galadriel1010 | Gwen, an apology

Entry tags:

notfic,
torchwood

Gwen, an apology

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.

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I think being entirely unaware of the wank is the preferable position. Sorry if you caught some of the spatter, though.

I usually only know that there's wank going on because of the spatter. I feel like the CSI of the TW fandom. "Well, the spray seems to have originated from the left, and the pattern indicates that an artery was hit...but this bit over here results from blunt force trauma."

While I don't like either Gwen or Owen I don't like bashing either, I just stay away from fics with either character as the main focus, works fine ;)

I'll join you in saying that I didn't know about the wank until someone pointed me towards it, :(.

I don't like Gwen. Never have, never will and I'll admit to being a part of the

antigwenallies community simply because I want a safe space where I can express my dislike. I don't agree with everything they do over there (excessive bashing just to bash is not my thing at all), but they also have stories and meta there that are just Gwen-free, which makes me happy, :).

I don't care for having to justify my dislike or being told that I'm anti-feminist for not liking her. I don't think it's cool to write a story just to bash her, but I do sometimes read stories that write her in-character, which can also be seen as bashing sometimes, *headdesk*.

For the most part, though, I seem to be like you - I just avoid places that are pro-Gwen and don't read Gwen-centric fic unless it's by an author I really like...

*hugs*

Sorry you got caught up in that too but the fringe is nice, stay there ;) Less ANGREY I suppose. *waggles eyebrows*

It's less the fans who just don't care for Gwen, like yourself, but the ones who call her a harpy, liar, cheater, ho, basically say that she's setting a bad standard for women (hello honour culture methods) and aiming it at Eve Myles as well.

Stay happy!

*hugs*

You'll never have to justify why you don't like Gwen, at least, to me.

I can understand both sides of the coin - there's a character in one of my fandoms who I could quite happily watch DIAF, kthnxbai - and I have received some serious hate-email because I dislike him so much. *shrugs* if we all liked the same characters/things/foods/places, the world would be an incredibly boring, boring place. - BUT, my "character hate" does not, and will never, flow over into the Real World... ever. Recently saw some mega-Ianto/GDL bashing that made me feel quite ashamed for the people who wrote it...

I like Gwen - she's not my favourite character, and she's not the one I identify with the most (hello Tosh and Ianto!), but that doesn't mean I'm going to "unfriend" or ball out anyone who doesn't like her.

I always seem to miss this stuff, I think I must look at the wrong comms or something. I certainly haven't seen any of it.

Thing is, I really don't get why fans get on their high horse so much, but then I think it's because a lot of them are like comic book guy on The Simpsons, that personality type where you have no insight at all and take it all way too seriously. It seems to me that it's perfectly normal to dislike any character, and in fact a good thing, because it makes it more interesting. Series 1 Owen isn't likeable, but people don't get all upset about that. I think RTD and the producers didn't help by going on about her all the time, and I do think there is a strong resentment that RTD just went ahead and killed everyone who wasn't Gwen, which can feel a bit spiteful.

I'm meh about Gwen, unfortunately both JB and EM are weaker actors than the others, so Jack and Gwen scenes often make me cringe with the histrionics. The one where she shows him her engagement ring makes me die it's so awful. I can't watch it.

The other thing that occurs to me is that there is never an outcry about the fans who are into Jack/Gwen and bash Ianto in a way that I think is frankly weird. I came across a meta on one of these fans journals, and she and a lot of her friends were calling Ianto "that thing" and saying how happy they were that he was dead because "that thing is off my screen" . I was quite shocked, if fans were posting that about Gwen it would cause a huge row.

And isn't the cricket briliant!

LOL, your personal journal is for your opinions. I wouldn't want to argue with you here unless you said, "I think this, what do you guys think?" You've not come to my journal when I'm fangirling Gwen or other characters and said negative things about them.

We did argue/debate in Taffy's journal, but I think we were civil to one another, and her main point was that people can say what they like in their own journals; it's the constant bashing everywhere else that gets fans down. I did completely snap over that.

I have unpopular opinions about other fandoms, but I'm not going to go to their main comms to say so! :)

I honestly don't think you need to apologize for not liking a character. You made an honest mistake, which you said sorry for, and people should just move the fuck on. But what really makes me completely enraged is that they're all going on about how bashing a fictional character is bad and insulting real people to prove their point. And here I thought: real people > fictional characters
BUT APPARENTLY NOT.

I have to say I don't get the idea going around that you have to justify your likes or dislikes especially when it comes to fake people. I love chocolate, I hate coffee. I love cheese on spaghetti bolognese, but hate it any where near my hamburgers. Nobody's ever required a clear, consise argument defending these choices.

It's a quirky fact of life that sometimes things that irritate/annoy you in one person/character you can find tolerable in another and sometimes a person/ character can rub you the wrong way just because. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes that's just the way it is.

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