Yeah, I read it and thought to myself, here is a new and heretofore undiscovered definition of feminism! How revolutionary!
I seem to remember a conversation with you about fridging and manpain, and how it did not indicate the extraordinary value we place on women as a society, or how men's deaths just aren't impooooooortant, waaaaaaaaahhhh! but instead is all about hoow these men have had their sense of honor violated by not being able to protect their female property person. I don't think it's a coincidence that when writers want to give women characters a manpain type revenge arc, they have her raped. Women are not expected to protect their male significant others, or feel the same honor based violation at the loss of them, or even their children. A woman who loses a husband or child isn't supposed to go hunt down the killer, but is instead supposed to sit sad and crying at home, whereas a woman who is raped has had her honor violated, and must restore it. How lucky we are that the traditional masculine way of restoring honor, through violence, is now open to us!
Of course, if a raped woman has a father, husband, or brother, her honor isn't worth nearly as much as theirs, which has also bwen violated by failing to protect their woman, so she should sit back and let them avenge her.
In some ways, Zuko is a bit of a narative reverse of manpain. Not only does the narrative regularly call him out on how he treats others, which is the antithesis of manpain, which can be defined as the narative agreeing with how special this man's suffering is, he also is nominally trying to restore his honor, when really he wants daddy's love, whereas a character in the throes of manpain nominally wants to protect people, but really wants to restore his honor.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2014-10-19 04:32 pm (UTC)I seem to remember a conversation with you about fridging and manpain, and how it did not indicate the extraordinary value we place on women as a society, or how men's deaths just aren't impooooooortant, waaaaaaaaahhhh! but instead is all about hoow these men have had their sense of honor violated by not being able to protect their female property person. I don't think it's a coincidence that when writers want to give women characters a manpain type revenge arc, they have her raped. Women are not expected to protect their male significant others, or feel the same honor based violation at the loss of them, or even their children. A woman who loses a husband or child isn't supposed to go hunt down the killer, but is instead supposed to sit sad and crying at home, whereas a woman who is raped has had her honor violated, and must restore it. How lucky we are that the traditional masculine way of restoring honor, through violence, is now open to us!
Of course, if a raped woman has a father, husband, or brother, her honor isn't worth nearly as much as theirs, which has also bwen violated by failing to protect their woman, so she should sit back and let them avenge her.
In some ways, Zuko is a bit of a narative reverse of manpain. Not only does the narrative regularly call him out on how he treats others, which is the antithesis of manpain, which can be defined as the narative agreeing with how special this man's suffering is, he also is nominally trying to restore his honor, when really he wants daddy's love, whereas a character in the throes of manpain nominally wants to protect people, but really wants to restore his honor.