#I will maintain that Bumble and Starf are the GREATEST examples of it imo | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bonefall · 2 months

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Ok all the other shit aside, can we acknowledge how Gray is talking to Turtle?

@crazy-as-a-jaybird

I think something critics often miss about media analysis is that it's not JUST about when characters are acting "badly" to each other. They are not people, they are tools. So, in the discussion of how WC portrays relationships, it's equally important to look at what the narrative thinks is healthy.

Gray Wing is quite controlling of Turtle Tail even when they get together officially in Book 2, after he spends all of Book 1 with the energy of a toxic friend who is oblivious to her needs and interests. She's supportive of him, but when it comes to supporting HER, conversations will eventually warp into being about himself.

HIS happiness as her husband (when she's mourning Bumble), HIS bond to his brother (when she's concerned about the violence), HIS love of her kits (when they seem to drop him as a dad when Tom's Sleeper Genes awaken in them)...

(On one hand as the King of Autism, I can understand this not coming easy. But if this is the case, you can LEARN how to center the emotions of other people! The narrative doesn't address it as an issue if this is supposed to be a problem of Gray having low empathy.)

And like, that's how he TREATS her. As narrative tools, Turtle Tail's character gets lost in service of the male arcs around her.

She only leaves The Settlers when Gray Wing is at a low point being rejected by Storm, for extra pain and loneliness for his arc.

Tom the Wifebeater appears to force her back to Gray Wing

She's not allowed to retain any bad feelings about HOW BADLY Gray Wing treates her in Book 1

Her feelings towards Bumble are suddenly harsh during the exile

Then emotional when the story needs an example character to represent "the angry crowd"

But then she's a person Gray Wing can convince into accepting his brother's innocence

Tom the Wifebeater gets to beat her up one last time in Book 3 so Gray Wing can have a coolboy protector moment defending her

Aaaaaaaaand then she dies. So Gray Wing can have his own dead wife to be sad about and oogle at at the end of his brother's Murder Party

And then she is replaced by Slate. So Gray Wing can move on.

Turts is a perfect broad example of WC's misogyny, from introduction to grave. It's not JUST the suffering a character goes through; it's how their personalities and motivations are downplayed in service of the men around them. She hits every trope EXCEPT Bad Mom. It's incredible.

#I will maintain that Bumble and Starf are the GREATEST examples of it imo #Because what happens to them is shocking (Bumble) and interesting (Starf).#But as just like... WC Misogyny 101. The first real class. I would probably use Turtle as a teaching tool #Bumble as a shocking introduction and Turtle as the beginning of the unit

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