Sexual Objectification of Male Characters and How it Impacts Women

Alright, this is something that has been on my mind for a while and I finally have the balls to write it down and make sure everyone can see it. This post is biased, and extremely emotional, as I am writing about my personal feelings on this subject. If there is any lack of clarification or incorrect use of a word/description, I will do my best to correct it.

Warning: Sexual abuse/assault/violence is mentioned.

So. I am a long time lurker on popular fan sites and platforms. So I have seen many of the nitty gritty, the truly toxic and beautiful, and utter sadism that people are capable of creating when it comes to characters we take a liking to. But the more recent stuff has really gotten under my skin, and I wanted to talk about it.

This has to do with two characters that have become extremely popular this year. Miguel O’Hara from Across the Spider-verse and Simon “Ghost” Riley from Call of Duty. I’ve seen depraved things happen when people like characters. I like these two for similar reasons. I find them attractive. Their stories are captivating. And the movie and game they take place in are some of my favorites. But the things I have seen being written about these two specifically make me very nauseous.

Both of these characters have become extremely popular on fan sites because of how sexually appealing they are. They are tall, muscular-built men with dark backstories and darker attitudes. And what infuriates me is the amount of sexual objectification is happening to them. Yes, they are fictional characters. Yes, they don’t exist. Therefore no harm is being done. Wrong.

I have been writing fan fiction for a long time, only a fraction of it actually posted publicly. And the thing about fan fiction that I take extreme pride in is the art of characterization. You are creating a story about a character that is not yours. They already existed, have their own lore and role within their story. So when one is writing fan fiction, I think its incredibly important to pay attention to the specific lore of the character. This helps you build on who they are and flesh them out as people. How would they react in this situation? What foods/drink do they like? What face would they make if you said this? What would they do if this specific thing happened to them? These are important questions you should know the answer to when writing your own material for any given character.

Yes, AUs exist for this reason, so that subversion of a character can take place to satisfy those that fantasize about a character that canonically would not play into their interests. That still still does not excuse some of the utter disrespect I have seen.

For the two specific characters above, I will summarize their VERY similar backstories. Both were heavily abused in their childhoods (by their fathers). Both have taken on an “anti-hero” role with a grisly attitude to accomplish good things, aka protecting the public/people they care about. Ghost was sexually assaulted, tortured, buried alive, and witnessed a close friend/colleague try to assault someone. Miguel was used and abused by his own company, leading to his abilities and hatred of his role as Spider-Man 2099. Horrible atrocities were committed to these men. And yet, I have seen nonstop fan fictions portraying these men as violent, perverted, sex-driven monsters for the satisfaction of readers. I think this is an affront to the very idea of fan fiction and an insult to these characters.

So with that said, I think it is absolutely disgusting how people have been writing the two characters above. And that is only the start of the problem. The over sexualization of male characters in media. For a long time, its was always female characters. People have spoken about the over-sexualization of women in media for years. And now with the internet at its height, male sexualization has also become extremely prominent, and yet I don’t see people raising enough concern about. Women have tried so hard to push back on male-centered media in order to protect themselves, with advertisements, games, movies, and entertainment media with female characters. The cliché roles of damsel-in-distress or female-warrior-love-interest to male main characters are still extremely prevalent.

And yet, it horrifies me that many women (and people in general) are now taking a lead in the sexualization of male characters in the near exact same way that men do. Only difference forms. Men sexualization through art: games, movies, p*rn, etc. Women do it through our own art, and especially writing. Now, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with writing smut and p*rn. The horror lies in the characters being portrayed and the acts they are committing. Between these two characters, I have seen more violent smut fan fiction than I have seen actual love for the characters themselves. I have lurked through the fandoms centered around these two characters since they first started gaining popularity, and it disgusts me how many writers portray them.

This isn’t even the main issue. The biggest issue has to be how this is still pushing toxic male fantasy. R*pe. Sexual violence. Sexual abuse. Verbal abuse. Mental and emotional abuse. Non-consensual acts. The romanticization of sexual violence and depravity. The amount of viral videos I have seen of men openly displaying their belief that women enjoy stalking, sexual harassment/assault, and sexual abuse, and all because there is media of it being portrayed that way. P*rn has portrayed women as sexual objects for men for years, giving men the idea that any and every woman in the world would enjoy being a victim of these acts. And now, writers are doing the same thing here. They are portraying women/people being abused by these characters, and enjoying every second of it. This is not healthy. It is sickening. (This also applies to everyone, not just those who do not identify as female. Anyone is capable of being a victim of abuse).

