Only good female characters are those that worship at the shrine of men, apparently

[dangermousie]

(this has nothing to do with the post but I loved it too much not to include)

I will NEVER understand the hate of strong women by female fandom.

NEVER.

I have been reading up people's further reactions to Korean drama Slingshot and I know I posted before my bafflement at their dislike (to put it mildly) of Kyung Ah - the strong-willed, ambitious ex-girlfriend of the main character.

But the latest rage against her (including someone wishing she would literally become a whore who has nothing) baffles me. With such a level of indignation one would think she killed infants or puppies for breakfast as opposed to deciding to choose a well-spoken, if ruthless, and rich businessman over her trouble-maker ex with whom she never played head games or led on to believe she'd prefer him. Did I mention she has previously sacrificed her entire independence to rescue her ex's family? Or that while the audience might know that the businessman who is her ex's nemesis has been clinically diagnosed as a psychopath, she does not?

Yes. I can see the evil oozing out of her every pore.

I hate to break it to you, fangirls, but not drooling at the feet of the hero does not constitute a punishable offense. Whining about your incomprehension that the hero seems to still have positive feelings for her and not view her as the Whore of Babylon, does not endear you to me either.

Feminism. You are doing it wrong.

Comments

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

What burns me up is when female characters are raked over the coals for traits that are cool and desirable in men. Chen Lin, for example -- she's stubborn and hot-headed and breaks things and jumps into situations without thinking about them. According to fandom this makes her annoying and unstable. Never mind that when Ying Xiong does it, he's manly and impulsive and heroic.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. There is nothing wrong with not liking impulsive or hotheaded characters - as long as it's uniform. But how one can like YX for it and not Chen Lin boggles the mind.

(I also saw comments that complained about her always being around one of the guys. WTF????)

[yunhalove.livejournal.com]

In my case, I hate her because despite all her former awesomeness she's been reduced into a submissive-girlfriend to the antagonist, blindly doing whatever he asks of her when in those very favors she's unwittingly hurting innocent people. That and she's an elitist who keeps on telling the protagonist to butt out and not to come into 'their world' because 'he'll only get hurt' when she really has no idea what the hell is going on.

And when something seems suspicious, she doesn't bother investigating to find out why things don't add up (when the deals involve having her lie copiously, when she finds out wasn't the mayor but them who were scamming the homeless villagers, when antagonist's sister seems to more know about her ex and the situation than she does, etc, etc). What really rankles me is the fact that she often seems to get the feeling that something is wrong (yet does nothing about it)?

/endrant

Then again, I don't really think not liking the protagonist is a crime either, nor do I think she's evil for being ambitious or money-loving- I just wish she would use her intelligence to get things straight and stop acting like a trophy wife.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think she is comfortable where she is - position, money, some sort of escape from too many men, so she doesn't want to look at things too closely.

[att123.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to think of her. I hate the fact that she chose money over Shin. But then again, she told him before all the stuff happened with his brother that she wanted to have money. She was honest about that. I hate that she belives that Shin would be petty enough to go after Do-Woo because she is with him now. Then again, I could see how she'd belive that. I could also see how her statement about Shin "staying where he belongs" could be her trying to warn him about the people that he's trying to get even with. Or it could her being a snob..
I don't hate her, but I don't love her either right now.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

If you think about it, she was going to stick by him, maybe, but then she had to get money for his family debt - I can see why she doesn't want to start with him again after all of that - it's emotionally safer to be detached and she has sort of seen firsthand how unsafe life is without money.

[att123.livejournal.com]

True, but what I like is how even though both of them love each other a lot they're not obsessing over wanting to be with each other. They're isn't a lot of angst filled huge crying montagey things happening. Both Shin and Kyung-Ah can function without each other. And both of them have goals that doesn't involve the other person.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I like that too!

[sodahands.livejournal.com]

Kyung ah is starting to annoy me but only because she seems to do whatever it is Do Woo asks of her and she never questions him. I know she doesn't know he's a crazy psychopath but she doesn't have to be so submissive and un-Kyung ah like. I liked her because she wasn't like that. Or maybe I just have/had higher expectations because the women were super awesome in Legend. But she usually annoys me when she's around Do Woo who I don't really care for or find as interesting and stuff like everyone else.

[sodahands.livejournal.com]

I meant she only annoys me when she's around Do Woo.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I don't care for DW either - he is a psycho? OK. Fine. But not particularly exciting for me.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

And here one of the things I always liked about kdrama fandom even when I don't always like the dramas themselves is that it didn't used to share this with other fandoms.