do you think men can name one (1) - Forum

Koolaid
Popstar

Koolaid wrote:
female character they like in fiction? 'like' not as in physical attraction, but as a compelling character

the reason i ask this is because i think this is an interesting quote:

All or almost all of that which pertains to love, most straight men reserve exclusively for other men. The people whom they admire, respect, adore, revere, honor, whom they imitate, idolize, and form profound attachments to, whom they are willing to teach and from whom they are willing to learn, and whose respect, admiration, recognition, honor, reverence and love they desire… those are, overwhelmingly, other men. In their relations with women, what passes for respect is kindness, generosity or paternalism; what passes for honor is removal to the pedestal. From women they want devotion, service and sex.
Heterosexual male culture is homoerotic; it is man-loving.

-Marilyn Frye, The Politics of Reality

can you name a straight man that has a female idol ? (i am specifying straight bc gay men liking lady gaga doesn't count)

Koolaid
Popstar

Koolaid wrote:
obviously the quote exaggerates but i do think that she is right in a general sense. women and men are equals by law, but the sentiment of 'men and women can't be just friends' is much stronger in men than in women. on some subconscious level, misogyny has ingrained in men that women cannot be held on an equal regard.

to respect women is not just to tolerate them, but also to grant them the opportunity to be multi-faceted, complex, and ambiguous (in real life and in fiction). women are often seen as one-dimensional, and rarely receive the benefit of the doubt.

a really good quote by writer gyllian flynn, who often writes evil women:

"“Women should have the full spectrum of good and bad,” Flynn said in response, “People always say, ‘Why do you write about bad women?’ Well, I write about women. And yes, I have gone out of my way in the past to write about negative women, bad women, about women who do bad things — because those women exist in the world.”
Flynn goes onto say that she thinks it’s not dangerous to write about bad women, but “a dangerous thing to say, ‘don’t write about women who are bad.'” Plus, only writing about good women is boring: “it says that all our job is in society is to support. And where’s the trailblazing going to happen from there. It has to happen by showing that there are all kinds of women in the world. I think there has to be all kinds of female characters. All across the board, every kind of women should be showing up on screens, showing up in books, showing up as characters of all kind. The world is a very interesting place, and women are very interesting people."

Koolaid
Popstar

Koolaid wrote:
bump

Private
International star

wug wrote:
my mind blanked i can't name any characters that have ever existed

Private
International star

wug wrote:

Snusmumrikken wrote:
my mind blanked i can't name any characters that have ever existed

but i'm not straight so i'm excused

Private
World famous

Evey wrote:
well yeah, especially straight men who don't see any issues with their own mindset. they watch movies and series with men they respect but watch porn with women they want to fuck (makes sense because they are straight but that's pretty much when women are interesting to them in their day to day life).

the brotherhood, in comparison to sisterhood, is stronger. they defend their bro's even when they are accused of rape, while women call out other women for accidently using a non politically correct word for something once.

i try not to think about it too much tho because it makes me want to never interact with a straight man again lol

Private
International star

Raquelle wrote:
Yea my dad likes and idolezes a lot of women
Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys as artists at least
and multiple movie characters like the bride from Kill Bill and Jackie Brown and Sarah Connor

But yea to be honest I can’t think of any other people for examples lol he’s the only one ):

Chat0yant
World famous

Chat0yant wrote:
i'm a straight female and i find it hard to find female characters i like...

like most of the time i feel like the female characters' job is "love interest" and i'm picky about romances that i like so most of the time i just find it annoying that they bring in a girl so they can add romance. like i feel that character development with female characters, even if they're the main character, is usually them finding a guy (or girl) to have a crush on and fall in love with and get married and have kids yada yada or will turn into that after a little character development...

as someone who's entire friend group is introverted, somewhat tomboyish, not romancy and not really into pop culture, i realize, especially when i try and make characters, that i don't get girls. like i have to MAKE myself make female characters cause most of my stories are relatively neutral romance wise (and i like that) so adding girls in just feels like it's gonna wreck something... prolly my fault for growing up on fantasy shonen manga but... it is what it is...

so like i want to make better female characters but i'm not even sure why i can't relate to them so idk how to fix it. i guess i have some but like few of my own favorite characters are girls either... they just don't feel "neutral" to me romance wise...

i always joke that all my "spirit animals" are anime boys (a select few ofc, not like all anime guys) and i know that's weird but like... i can't hardly think of female characters i relate to. like a few here or there but the ones i REALLY relate to are rarely to never female... idk i just don't...

counter wise, the other female characters i see are so SO feminist that like they annoy me cause they're all like anti-men or just use them and i'm like...also no thank you... or like, that's the whole point of the story is feminist propaganda and i'm like i didn't come here for this...

i realized i didn't really talk about real people. i don't really get into celebrities or any of that. like i like music, tv, etc. but i don't have any desire to like stalk their lives? i just listen or watch and enjoy it... (i also don't have facebook, twitter, snapchat, any of those things so...).

idk why i wrote all this y'all are free to ignore my weird self. i just also really relate to this... sorry i wrote so much...

