I like it when people anticipate my thoughts

[next_to_normal]

I saw a link posted for The Men's Ficathon, and I was all ready to post a rant (using one of my WTF icons naturally, lol) asking why on earth someone would think we needed a men-only ficathon. It's not like men aren't already the overwhelming focus of fic in just about every fandom or anything. :\ But then it turns out other people beat me to it. Good job, other people!

Comments

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

Aw c'mon... Male fic writers are about as common as butterflies in the arctic.

I know of what I speak.

[next_to_normal]

We're not talking about fic writers. We're talking about characters IN fic.

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

So, you're problem is that WOMEN are writing about MEN?

???

[next_to_normal]

Yeah, it's kinda sad that a female-dominated activity would end up spending so much time focused on men.

My problem is that there are already way more fics written about men than about women. I don't see the need for an exclusive ficathon that excludes women, which only perpetuates the gender imbalance in fandom.

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

Sorry that just seems like a very cold and bookish way to look at it. Maybe we write about each other because we are curious about each other. I write about women all the time.

[next_to_normal]

It doesn't matter WHY we write about men. I'm not opposed to writing about men. But men dominate just about every aspect of popular culture and I don't think it's too much to ask that in fandom, which is predominately women, we expect a more balanced representation of characters.

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

WHY always matters. That's the problem in this world today. We forgot to ask WHY, and so know we are pooling into identity groups.

Bah, forget I said anything. I like you, and you are very smart. But this is something we will never agree on I guess. It's cool

[next_to_normal]

This is Feminism 101, dude. I'm not particularly up for another discussion this week, but if you care to understand, there's plenty of reading to be found on the internet.

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

I left school behind a long time ago, E. Now: I am watching "Kick Ass." I promise to bean count women and men for you.

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Please don't do it on my account.

Also, a little bit fuck you.

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

You said "fuck you" first. You lose.

(frozen comment)

[next_to_normal]

I wasn't aware it was a competition.

And I'd like this to not go any further, so I'm cutting it off.

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

I WILL say though, that most of the feedback I've gotten from Clocks has been along the lines of "Wow, how refreshing... a Buffy the Vampire Slayer story that is actually ABOUT Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Food for thought, E.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

Do you mean Buffy the character or BtVS the show?

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

I mean a woman. I tried to stop writing about women, but I was rapt by devils.

[quinara]

Don't let it go to your head, mate. Everyone has their own version of what BtVS means and, funnily enough, they seek out fic that fits it. I doubt your feedback is so very special.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

Ah, but woman aren't excluded! They can be love interests!

[next_to_normal]

Oh, goody. Just what I look for in a strong female character.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Then I suppose the question is, is it a ficathon for male writers (which, yeah, are rather rare these days. I don't remember it being that way in the old days of X-Files but maybe I've been in the wrong fandoms in recent years) or is it ficathon for male character-centric fics, which is a slightly different thing as the preponderance of m/m slash is actually female writer generated.

I didn't actually read much about the ficathon, so that's a real question. Which is it?

[next_to_normal]

It's a ficathon for male character-centric fics. It's the very first rule:

Post as many prompts as you like for any male character in any fandom

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Which brings me back to pointing out that in some fandoms that's redundant.