Character Bashing

As I lay here hoping desperately that I'll get tired soon so I don't end up dead tired when I have to meet up with that lover of mine (and hoping my mother will GLADLY front me another $20 for food stuffs) I find myself wondering about the great phenomenon of character bashing. Why? Well, with the last two Harry Potter books, the relationship between Ginny and Harry has progressed to being mutually loving, as have the relations between Remus and Tonks and the slashers are not pleased.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Draco/Harry slash, and absolutely ADORE Sirius/Remus slash. This, however, does not mean I hate Tonks and Ginny, or even J.K. Rowling, for making het canon in the books. Nor do I attack the writers who don't comply with my idea of a perfect Harry Potter Ship. I'm a great fan of the "Don't Like It, Don't Read It" philosophy.

This is not the only time I've seen this. There are countless fandoms where, upon the moment a relationship is established that is not what a group of fan-brats hates, one of the characters in the relationship (usually the woman) is bashed relentlessly in fanfiction, and their popularity plummets. One, looking through Road to El Dorado fan fiction, I found many a slasher killing off Chel for getting in between Tulio and Miguel's apparently budding relationship. Now, to set aside the question "Why do two guys who are close friends have to be gay?" let's look into this whole Chel-hate thing. Well, she's a cool character, who moved along the plot perfectly. She wasn't whiny, saved their butts more then once, and had a great personality (not to mention, she's one of the very few chubby, curvy and hot female cartoon characters). She doesn't complain, she's not whiny, and, to be honest, is lacking in a lot of obvious female stereotypes. Hell, the woman is clever as hell, and while she does use sex appeal to run a con, wouldn't you?

So, why, other then getting in the way of slashers, does she get so much hate?

Wait, that's the only reason? Lame.

Ginny Weasley is also an awesome character. She's a natural jinxer, is very down to Earth, and is assertive. All those equal awesome.


So folks, please, stop the bashing. Love the women, they need the love.