Account deleted

wrote:
i'm not a man so i will just take my leave at Delilah Bard and Vin Venture

Private
World famous

Claire wrote:
me reading this thread like

oh yea doug likes a lot of female characters he likes wonder woman and harley quinn

oh lmao

yea doug would 10/10 bang any woman he claims to idolize lmao like even despite idolizing some women for the right reasons like his admiration of dolly parton as like a cultural icon and philanthropist but also shes hot lmao

and doug is like a good guy

Koolaid
Popstar

Koolaid wrote:
i personally don't really hold idols (male or female) so im not really one to talk. but i do think it's weird when someone only has male idols / male favorite characters / male artists they listen to, and no female ones. to me that's just kind of a red flag?

Private
International star

wug wrote:
Should I ask my friend

Private
International star

wug wrote:

Koolaid wrote:
i personally don't really hold idols (male or female) so im not really one to talk. but i do think it's weird when someone only has male idols / male favorite characters / male artists they listen to, and no female ones. to me that's just kind of a red flag?

I think idols is a red flag in general regardless of what genitalia is involved
It's quite a feat only listening to male artists tho but let me check my playlists real quick ..

Pixel
International star

Pixel wrote:
I am going to start asking my cishet male friends this question asap

Koolaid
Popstar

Koolaid wrote:

Chat0yant wrote:
i'm a straight female and i find it hard to find female characters i like...

like most of the time i feel like the female characters' job is "love interest" and i'm picky about romances that i like so most of the time i just find it annoying that they bring in a girl so they can add romance. like i feel that character development with female characters, even if they're the main character, is usually them finding a guy (or girl) to have a crush on and fall in love with and get married and have kids yada yada or will turn into that after a little character development...

as someone who's entire friend group is introverted, somewhat tomboyish, not romancy and not really into pop culture, i realize, especially when i try and make characters, that i don't get girls. like i have to MAKE myself make female characters cause most of my stories are relatively neutral romance wise (and i like that) so adding girls in just feels like it's gonna wreck something... prolly my fault for growing up on fantasy shonen manga but... it is what it is...

so like i want to make better female characters but i'm not even sure why i can't relate to them so idk how to fix it. i guess i have some but like few of my own favorite characters are girls either... they just don't feel "neutral" to me romance wise...

i always joke that all my "spirit animals" are anime boys (a select few ofc, not like all anime guys) and i know that's weird but like... i can't hardly think of female characters i relate to. like a few here or there but the ones i REALLY relate to are rarely to never female... idk i just don't...

counter wise, the other female characters i see are so SO feminist that like they annoy me cause they're all like anti-men or just use them and i'm like...also no thank you... or like, that's the whole point of the story is feminist propaganda and i'm like i didn't come here for this...

i realized i didn't really talk about real people. i don't really get into celebrities or any of that. like i like music, tv, etc. but i don't have any desire to like stalk their lives? i just listen or watch and enjoy it... (i also don't have facebook, twitter, snapchat, any of those things so...).

idk why i wrote all this y'all are free to ignore my weird self. i just also really relate to this... sorry i wrote so much...

i think it depends on the media you consume. media made for teens (like cw drama or shonen anime) is usually pretty generic and not very good on characters. but i do genuinely like some female characters in shonen, the female characters from fullmetal alchemist are pretty great! i also liked skylar from breaking bad even though literally every one hated her. and arya stark + sansa stark from game of thrones. to name a few.

i especially loved sansa, a lot of people hated her bc she was 'whiny and weak', but she literally became the strongest person. and she didn't have to become unfeminine to do so. femininity is not weak, and too often men write 'strong women' that are basically just toxic masculine traits but make it female.

i think there are a lot of strong women in literature (katniss everdeen in the hunger games, the poppy wars, their eyes were watching god, little women) it really depends where you are looking.

Koolaid
Popstar

Koolaid wrote:
also male characters written by women > characters written by men