Romancing Females in Fanfiction
How do you guys feel about females in romance fanfiction? (Discounting homoual fanfics, since I don't read them).
I've seen so many stories where the male character is an and the female character just tolerates everything until the male decides he wants to change because 'she's not like other girls.' They have their place, don't get me wrong. Sometimes you just wanna read these kinda stories. These stories are hot because your bias is there, he's rich and a totally yummy bad boy. Not so much of female rights available here, but hey, it's only a story and we're all guilty of taking pleasure in reading them.
Sometimes there are vain attempts at creating a female character with a voice, an attitude and a whole lot of badass. Not sure if 'feminism' is applied here or the character is just rude.
I find a lot of female leads in fanfiction annoying. I've never really come across a memorable female lead character be she an OC or an idol. I've never fallen in love with a female character. They just aren't admirable, enviable and sometimes not even likable. We tend to swoon over the male leads but never the females. Perhaps they're not created to be loveable. Maybe they're just dummies/filler characters use to embellish the males (an arrow shot right into the heart of feminism).
Funny thing is our bias supposedly falls for this dummy/filler when there's nothing remotely attractive there. Yes, she could be the most beautiful thing to ever grace the earth, she may be the alpha female that's been missing from everyone's lives but she will be forgotten because actually, there wasn't much to her in the first place.
In fanfiction, it's harder to create an OC. She's a character cut from scratch whereas idols come with their own set characteristics (as seen on the internet). We already have preconceived opinions and feelings towards idols. OC is new and needs a bit of work. She's acceptable but not exactly notable. This isn't to say OCs are crap, or to diss writers who pen them. The real challenge may just be to spend some time fleshing out an OC so she doesn't get left behind in the storm of y biases. That doesn't excuse writers from using a female idol and scapegoating. Develop. Your. Characters.
A good cheaters tip to mask badly written main characters is: have cool side characters. They are distracting. They show up least expected. No one will ever suspect that that one deaf, singing grandma who can't hold a tune was added to make up for the lack of substance in the main characters.
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