Yes, disabled men are infantilized, whereas disabled women are either infantilized like men as sexless creatures, or fetishized as helples, tragic, beauties, whose significant others, and/or the hero are oh so noble for noticing that they are fuckable, and are not at all like the creeps who try to play my white knight when I show up to school on a bad day, pale skinned, shaking like a leaf and using oxygen, and only want to talk about my illness, and not about whatever is actually on my mind, or like the countless people who have raped disabled people, because we live in a society that conspires to make us easy prey.
(I have the misfortune to look fairly picturesque on bad days. It helps that I'm good looking and strongly resemble Anne Hathaway. Also, I'm white, which contibutes to the frail Victorian maiden vulnerable white woman fantasy. But just to reinforce how much social signalling goes into this, I get hit on a whole lot less on bad days now that I have short brown hair instead of long blonde hair down past my hips.)
Writing the above made me so stupidly nervous. I'm not supposed to think I fit the social standard of good looking, much less say it, or else I'm arrogant. Well I am physically good looking, and it has never really had any impact on my self esteem, positive or negative.
Oh Zutara. I have nothing against the ship itself, and have read one or two amazing ones. When in character, I can totally get into it. But most of it really isn't in character, I think because most authors aren't interested in Zuko and Katara per se, but instead see them as the closest two characters to a certain kind of romantic pairing trope, the feisty naive woman, and the tragic manpain riddled sexy jerk. The problem, aside fro the fact that the trope is already problematic to start with, is that you have to mangle both of them to get them to fit it. Add to that the fact that for many of these writers, Zuko is their precious baby who does no wrong, and well, feisty Katara must be an abusive bitch.
This means, when I want my Zuko-and-Katara fix, I go for gen friendship fic. I've gotten really good at telling the bad Zutara quickly though. If Zuko doesn't come across as a total dork, it's probably a no go. A Katara who has real grievances doesn't fit the trope, and neither does a Zuko who lisps, whines about bad acting, and gets embarrassed because his firebending form has the word "dancing" in its name.
But yes, a lot of people really want Zuko to have manpain, and I think the fact that the narrative never lets him manpain it up, or make Katara go, "oh you poor tragic baby, here's some sex" is what a lot of them mean when they say "bryke don't know their characters" and "Zutara just fits the story better." They've been taught to want manpain, sexy jerks, and magical healing pussy.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 03:21 pm (UTC)(I have the misfortune to look fairly picturesque on bad days. It helps that I'm good looking and strongly resemble Anne Hathaway. Also, I'm white, which contibutes to the frail Victorian maiden vulnerable white woman fantasy. But just to reinforce how much social signalling goes into this, I get hit on a whole lot less on bad days now that I have short brown hair instead of long blonde hair down past my hips.)
Writing the above made me so stupidly nervous. I'm not supposed to think I fit the social standard of good looking, much less say it, or else I'm arrogant. Well I am physically good looking, and it has never really had any impact on my self esteem, positive or negative.
Oh Zutara. I have nothing against the ship itself, and have read one or two amazing ones. When in character, I can totally get into it. But most of it really isn't in character, I think because most authors aren't interested in Zuko and Katara per se, but instead see them as the closest two characters to a certain kind of romantic pairing trope, the feisty naive woman, and the tragic manpain riddled sexy jerk. The problem, aside fro the fact that the trope is already problematic to start with, is that you have to mangle both of them to get them to fit it. Add to that the fact that for many of these writers, Zuko is their precious baby who does no wrong, and well, feisty Katara must be an abusive bitch.
This means, when I want my Zuko-and-Katara fix, I go for gen friendship fic. I've gotten really good at telling the bad Zutara quickly though. If Zuko doesn't come across as a total dork, it's probably a no go. A Katara who has real grievances doesn't fit the trope, and neither does a Zuko who lisps, whines about bad acting, and gets embarrassed because his firebending form has the word "dancing" in its name.
But yes, a lot of people really want Zuko to have manpain, and I think the fact that the narrative never lets him manpain it up, or make Katara go, "oh you poor tragic baby, here's some sex" is what a lot of them mean when they say "bryke don't know their characters" and "Zutara just fits the story better." They've been taught to want manpain, sexy jerks, and magical healing pussy.