Gwen, an apology

[galadriel1010]

A few of my friends recently have posted in their journals about the amount of anti-Gwen vitriol that they've seen, and wondering why there is so much.

So I, being me, replied, explained why I didn't like her and tried to join the discussion.

I didn't realise it was a rhetorical question. Nor did I realise that there's been a lot of anti-Gwen stuff around, because the fandom places I hang out in are Twitter and my flist. This does not cover any of the major non-fic communities or AGA. I had no idea it was going on. So when I saw stuff in my flist asking why people dislike Gwen... I thought they were honestly asking.

Being lonely, bored and procrastinating, I felt like answering it.

So, basically, I didn't know the context, and I apologise for joining in where I shouldn't have. Apparently the fandom is full of Gwen hate that people on my flist don't want to see. My flist is mostly full of people who like Gwen, and I keep feeling like I have to justify my dislike. I shouldn't feel like I have to, and I shouldn't try. So I'll stop.

ETA: I don't think most of the people I'm apologising to are actually friends with me, so they won't see this.

Comments

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Hey there. Someone pointed me over to your post, I hope that's okay?

And then Taffy made some comment about how she was amused by people posting stuff like that as if she actually cared, which made me wonder why she asked.

I just wanted to clarify this. I never actually asked why there was so much dislike for Gwen. I have heard the arguments for why she's flawed, and I get them. What I actually asked was this:

...why must fandom spend so much time and energy attacking Gwen for being just as flawed and imperfect as the rest of them?

So not "why do people see Gwen as flawed and imperfect?" Rather, "why are everyone else's flaws excused and explained away while hers are focused on and magnified?" The responses that amused me weren't answering this question at all. They were making an argument that I had granted as a premise for my post (namely, that Gwen is flawed and imperfect.) Does that help you to understand my comment better?

Edited for punctuation fail.

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the delayed reply. There was an enthusiastic union of shit and fan, and then I could not remember where this comment was.

That does help to clarify it, yes. Although reading back over it, I did actually answer the question of why I can fogive Ianto more easily than Gwen... to start with at least, I may have got distracted later on. And there was quite a lot of comparing Gwen to Ianto, especially in their motivations. This surprises me a little, I can be like a dog with a bone who later realises that bone got abandoned and I started chewing on a stick for half an hour instead.

I hope you enjoyed the debate anyway, and that it wasn't a whole pile of suck that you didn't want in your journal. I genuinely did enjoy that post and the debate that stemmed from it - especailly when we got into marmite metaphors.

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

No worries about the delay, shit happens. I hope it's better now?

There was some decent debate but there was also a lot of suck that I didn't want in my journal. Sadly, that suck doesn't begin compare to the level of suck that happened outside my journal as a result of the post.

Honestly? At this point I want to set fire to the internet.

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

Shit is getting better. It keeps recurring, but I'm only a week away from being home, so it should all be done soon.

Your post was an enjoyable debate. What's happened since has been a shit pile.