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meridian_roseTumblr is filled with 'Hunger Games' gifs and macros and spoilers and the media is filled with reviews and book/movie comparisons. Some of the conclusions are 'crappy Battle Royale ripoff' and others decide 'OMG BEST BOOK AND/OR MOVIE EVER'. As always I suspect the truth is somewhere inbetween.
I was even thinking about making an effort to try and the read the books and maybe later see the movies due to the hype. Then I saw this post on Tumblr in which an anon said 'The epilogue was SO important to the entire story. It showed that SHE HAD CHILDREN. That she felt safe with Peeta'.
The respondent says 'I never even once read Katniss not wanting kids as being too scared to have them. I read it as her not wanting kids. Also you may recall in the one page shitty excuse for an epilogue that Katniss said she did it for Peeta, not because she wanted them because “he wanted them so badly” once she was pregnant and felt the child kicking her she decided she liked the idea of having kids but not till then. It was nothing to do with her feeling safe, it was Peeta wanting to be a father.'
So fuck you, Collins. Is this the fate of all female fantasy writers [see also Rowling], to write crappy epilogues to their stories that force otherwise outside-the-norm females into monogamous heterosexual marriages and to become mothers? Are they bowing to publisher pressure or they can honestly not just imagine that there are women out there who do not want children under any circumstances?
What's even worse here than in the 'Harry Potter' piece of shit ending is that at least one of the two readers sees Katniss as childfree but she gives in to please 'her man'. That she gives up her bodily autonomy and commits to a lifelong role of motherhood because he wants to be a father. Great message to send to the teens these books are mostly aimed at! Remember, you must please your male partner at all costs and give into sex and reproduction whenever he desires it.
So that's another book series I'm reluctant to read which is a pity because I think I'd have rather liked Katniss [also maybe Gale and Fennick?] until the Shitty Epilogue of Doom just as I was rather enjoying 'Harry Potter' until the cis-heternomative-childed-monogamy-for-all-important-characters epilogue.
I'm also falling out of love with 'Castle' because, while the episodes are still pretty good, Stana Katnic, who portrays Beckett, can think of nothing more interesting or important for her character's future than to 'make babies' with Castle. I usually blame the [mostly male] writers for having nothing better to do with a female character than make her pregnant but now female actors can't think of anything else they'd like to happen?
I want to write fanfic where Castle, who in canon already has a teenage daughter he raised pretty much on his own, tells Beckett he's had a vasectomy and/or does not want to start having babies again at his age [he's older than Beckett]. But I'd probably get no readers for such a fic because the Castle fandom seems to be 90% 'Beckett and Castle need to get married and have lots of babies' and 9.9% 'Ryan/Esposito slash because men can't ever just be close friends'.
On a similar note I'm glad I quit watching 'Bones' before childfree Temperance went batshit for asshole Booth's sperm.
Add this to reasons I find it hard to relate to a lot of female characters. Even the canonically childfree ones, including the lesbian childfree [Arizona, Grey's Anatomy] give in eventually. Even Cara [Legend of the Seeker] had to be given a shoehorned back-story son.
So, here's the thing. In the outside of realms of possibility I ever get published I swear that I'll never write shitty epilogues where everyone is forced into heterosexual couples who breed like rabbits. If I have a childfree protagonist she'll remain that way. There will be gay/lesbian couples. There will be threesomes and open relationships and the happily unattached. There will be adopted children. And my commitment to these things are probably just one more reason I'd never find a publisher in the first place because there's this obsession with pretending that m+f=biological children is the best and only suitable life path.
I was even thinking about making an effort to try and the read the books and maybe later see the movies due to the hype. Then I saw this post on Tumblr in which an anon said 'The epilogue was SO important to the entire story. It showed that SHE HAD CHILDREN. That she felt safe with Peeta'.
The respondent says 'I never even once read Katniss not wanting kids as being too scared to have them. I read it as her not wanting kids. Also you may recall in the one page shitty excuse for an epilogue that Katniss said she did it for Peeta, not because she wanted them because “he wanted them so badly” once she was pregnant and felt the child kicking her she decided she liked the idea of having kids but not till then. It was nothing to do with her feeling safe, it was Peeta wanting to be a father.'
So fuck you, Collins. Is this the fate of all female fantasy writers [see also Rowling], to write crappy epilogues to their stories that force otherwise outside-the-norm females into monogamous heterosexual marriages and to become mothers? Are they bowing to publisher pressure or they can honestly not just imagine that there are women out there who do not want children under any circumstances?
What's even worse here than in the 'Harry Potter' piece of shit ending is that at least one of the two readers sees Katniss as childfree but she gives in to please 'her man'. That she gives up her bodily autonomy and commits to a lifelong role of motherhood because he wants to be a father. Great message to send to the teens these books are mostly aimed at! Remember, you must please your male partner at all costs and give into sex and reproduction whenever he desires it.
So that's another book series I'm reluctant to read which is a pity because I think I'd have rather liked Katniss [also maybe Gale and Fennick?] until the Shitty Epilogue of Doom just as I was rather enjoying 'Harry Potter' until the cis-heternomative-childed-monogamy-for-all-important-characters epilogue.
I'm also falling out of love with 'Castle' because, while the episodes are still pretty good, Stana Katnic, who portrays Beckett, can think of nothing more interesting or important for her character's future than to 'make babies' with Castle. I usually blame the [mostly male] writers for having nothing better to do with a female character than make her pregnant but now female actors can't think of anything else they'd like to happen?
I want to write fanfic where Castle, who in canon already has a teenage daughter he raised pretty much on his own, tells Beckett he's had a vasectomy and/or does not want to start having babies again at his age [he's older than Beckett]. But I'd probably get no readers for such a fic because the Castle fandom seems to be 90% 'Beckett and Castle need to get married and have lots of babies' and 9.9% 'Ryan/Esposito slash because men can't ever just be close friends'.
On a similar note I'm glad I quit watching 'Bones' before childfree Temperance went batshit for asshole Booth's sperm.
Add this to reasons I find it hard to relate to a lot of female characters. Even the canonically childfree ones, including the lesbian childfree [Arizona, Grey's Anatomy] give in eventually. Even Cara [Legend of the Seeker] had to be given a shoehorned back-story son.
So, here's the thing. In the outside of realms of possibility I ever get published I swear that I'll never write shitty epilogues where everyone is forced into heterosexual couples who breed like rabbits. If I have a childfree protagonist she'll remain that way. There will be gay/lesbian couples. There will be threesomes and open relationships and the happily unattached. There will be adopted children. And my commitment to these things are probably just one more reason I'd never find a publisher in the first place because there's this obsession with pretending that m+f=biological children is the best and only suitable life path.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-18 08:41 pm (UTC)And there are other ways of hiding a pregnancy, including sending a character off on a sabbatical and focussing on other characters for a few episodes. I got the impression the baby storyline started even before the actress got pregnant but I can't be sure. Not to mention the 'my special genes' argument always rubs me up the wrong way. It's nature plus nurture. And look at her brother; hardly a fricking genius scientist and he had the exact same parents, while she's choosing shallow jock Booth for a baby daddy so the genetic lottery isn't even being loaded in the kid's favour.
I had to stop watching Grey's when Callie got pregnant. I intend to watch the AU episode that aired this week, because I love the premise. But every other trailer I see makes me want to punch Owen in the face.
I feel it's still, ridiculously, a controversial thing to say 'I don't want kids, other people don't want kids, stop making every single female character who isn't evil want kids'. I'm rather relieved to get a supportive comment :D So, thank you.