Nonesensed (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nonesensed) wrote2025-01-27 09:57 pm
nonesensed) wrote2025-01-27 09:57 pm
2025's Snowflake Challenge #3
Waaaay behind on this, both posting and reading other people's entries, but I'll do my best to catch up this week 😊
Challenge #3
In your own space, talk about a fannish opinion you hold that has changed over time.
Oooooh, that's a long, long list. I've been in fandom for a good 25-ish years at this point, and I'm a very different person now at 36 then I was at 11 - which I hope is no surprise to anyone 😆
To pick one of the most prominent changes, I'll go with "question why you like certain things". For example, as a kid, all my favorite characters were boys and men. I was very convinced all female characters were boring and one note (I grew up during the 90s in a small town in northern Sweden so the idea of anything outside of female/male didn't reach me until my late teens at the earliest).
Part of this has of course been internalized sexism (yay...) but I've come to realize that's not the whole answer, because I have instantly gone "that's my fave" about female characters without first having to deconstruct my gut reaction. Turns out that the tropes I like in my favorite characters rarely get to be portrayed by non-male characters in the kind of way I enjoy. My solution thus far has been to create my own favorite characters in non-fanfic projects, expand on interesting background characters from my fandoms + dive deeper into main characters I might not have taken an instant liking to, to see if there might just be something of my kind of thing in there 💖
In contrast with that, a way simpler "I didn't think I liked this thing" situation is M/F ships. Turns out I like them just fine, it's the heteronormativity of some fics or canons I read/watched early on that put me off 😅
Challenge #3
In your own space, talk about a fannish opinion you hold that has changed over time.
Oooooh, that's a long, long list. I've been in fandom for a good 25-ish years at this point, and I'm a very different person now at 36 then I was at 11 - which I hope is no surprise to anyone 😆
To pick one of the most prominent changes, I'll go with "question why you like certain things". For example, as a kid, all my favorite characters were boys and men. I was very convinced all female characters were boring and one note (I grew up during the 90s in a small town in northern Sweden so the idea of anything outside of female/male didn't reach me until my late teens at the earliest).
Part of this has of course been internalized sexism (yay...) but I've come to realize that's not the whole answer, because I have instantly gone "that's my fave" about female characters without first having to deconstruct my gut reaction. Turns out that the tropes I like in my favorite characters rarely get to be portrayed by non-male characters in the kind of way I enjoy. My solution thus far has been to create my own favorite characters in non-fanfic projects, expand on interesting background characters from my fandoms + dive deeper into main characters I might not have taken an instant liking to, to see if there might just be something of my kind of thing in there 💖
In contrast with that, a way simpler "I didn't think I liked this thing" situation is M/F ships. Turns out I like them just fine, it's the heteronormativity of some fics or canons I read/watched early on that put me off 😅
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What an excellent plan!
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I love analyzing while I like and don't like ships, because it makes easier for me to ask for very specific recs :D
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A very good question that I don't have a 100% solid answer to (at least one that won't be an essay in length), but I'll try to explain via examples that hopefully make sense 😅
Like most people, I have more than one favorite trope when it comes to characters. Here are some examples: Aloof loners who are too clever for their own good, ambitious geniuses who're dealing with trauma, characters who are too loyal for their own good, characters who're completely unable to trust others (usually due to past bad experiences). There are of course plenty of female characters who fit those tropes, but, in my experience, how other characters interact with them and how the narrative treats them (e.g. framing, character development) is often very different from how they'd be treated if they happened to be a male character. Plus, I like stories that go against gender stereotypes and what's cliché for a female character isn't the same as for a male character, and vice versa.
An example of a female character who I immediately could point to and go "That one! That's my favorite!" is Akemi Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Self-sacrificing aloof stubborn person with a master plan, living through a time loop to save the person they love? That's cat nip to me!
There's surely a ton of awesome female characters in all manner of canons out there who'll be my favorite in the future. I just have to look a little harder for them + invent some of my own 😊 Plus that darn internalized misogyny has led to me almost missing out on a few faves, so pausing to introspect on why I like character X but not character Y is always helpful~
I love analyzing while I like and don't like ships, because it makes easier for me to ask for very specific recs :D
Same! It's such a great way to both gain an understanding of yourself and a great way to tell other people what you'd like in a story if you join a gift exchange or ask for recs 💖 I also find if very helpful for making up my own stories, if I've really thought through "I like this setting/character/plot, but why?"
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Good list of tropes, now I'd like to know who were your fave when you were a kid, I'm sure they were cool D
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Hmmm, childhood faves... The first that comes to mind is Rayek from the Elfquest comics, who is such a disaster; both loves and hates himself so sooo much. Such an ego, such a mess, so many bad choices~! Before that, I think my earliest fave was Snuffkin from The Moomins (mysterious loner with a heart of gold) and Tygra from Thundercats (I was in kindergarten when I watched that show, so I think I liked him best because he was A) smart B) could go invisible and C) tigers were my absolutely favorite animal 😆). What was your first favorite character?
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