof) can often be sexist and patriarchal, and I don't know how to combat that. As a known slashwriter, I am afraid to be unsexist because the sexist fen will attack me."

Which... okay, I don't agree "100%" that slash is patriarchal/perpetuates sexist stereotypes/norms, but there does exist such trends (particularly in certain fandoms). And I kind of even understand a bit of paranoia about "people read my LJ for __(thing 1)__, they might start wank/defriend me if I suddenly start posting all about __(thing 2)__."

I just don't agree that when "thing 1" is "slash" and "thing 2" is "awesome girls" you should fear for your life. Nor do I think you should silence your thoughts on sexism just because people are used to reading you for your thoughts on yaoi (literally!).

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eilan
2010-10-21 07:08 pm UTC (link)

Oh wait, I could have taken a 'better' quote:

"I hate this. I hate that I feel like I can't legitimately talk about how much I love certain female characters, because (like Elizabeth from White Collar), it's seen as just trying to "politely include the women for the sake of political correctness." because of course everyone knows how much we want the men to fuck at the exclusion of all else. I can't talk about how much I love Whip It because no one cares. "

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	nam_jai 2010-10-21 07:31 pm UTC (link)
	I guess I can be glad slash is but a minor aspect of fandom for me, so that I get to talk about awesome female characters all I want. Hooray! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lady_ganesh 2010-10-21 07:56 pm UTC (link)
	Somehow, I've seen other slash writers pull this off without their friends leaving in a giant exodus. Strange, I know. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	nam_jai 2010-10-21 08:16 pm UTC (link)
	And without fretting over being thought "politically correct"? Well, I never! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

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lady_ganesh, 2010-10-21 08:17 pm UTC

	chash 2010-10-22 12:59 am UTC (link)
	But, see, if she talks about something no one cares about, no one will read it, and her powers will drain! There is nothing as painful as someone skimming past your entry. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

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lady_ganesh, 2010-10-22 01:05 am UTC

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chash, 2010-10-22 01:11 am UTC

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lady_ganesh, 2010-10-22 01:12 am UTC

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chash, 2010-10-22 01:14 am UTC

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lady_ganesh, 2010-10-22 01:29 am UTC

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chash, 2010-10-22 01:39 am UTC

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lady_ganesh, 2010-10-22 03:00 am UTC

	thoms 2010-10-21 07:35 pm UTC (link)
	That's... that's special. Both passages you linked are. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sepiamagpie 2010-10-21 08:22 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, Aja. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	phosfate 2010-10-21 08:33 pm UTC (link)
	I'm getting you a sheet of Zazzle stickers that say that. It'll save you time. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

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threegoldfish, 2010-10-22 01:50 am UTC

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phosfate, 2010-10-22 03:08 pm UTC

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sorchar, 2010-10-22 06:18 am UTC

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phosfate, 2010-10-22 03:09 pm UTC

	chikane 2010-10-21 09:08 pm UTC (link)
	"politely include the women for the sake of political correctness." And again: For some reasons, people invoking PC always fail. (Reply to this)(Parent)

ladyofviolets
2010-10-21 10:08 pm UTC (link)

*snort* I still remember how I found out about her, by checking on her "Super Guide to The Characters Of The Prince Of Tennis"... that not only didn't say ONE SINGLE WORD about the (not very frequent but still cute and charming) female characters, but tried to make the series look as if it was a boys love manga with super canon Yaoi Tru Luv instead of just a Shounen Jump series with slashy ship tease.

Then again, she also was a Sakuno basher of the "die Sakuno how dare you be shy and sweet and be in the way of my yaoiz" so I shouldn't have been surprised.

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	nursewretched 2010-10-21 10:42 pm UTC (link)
	Oh dear, please tell me she is not serious. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	eldritch 2010-10-21 11:31 pm UTC (link)
	I tried to have a coherent response to that, but all that I end up with is: what is that I don't even (Reply to this)(Parent)

	panthea 2010-10-24 01:06 pm UTC (link)
	Would this be the same White Collar fandom where almost everybody includes El in their slash fic and OT3 is like a way of life, because she's just that awesome? What deep dark corner is this woman hiding in? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mcity 2010-11-03 03:38 am UTC (link)
	I thought White Collar fandom was wall to wall OT3, specifically because Elizabeth is so awesome? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	melyanna 2010-10-21 10:10 pm UTC (link)
	eilan pulled the relevant quotes, but yes. It's one of the more infuriating things she's said. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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