Why do males complain about female-led stories or too many female characters when the majority are still dominated by males?
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::: spoiler I hate when a story is forced into any agenda. Like making Daneel a woman in Foundation is atrocious because it has other implications across all of Asimov's stories like with Gladia and Jander, the relationship with Elijah and family dynamic, how Solarians perceive Daneel, and the nuance and contrast between Daneel and Dors just to name a few off the top of my head.
These are stupid people making last minute frivolous and agenda based pandering nonsense decisions. It is disingenuously stealing from the richness of the story these films are supposedly depicting. If they can't tell the story they claim, they should be creating an independent work that stands entirely on its own instead of butchering the original art that should be told with full scope in the long term.
If you want to tell a female lead story, awesome. Pick a good one to start with. God Emperor of Dune is all about super strong women in roles. I mean there is an army of all women that outright rape men in battle. There are all levels of women present in that story. Chapterhouse Dune is another all about female leading roles. Tell the story around Susan Calvin in Asimov's stories. There are tons of these types of stories. Hacking and butchering a universe or fitting a female lead in by committee agenda is absolutely garbage. Like Star Wars is a story about inevitable authoritarianism and exceptionalism where no one else is relevant. Trying to make that into some diversity flick is absurd. It is ultimately the wrong story from the start. I loved it growing up, but it is what it is and nostalgia is often blind. The story has an underlying ethos that is the foundation of the universe. It is flawed. So what, it can still be entertaining. When that ethos is in conflict, the story stops having any relevant value. Build a new story on a better foundation. Reshaping old stories shows that the entire premise is overly conservative bankers that treat art as investment. Bankers are shitty artists. They are incapable of being bold and trying new and novel things. There is no art in such endeavors. I have no problem with female leads. I take issue with terrible art by committee and bankers.
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To add to this, the "default" for a three-character ensemble in circa 90s kids media was: one (white) boy, one (white) girl, one (non-white) boy, for a 1:2 gender/race and 2:1 "diversity" ratio, which made the media feel diverse (back then this was generally considered a good thing) while still making male and white the default. In other words, a win-win that still was a setback to true diversity. Examples: Wishbone TV show and Harry Potter (if you count ginger as non-white).
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In their defense, when talking about entertainment media, especially the industries at large, people usually say “male audience” and “female audience.”
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it just comes across as bitchy and not assertive
The problem is men get way more leeway than women in this regard. Their voice, their demeanor, the way they dress, everything must perfectly match whatever the dude is expecting or “it’s not believable.“ Male characters are rarely as scrutinized.
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imo
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most people (including most men) do not actually give a fuck.
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a tiny insignificant group mumbling in a dark corner probably do give a shit, but noone should care or listen to them.
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instead their voice is being amplified in social/legacy media as a typical divide and conquer tactic (men vs women is 'powerful' as its half the planet vs the other half).
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unoriginal drones parrot those amplifications because they'll get angry about whatever their screens tell them to this week.
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society has leaned male-dominant for too long, so genuine efforts to be fair are perceived by some idiots (see #2,#4) as "unfair".
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corporations don't actually give a shit about equality, so their maliciously half-arsed pretense at fairness rings hollow.
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Honestly, ask a few woman how they feel about the usage and go by what they say. A bunch of men/boys discussing this have no skin in that game.
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Inherent sexism in society to control people into doing what the dominant majority of society wants (which got there by force and enslaving and manipulation of the "lesser" people)
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Please remove the
&pp=ygU...tracking parameter from your link. -
This is one reason why shows like Ms Marvel and She Hulk tanked so bad.
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There are plenty of movies either female led or majority female but they are not very popular amongst women either.
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Because we want the story, not the gender stuff.
Sometimes gender makes no difference. But sometimes the author wants to make a point about gender.
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If that were true, there wouldn't be so much noise whenever an action movie with a female lead is released.
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That’s still a bit different than saying “males” or “females.” Using those words as nouns makes it feel like a nature documentary narration.
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Aye, gingers are their own filthy race.
/s
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It is disingenuously stealing from the richness of the story these films are supposedly depicting.
Strangely enough, as a woman, I see it generally adding to the richness...
Men doing all of the interesting stuff isn't rich.
Hell, even I Robot, a movie that should have had a female lead, turned Calvin in to a supporting role to put a man in the lead.
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Insecurity. "Males" is a pretty wide brush in this case
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A lot of writers apparently have no idea how to write interesting female characters. Some of the pushback from viewers / readers to increasing the number of female characters isn't about the characters being female, it's about them being bad characters. Boring, annoying, quippy, etc.
Nobody wants to admit that their movie flopped because it wasn't very good, so they blame sexism. Or piracy, that one's always popular.
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Yeah but he’s using it in a context that frequently says “male” and “female.” Honestly I didn't even notice until folks complained.
It’s not the same as “you know how females are.”
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I’ve never met anyone who acted like this, nor even seen someone on the internet complaining about it, besides reviews in movie sections. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, it’s just I believe that you’re probably seeing a vanishingly small portion of society do this.
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because many people are uncomfortable with change and having women suddenly appearing more frequently thatn their use to upsets them. You'll find this fear of the unknown a very common source of much stupidity.
You're not over reacting. It is that fucked up. welcome to the insanity.
