OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE FANDOM!!!

[linndechir]

You know what pisses me off? Blatant hypocrisy in fandom. I mean, I get it, we all have favourite characters and we are a lot more forgiving about their faults, and we have characters we already despise, so of course we're going to be even harder on them when they fuck up. And that's okay, we're all human and biased. But when two characters DO THE EXACT SAME FUCKING THING, and you applaud one of them for being badass and cool and doing the right thing, and hate on the other for doing something so utterly horrible and evil ... it's just dumb. It's okay to hate characters, and it's okay to be protective of characters you love. But that doesn't mean that those you hate can't occasionally do something cool. Nor does loving a character mean that they don't occasionally fuck up and do something wrong. But if character A doing something is totally badass (or at least acceptable), I don't see why character B doing the same thing is horrifying and wroooong.

The most obvious example of this is the kind of people who yell OMFG DOMESTIC ABUSE at Robert slapping Cersei, but cheer loudly and happily when Tyrion slaps Joffrey. Make up your mind: either hitting people is wrong, then you shouldn't be so happy about Tyrion slapping his thirteen-year-old nephew. Or you think that occasionally people are such dumb shits that they deserve a slap, and in that case I don't see why you get all outraged about Robert slapping Cersei. Because the situation was very similar. You don't get to feel all righteous and outraged about the one and applaud the other. I could go on and on with examples (kings executing people for high treason, which is apparently cool when "flawless" Robb does it, but despicable when "evil" Stannis does it; or kinslaying/shrugging it off when someone else kills your relatives), but then I'd just get angry. Angrier. *grumble*

Just, argh. Don't mind me, I'm in a ranting mood.

Comments

[geeklee.livejournal.com]

i totally agree with you.

i've always wondered if robert ever hit cersei before that. if he did, why did he tell ned it wasn't very kingly? he seemed remorseful but maybe that was because it was witnessed by ned. i dunno. still, i didn't think it screamed spouse abuse. especially since cersei seemed so unaffected by it. which could mean robert did hit her frequently or that she really didn't feel hurt by it. that relationship was so effed up :)

as for slapping joff, his reaction showed he was definitely not used to being disciplined. and yes, he was a cruel boy. i suppose it feels more acceptable because hitting a child to discipline them is more accepted than hitting your wife to discipline her.

but this fandom is really focused on the treatment of women in this series. i think the reaction to cersei is more about that. plus, we are always more forgiving of characters we like. that is very, very obvious in this fandom. fans always forgive catelyn's treatment of jon as expected and acceptable during the time period of the book. but the same fans cannot accept or understand the expected consummation of dany's & sansa's wedding night which was definitely normal for that time. go figure.

i HATE all the stark supporters who say ned and robb never did anything wrong and are perfect. good grief. but i suppose that is how they've been written. it is very clear that the author sees them that way and tries to paint them with those colors. same for stannis. he is introduced as a difficult character who feels slighted by his older brother and so most readers see him that way. its all grrm's fault!

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Cersei said to Ned that Robert hit her "once or twice before", so it's not a regular thing. I suppose the years of spousal abuse come for from the fact that he raped her when he was drunk. And I'm far from excusing Robert's behaviour towards Cersei in general, even though for my life I can't feel sorry for the woman.

But, yeah, I agree with you, fandom focuses just way more on the cruelty towards women while more easily dismissing the violence against men (or boys, in this case).

What I love about ASOIAF, though, is how unreliable all narrators are, and the most interesting thing about the books is to see through the appearances and see what's behind. So it just irritates me when people take the obvious at face value, even when it's wrong.