Oh, man… There’re gonna be some self-important male “authors” crying today.
Ehehehehehehe.
Bring on the brittle little egos!
Immediately thought of Joss Whedon.
This isn’t commentary, this is just sexism aimed at men. Pure stereotyping based on absolutely nothing but the imagined person’s gender (and sometimes race).
Goodbye Boing Boing, this is where I get off the ride.
Sooooooooo… which one of those stereotypes describes your fanfic?
I’m sure it’s a giggle in some deconstructed way.
Though, it would be frightening to think that there are people who take the deconstructed view as fact,a nd words to live by.
Yep, this is pretty much a go-to list for bad writing. I don’t really get why the Mary Sue is supposed to be a hallmark of female writers (name notwithstanding). Self-insertion as wish-fulfillment is pretty terrible no matter who does it (and not limited to a specific gender). Try reading Sword of Truth or Wheel of Time (or many, many other epic fantasy series). It’s alternatively painful, sad, and painfully sad.
Bad writing on Tumblr of all places! Goodness gracious me, I never would have imagined.
(Actually the “Best of Tumblr” Facebook page makes for fine reading, but I’m sure a tremendous amount of distilling goes on to produce that.)
You didn’t include the rogue cop who doesn’t follow the rules and even manages to steal the super-rich drug lord’s girlfriend.
So I think we can still rely on that one.
Sturgeon’s Law.
I’m not particularly offended by this, even though (checks pants) I am certainly a white male human (checks pants again), actually make that very white. It is curious that it singles out male-oriented bad writing-- it’s not like you need a penis to use tired old storylines and cliches, or create thinly disguised versions of yourself as a protagonist. Bad writing truly is an equal opportunity offense.
The tumblr is still funny, so “lighten up, Francis.”
It singles out male-oriented bad writing in the same way that “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” singles out the Roman Empire as a study in decline and fall. Other empires, indeed other national schemes, rise and fall – but that’s what this one piece is about.
There are two problems here.
One is that knocking over straw men is lazy and, in the end, ineffective. There are important points to be made about male sexism in writing. It’s a real problem. But creating stereotypes that no one recognizes and then pointing at how silly they are doesn’t do much. It doesn’t move the conversation. It doesn’t make people see things in a different way.
All is does is make the people who agree with you pump their fists.
The other problem is that reverse sexism is still sexism. Would it be OK if I posted similar jokes about women writers? I wouldn’t like it. It would turn my stomach to do so.
Why is it OK to do about men?
Is it a matter of evening the score? Is that effective?
Punch up, not down.
It’s horrible when the master whips the slaves.
It is not horrible when the slaves whip the master.