This is a horrible double standard that has been created by people: That sexual harassment is bad when committed by someone we are not attracted to, BUT okay when committed by someone we are attracted by. STOP. Right now. Sexual harassment/abuse is bad no matter who commits it. And flirting does not equal harassment. Flirting is an open, two-way communication between two consenting people. Harassment is the continuous disregard for someone’s personal space/preferences through sexual/verbal/physical actions that the victim does not reciprocate.

Let me clarify that I am not shaming anyone for their personal sexual preferences and kinks. BDSM is not abuse when it is between two consenting adults. Violence-play is not abuse between two consensual adults. But when the media about certain characters is specifically tailored to indicate that such acts are everyone’s fantasy, it is not okay. What pisses me off is that it is always fit to characters who would most likely never agree to such things. Continuously portraying toxic, manipulative, and abusive behaviors as romantic and normal is extremely unhealthy and can warp the way people view healthy relationships.

After researching the background of Miguel and Ghost, I am one thousand percent sure that these two characters are not/would never do what they are portrayed as in these writings. Both men experienced horrible abuse, and are shown to strive to be better than the ones who abused them. I, for one, believe they would be the exact opposite as they are portrayed sexually. They would not be violent verbally or physically. They would not be abusive in any capacity. There could/would be toxic and manipulative tendencies that come from growing up in an abusive and stressful environment. But when one goes through such things, they are the opposite of this when they acknowledge their wish to be better. Both characters would most likely fear committed relationships, out of the fear that they could turn into the people who hurt them and hurt the ones they love. The fear of losing everything they care about all over again (both lost their families in tragic ways). PTSD would shape the way they interact with people, especially significant others.

I can vouch for this characterization on a personal level. The beauty of writing characters is being able to take their lore and apply it to real human qualities and experiences. I often use my own in my writing. My personal experiences with abuse and harassment are what drive me to write this post and speak out on this surge of romanticized violence, as well as for these characters. People who have survived these experiences and who strive to better themselves often acknowledge that it was not these experiences that define them. It is who we choose to become afterwards, and how much we allow it to affect us. While Miguel and Ghost are people who will continue to be haunted by their pasts, they strive to be better in their own ways, even if not everyone agrees. And the over-sexualization and violent portrayal of their characters in many fictions completely contradicts their canonical characters.

I am not putting creators who have done this on blast. I just urge many of you writers/artists to think about what it is you are creating and who you are portraying. Is your content curated by your audience? Is it curated specifically for you? Or is it for the character you are writing about? Maybe its everything and more. I just want you to be aware of what you are writing and how it may affect others as well as the characterization of said character.

I feel as if I’ve only scratched the surface with vague explanations. So if anyone who sees this feels the same, and wants to add or feels like I missed something, please do. This needs to be talked about more.

We should be fine as long as we do not reblog bread.

i dont fucking know

THE GAYS HAVE BROKEN FREE OF THEIR FLESH PRISONS

Different Stories Resonate with Different People

This is mostly just soft world-building and a writing exercise (not that I’m much of a writer? But alas, what else to call this). But very HASO, so figured I’d share [:

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There were plenty of reasons it was assumed, by the general community if not officially, that a sentient predator species would never reach space. Several scientific minds argued that sentience was not possible in predators at all, though this is generally an idea rooted in ⧭ปΦ∸яism and has some troubling connotations, especially for species with scavenger roots like the Tumªolut and the Kkaრ೮ಊs. But in general, it was considered at best an improbability. Any erudite or academically minded individual could give you a reason. Predator species had not been found in the over 1,300 sentient species recorded in galactic history, suggesting it was statistically unlikely. Predator species only occurred on death worlds, and few species developed past infancy in such conditions. Individuals that had grown up from predator-laden planets would submit that predators were too instinctual to gain rational thought. They argued that a sentient predator would starve as it lost the cruelty necessary to hunt, or that no god would allow the gift of a mind to fall into the hands of a predator. Ecologists submitted that a sentient predator would not be able to survive: they would simply eat themselves to starvation. They would not have time to advance enough to set up truly sustainable food sources before they decimated their homes, and would subsequently never survive, or at least be stuck in a perpetually diminished state. The ∴።፨፨•, with their unique cultural appreciation of their homeworld and its other facets, occasionally disputed this idea. They themselves might be able to support a predator species on their otherwise peaceful planet, as they worked diligently to prevent the extinction of any species, even those bothersome to themselves. However, this was generally concluded to either be a cultural stance too rare to be statistically significant, too kind-hearted for a predator to develop, or too cultural for a predator-species to develop before it was too late.

