I did what I liked and I identified with character who behave in ways I would like to behave and who do things that I would like to do.
Huh. See, I can make the exact same statement, but most of the characters I ended up identifying with were female anyway. And they weren't defined by the "standard" female character things. Or if they were -- and I've grown up to discover that many of them are considered to be so -- I never, ever saw them that way. That wasn't the aspect of them that I paid any attention to. Which probably doesn't surprise you, given the amount of grousing I do about the increasing prevalence of pairing-centric fandom. *wry g*
I used to be very puzzled about why I honestly didn't recall ever feeling like I was being told I was supposed to be that way as a kid, when practically every woman I know bemoaned having it shoved at her from all directions, and thus quite reasonably continues to resent it in fiction now. I had an epiphany several years ago that it wasn't just how effectively most of the adults around me countered it (which they did), but that the expectations of what a girl could/should do were simply superseded by the expectations of what a "smart kid" could/should do. I was defined far, far more by my intelligence (and what people think that means) than by my gender, for as long as I can remember. So those were the expectations I set out to challenge. There probably were gender-based messages coming at me, and I was just oblivious to them because I was too busy with the other ones.
I'm always rather surprised I don't encounter more people with that experience in fandom, but so far I've really never seen anyone express it.
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Date: 2007-06-17 02:15 am (UTC)From:Huh. See, I can make the exact same statement, but most of the characters I ended up identifying with were female anyway. And they weren't defined by the "standard" female character things. Or if they were -- and I've grown up to discover that many of them are considered to be so -- I never, ever saw them that way. That wasn't the aspect of them that I paid any attention to. Which probably doesn't surprise you, given the amount of grousing I do about the increasing prevalence of pairing-centric fandom. *wry g*
I used to be very puzzled about why I honestly didn't recall ever feeling like I was being told I was supposed to be that way as a kid, when practically every woman I know bemoaned having it shoved at her from all directions, and thus quite reasonably continues to resent it in fiction now. I had an epiphany several years ago that it wasn't just how effectively most of the adults around me countered it (which they did), but that the expectations of what a girl could/should do were simply superseded by the expectations of what a "smart kid" could/should do. I was defined far, far more by my intelligence (and what people think that means) than by my gender, for as long as I can remember. So those were the expectations I set out to challenge. There probably were gender-based messages coming at me, and I was just oblivious to them because I was too busy with the other ones.
I'm always rather surprised I don't encounter more people with that experience in fandom, but so far I've really never seen anyone express it.