While All Her Other Friends Treated Her Like An Outcast Yet Fawned Over Her When They Needed Something From Her - Tumblr Posts

scarletsinsblog

1 year ago

I’m sick of people passing off patronizing and condescending commentary about how naive and impressionable women are as useful and educational. These people will base their analysis of fiction on sexist notions about how easily women are “tempted “ by malevolent villains and then act as if that’s some revolutionary take. They’ll unironically construe the narrative in a way that takes away all agency from the female heroine and frame her decisions as entirely the result of the villain’s manipulation.

They wring their hands about how dangerous it is for women to be exposed to these stories and moan about how terrible it is that hot villains appeal to the “baser instincts” and tempt female viewers further (Yes, I actually saw someone make this argument) It’s truly bizarre to see people agreeing with such patronizingly sexist rhetoric and saying things like “I miss the days when villain romances were cautionary tales and not encouraged.” As if women thirsting after attractive fictional villains is some epidemic that threatens society.

It’s especially irritating when women are the ones saying these things. They want to believe that they are a rare exception that, unlike those other brainless girls, can understand that liking hot villains will threaten their morals and lead them astray…OH THE HORROR!! Please save your dramatic preaching for the next purity conference and stop pretending that your sanctimonious commentary has any substance whatsoever.

Tags :

THIS as a btvs fan I have always considered Spuffy to be the beginning of the excellent villain romance trope and I think about how ostracized people were (and Buffy herself) for falling in love with Spike and his character when he was the only one (and proved so TIME AND TIME AGAIN) who truly cared for Buffy and her autonomy to make her own decisions while all her other friends treated her like an outcast yet fawned over her when they needed something from her and even Joss Whedon fucked it up and tried to tell us to screw off with *those* scenes but the pairing prevails and the same rhetoric really applies to every single villain/hero pairing to date I could name a million romances or near romances in media that have been far better written than the wet incel love interest storyline but any time a man (or patriarchy enforcing woman) comes into contact with these works of art they ruin it (or at least try to) for everyone involved also these characters and relationships are entirely fictional and entertaining them says very little about an individual’s true identity and moral ground it makes a person far more intelligent if they can analyze and interpret characters from an ambiguous perspective allowing room for grey areas because EVERY PERSON HAS THEM! my favorite ships tend to be the one with the villain because they’re often just far more intriguing and cultivate a captivating dynamic which allows me to dissect the media presented to me and thus proving far more entertaining writers and general fanbases should work on realizing what makes something genuinely interesting to an audience haladriel saurondriel spuffy snowbaird reylo zutara klaroline etc

267 notes View Post