{"id":1777,"date":"2011-08-10T21:07:37","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T21:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.transversalmedia.eu\/tiger-beatdown-what-do-you-mean-when-you-say-you\/"},"modified":"2011-08-10T21:07:37","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T21:07:37","slug":"tiger-beatdown-what-do-you-mean-when-you-say-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theresearchpapers.org\/archive\/tiger-beatdown-what-do-you-mean-when-you-say-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiger Beatdown: What Do You Mean When You Say You Want ‘Strong Female Characters’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tiger Beatdown: What Do You Mean When You Say You Want ‘Strong Female Characters’?<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

natface<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

becool-sodapop<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

redlightpolitics<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

These discussions about \u2018strong female characters\u2019 often elide\u00a0who is being talked about,\u00a0<\/em>and they play into larger narratives that no one seems to want to discuss. Who gets to tell stories? Who gets to be the lead, and who is the sidekick or supporting character? Who is calling for \u2018strong female characters\u2019 and what, exactly, do they mean when they say that?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a great piece by s.e. I think it touches on points that are relevant to different fandoms (Buffy and Veronica Mars, just to name two included in the piece), but also comics and overall pop culture.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I think this post will be of interest to a lot of my Tumblr friends. Make sure you click through and read the articles referenced in the first couple of paragraphs \u2013 collectively, they\u2019ve sucked me into an intellectual vortex, and all I want to do right now is go for a long bike ride and ponder what \u201cstrong female character\u201d means in the context of YA literature.<\/p>\n

Also, my trifecta of TV Heroines of Choice: Buffy Summers, Veronica Mars, and Kara Thrace. The latter two are only mentioned in passing (and can someone remind me when, if ever, Veronica demonstrates any notable fighting skills?), and I had to compartmentalize and prioritize a bit to avoid getting (unreasonably) rankled by a perceived implication that Veronica Mars is somehow not<\/em> the best female character on screen in the past however many years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This piece unfortunately veers off into how strong female characters are used to undermine trans women, which is amorphous and unprovable. She also uses one example \u2014 of how Tara from True Blood is criticized but Buffy isn\u2019t (not true, by the way) \u2014 as proof that \u201cstrong female character\u201d always means \u201cwhite woman.\u201d Which isn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

This article poses a lot of questions as a way of appealing to authority that she<\/em> knows the answers to these quesions, but do you<\/em>? And I think there could have been a real discussion here, but the whole thing is just retread of other people\u2019s thoughts and half-conceived argument. Post coming up as to my own thoughts on strong female characters ™.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Where do I begin with this train wreck? The transphobia or the intellectual dishonesty?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll begin with the transphobia because in my scale of shitty arguments to make, exclusionary statements rank higher in terms of how they have real concrete consequences for people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

Since (luckily) not all my readership comes from a gender studies background, I\u2019ll point out to a fact that might not be known to everyone: many people have very valid criticisms about the exclusionary nature of feminism, at least Western feminism. One of the ways in which feminism is exclusionary can very well be illustrated by this post: the writer reads a 1500 word piece and instead of pointing to the many subjects covered (and perhaps expressing some valid disagreements), she focuses on the one paragraph about trans women. This, right here, is violence. This is how Western feminism validates and justifies the exclusion of trans women. This kind of dismissal of trans issues, subtle, short, to the point, kniving, is how certain feminisms condone and promote violence. Because how dare a writer post something about strong female characters including trans women? Because, the subtext is clear: trans women are not really women<\/em>, so they could never be strong female characters. Vocal trolls will invalidate trans issues by using crude and vulgar language. This, however, is much more insidious, it\u2019s dressed as an \u201cinnocent\u201d argument. The goal is to hurt by perpetuating these ideas, letting them simmer in the collective because they are oh so softly worded that who would dare point them for the transphobic rhetoric they are? Who would dare trace a correlation between real physical violence exercised over the bodies of trans women and seemingly innocent reblogs about \u201cstrong female characters\u201d? Well, I do<\/strong>. I denounce this nonsense as part of the transphobic discourse that legitimates the abuse and violence in people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

As to the intellectual dishonesty? Oh, this person seems to have an insight into s.e.\u2019s mind that we don\u2019t. Because obviously she knows what s.e. was thinking when ou wrote the piece. This person knows that s.e has the answers but instead, is toying with us<\/em>. That\u2019s quite the clairvoyant assumption there! And of course, stating that \u201cthere could have been some real discussion here\u201d further invalidates the entire piece by implying that, of course, what s.e. wrote is not valid at all.<\/p>\n

Well done! Advancing the cause of exclusionary and intellectually dishonest feminism! I say well done!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tiger Beatdown: What Do You Mean When You Say You Want ‘Strong Female Characters’? natface: becool-sodapop: redlightpolitics: These discussions about \u2018strong female characters\u2019 often elide\u00a0who is being talked about,\u00a0and they play into larger narratives that no one seems to want to discuss. Who gets to tell stories? Who gets to be the lead, and who …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"loftocean_post_format_gallery":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_ids":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_urls":"","loftocean_post_format_video_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_video_url":"","loftocean_post_format_video_type":"","loftocean_post_format_video":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_type":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_url":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_audio":"","loftocean-featured-post":"","loftocean-like-count":0,"loftocean-view-count":2491,"loftocean_coauthors":"","alpaca_post_content_reading_setting":"","alpaca_reading_speed_per_minute":0,"alpaca_reading_speed_unit":"","alpaca_single_post_template_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[705,2104],"class_list":["post-1777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-exclusion","tag-transphobia","post_format-post-format-link"],"yoast_head":"\nTiger Beatdown: What Do You Mean When You Say You Want 'Strong Female Characters'? - The Research Papers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theresearchpapers.org\/archive\/tiger-beatdown-what-do-you-mean-when-you-say-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tiger Beatdown: What Do You Mean When You Say You Want 'Strong Female Characters'? - The Research Papers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tiger Beatdown: What Do You Mean When You Say You Want ‘Strong Female Characters’? natface: becool-sodapop: redlightpolitics: These discussions about \u2018strong female characters\u2019 often elide\u00a0who is being talked about,\u00a0and they play into larger narratives that no one seems to want to discuss. 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