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.
Unfortunately true. That's a really good catch about the parallels and the hierarchy of offense.
How lucky we are that the traditional masculine way of restoring honor, through violence, is now open to us!
Yes, at least the able-bodied or disability-superpowered among us. But I guess disabled women are never raped in Awful Writingland because they're sexless beings who... wow, I just threw up a little in my mouth.
In some ways, Zuko is a bit of a narative reverse of manpain.
Another good point, and it helps me make sense of something I'd always found mystifying: The many Zutara stories where, immediately on learning Zuko's backstory, everyone falls over themselves feeling sorry for him and going on and on about how justified his actions were, and (if this is post-Western Air Temple) what an abusive bitch Katara is for treating poor tortured Zuko so terribly. Because yes, of course Aang, Sokka, and Toph will instantly turn against Katara who is friend and family, in favor of Zuko who made their lives miserable and helped get Aang killed. This turn of events leads Katara to immediately fall in love with Zuko or realize she was in love with him all along. What?
Seeing Zuko's canon story as a reverse of manpain helps me understand the impulse for stories like the above. Seeing how powerful a cultural construct manpain is, maybe it's only natural that some viewers sense Zuko's story going against the grain and wish to bend it back to the cultural norm, i.e. that men who have suffered loss are entitled to sympathy and sex, no matter how awful their behavior. In fact, the worse the behavior the more entitled he must be, since the bigger a jerk he is the deeper his suffering must have been.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2014-10-20 01:37 pm (UTC)Unfortunately true. That's a really good catch about the parallels and the hierarchy of offense.
How lucky we are that the traditional masculine way of restoring honor, through violence, is now open to us!
Yes, at least the able-bodied or disability-superpowered among us. But I guess disabled women are never raped in Awful Writingland because they're sexless beings who... wow, I just threw up a little in my mouth.
In some ways, Zuko is a bit of a narative reverse of manpain.
Another good point, and it helps me make sense of something I'd always found mystifying: The many Zutara stories where, immediately on learning Zuko's backstory, everyone falls over themselves feeling sorry for him and going on and on about how justified his actions were, and (if this is post-Western Air Temple) what an abusive bitch Katara is for treating poor tortured Zuko so terribly. Because yes, of course Aang, Sokka, and Toph will instantly turn against Katara who is friend and family, in favor of Zuko who made their lives miserable and helped get Aang killed. This turn of events leads Katara to immediately fall in love with Zuko or realize she was in love with him all along. What?
Seeing Zuko's canon story as a reverse of manpain helps me understand the impulse for stories like the above. Seeing how powerful a cultural construct manpain is, maybe it's only natural that some viewers sense Zuko's story going against the grain and wish to bend it back to the cultural norm, i.e. that men who have suffered loss are entitled to sympathy and sex, no matter how awful their behavior. In fact, the worse the behavior the more entitled he must be, since the bigger a jerk he is the deeper his suffering must have been.