On Childfree Characters

[meridian_rose]

Someone once said I couldn’t create and write about as many childfree characters as I wanted because it was unrealistic.
1) I have no obligation to be realistic in fiction. It’s fiction. Sometimes it’s fantasy fiction. If there can be dragons there can be childfree characters.
2)
(gif: Tom Hiddleston as Loki, arms outstretched as he leans from a car window, text reads: I do what I want)

That said, you want realism?
More than one in five women do not have children. It’s not as rare as fictional media would have you believe. (Also around one in three women have abortions, I mention this for a reason.)
And even if that were not the case, why can’t I write all my characters as childfree if I want to? (Or asexual? Or both?)

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Comments

[tinny]

tbh, childfree characters are realistic in more ways than typical fanfic tropes are. Most characters in shows (the ones I watch) do not have children, so who is to say what their stance on having children is? Making them all childfree is way less forcefully bending them than "making everyone gay" or "making everyone a superhero" or "alpha/beta/omega". All of these tropes are incredibly wide-spread.

People complain about them, too, but they have just as much right to exist and be explored. Fiction is about exploring interesting concepts. That is always reason enough to do it.

[meridian_rose]

I think there's a presumption that characters will want them, horror if they don't, and insistence they'll change their minds (and frequently do; I spent time on Tumblr arguing about a canon childfree character and someone insisting he'd change his mind for the right woman *sigh*) along with the almost inevitable baby storyline in most shows; I give an example list of offenders in the full article to show how prevalent the you-will-be-mother effect is.

Yes, that's a good point, so many tropes are widespread!
Yet there's still the "why ruin my favourite show by having more than one gay character, it's unrealistic" tantrums about canon - and the rebuttal "not only do gay people exist but there are a lot of shows with vampires and demons but no-one's saying we can't tell those stories because they're unrealistic!" :)

Fiction is about exploring interesting concepts. That is perfect! :D