The Media and Entertainment industries had their own perspective on the hypothetical. Naturally, the idea of a flesh-eating, shadow-stalking killer was too good to pass up, once introduced by the likes of popular Kkaრ೮ಊs myth and fable. And as scary as they were as threats of nature, they were tantalizingly terrifying when they became sentient villains. They also had the additional benefit of being unlike any known species on the market: there was little risk in ostracising an audience or, as was assumed, any future audience. Media outlets on the less scrupulous end cherished flashy articles that warned of hazy figures on newly explored planets. Even official GC sources occasionally indulged in calculating the chance that a predator species would be discovered on planets set to be explored next, with comically infinitesimal numbers listed beneath the statistics displaying the chance of another sentient species, life at all, or the presence of water or mercury. Doomsday cultists of various sects listed the discovery of a sentient predator (an event commonly titled as ‘The Birth of the Weapon’) in their timeline to the end of known existence, claiming that such a species would herald, or bring about, the end times.

All of these sources provided the space for people to set aside suspicion and fear and truly hypothesize what such a group would look like, however. The visages they drew were wicked. The hulking, camouflaged behemoths of “Coldest Ice”, the slithering, silent shades in Buer-Mak’s various sculptural works, the clawed, voracious maws illustrated in Kk⇟ꜿ Illustrated’s conspiracy surrounding a supposed super-predator underneath the ℋi⤕lei colony. It would be, with strange accuracy, the literary works of Juarl Mೊ who came closest. Mೊ’s works took a clever spin on the Predator Villain in his series “The Remarkable and Solitary Survival of L.C. Tanne”. Mೊ portrays a sentient predator not as a physically imposing figure, but one of remarkable skill and endurance. An enemy that was nearly impossible to kill, and infinitely motivated. The unnamed villain of Mೊ’s story captured the fears of a small cult following, but did not become an archetype for new sensationalized stories. So, when that fateful discovery was made in the 1st quarter of 3409 GCY, it was to the delight of those few who had unexpectedly out-predicted the intellectuals of our time, and the horror and trepidation of all.

[Excerpt from “Sentient Predators: The Entrance of Humanity to the Galactic Stage” by Gaamorrnnck’ luuoi, transcribed from audio recording by Tamurӕck Passei, Translated into Terran common English by Automatic Translator ver. 1309]

its the no notes ghoast

Hot hot hot hot chocolate

HEY WE GOT IT

Humans are awesome

Cc CD

Dear teen girls,

Stop abusing your boyfriends and yes what you are doing is abuse.

Stop:

Yelling at him in front of his friends 

Hitting or slapping him when he does or says something you don’t like

Telling him he doesn’t have a choice when it comes to decisions that involve both of you 

Telling him he can’t hang out with friends because you don’t like him

Telling him to not talk to other girls even if they are his friend

Forcing him to spend every moment with you 

Belittling him and pointing out all his flaws

Calling him stupid or making fun of him for making a mistake

Threatening to break up with him if he doesn’t do what you want

Being emotionally manipulative and crying until he does what you want

Accusing him of cheating every time he’s not with you

Blow up is phone if he doesn’t text you every five minutes 

Telling him you are the must thing that has ever happened to him and no one else will love

Physically attacking him when ever you are mad

Forcing him to have sex despite that fact that he said he didn’t want to

Invading his privacy by going through his phone

Getting mad at him for changing his password and demanding he tell you what it is

If a guy did any of these things to a girl it would be considered abuse but since its the other way around its considered normal. Throughout High school I saw many girl treating their boyfriends like shit. Sometime even physically abusing them in the hallways and no one trying to stop it because its a girl attacking a boy. 

Boys: If your girlfriend does anything on this list leave her. It is abuse and you deserve better.

Girls: if you find your self doing anything on this list to your boyfriend you need to knock it off because you are being abusive. 

If you're reading this...

go write three sentences on your current writing project.

Are fedoras really that bad?

YES YES THEY ARE

Farewell online privacy