The badfic complaint I was responding to in this, is that horrid thing where a badfic writer has Male Character A breaking down and crying over every. freaking. little. mishap. And, honestly, I genuinely don't know anybody who does this, except a few people who are exceptionally emotionally immature individuals in pretty much every way -- whether they're adults, teenagers, or children.
If a person cries whenever they have a disagreement with their partner about laundry, when they get mildly reprimanded at work, when they can't find their car keys, when... anything of any degree of "bad" happens, as is essentially what this characterisation issue is about, I'm afraid that simply can't be defined as either "male" or "female" behaviour, yeah? So when someone criticises this by using the phrase "crying like a girl" ... gah!
I've actually gone on at much greater length about this before, quite some time ago. My biggest frustration is that while it is of course more likely that a woman WILL cry, we shouldn't say that she's crying just because she's a woman. If a guy started crying over a long distance commercial, he should never, ever get teased for acting like a girl. There is absolutely nothing wrong with crying.
I do understand that, yes, women do cry more than men do. I also feel that this is largely because it is socially unacceptable for men to cry. I have absolutely no negative view on crying. I do it a fair bit myself! And, hey, two of my favourite things in the world are Lord of the Rings and Farscape, where a great deal of crying goes on by members of both genders! :D
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Good lord, I'm wordy. Possibly also incoherent. Sorry about that.
Date: 2004-08-01 03:23 am (UTC)If a person cries whenever they have a disagreement with their partner about laundry, when they get mildly reprimanded at work, when they can't find their car keys, when... anything of any degree of "bad" happens, as is essentially what this characterisation issue is about, I'm afraid that simply can't be defined as either "male" or "female" behaviour, yeah? So when someone criticises this by using the phrase "crying like a girl" ... gah!
I've actually gone on at much greater length about this before, quite some time ago. My biggest frustration is that while it is of course more likely that a woman WILL cry, we shouldn't say that she's crying just because she's a woman. If a guy started crying over a long distance commercial, he should never, ever get teased for acting like a girl. There is absolutely nothing wrong with crying.
I do understand that, yes, women do cry more than men do. I also feel that this is largely because it is socially unacceptable for men to cry. I have absolutely no negative view on crying. I do it a fair bit myself! And, hey, two of my favourite things in the world are Lord of the Rings and Farscape, where a great deal of crying goes on by members of both genders! :D