Is insulting fictional characters a thing now?

[FirstNameLastName]

People are offended about her being called a slut and a whore for the same reason people get offended when someone calls a black character a ******, or a gay character a fag.

It's not about hurting a fictional character's feelings, it's about people being offended over the real world opinions of these people; in this case, "slut shaming".

I'm not in the least bit offended over their statements, despite how juvenile they are, but must we spend our time fighting strawmen rather than the actual topic? Once again, the easily offended are offended over how easily offended others are.

 

[sageoftruth]

My best guess about character insults would be that some people do it when a it seems like the writers are trying to frame a character they don't like as likeable. When it seems like the writer was trying to make someone people would like, those who dislike the character may insult him or her as a way of calling the writer out, sometimes without realizing that that's why they're doing it.
The most popular case I can remember is definitely Twilight. Need I say any more there? According to the author, the main characters were basically Aphrodite hooking up with Adonis, but if you've been on the internet for the past 2-3 years, you've probably seen the legions of people who begged to differ in the form of character insults.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

That probably wasn't a great thing to joke about in an interview. Especially for a franchise that big and still on-going, and with people as sensitive as they are today.

The leg bit saved it. But oh, well they apologised for the oh, so great sin already.

I do love how their takeaway from that was that Renner implied that having a fake leg is bad. God, these people are so stupid, it hurts.

Yup. That leg bit pissed off another group of people.

http://sobadass.me/2015/04/23/she-has-a-prosthetic-leg-anyway-disability-shaming/

 

[the_dramatica]

At the end of the day you should be able to criticize the narrative.

If it's written in a way that's very personal and then tries to shoehorne in conflict over something small it can get called out on that. You can't make the story about stupid personal drama and then be surprised when people are upset over the personal actions a character takes.

I mean somebody who hates joffrey to the point of hating the actor is a moron, but he's just there to be an annoying character to hate and create conflict, so who wants him in the story? He was far too one dimensional for doing anything but creating tension, the only retribution his character got was some morals sprinkled on top of his deathbed.

 

[Shanahanapp]

I do kinda get where the angry people are coming from. I mean if I was to say "Oh I hate that black character, he's an n-word." could I justify that by saying "But I'm talking about a fictional character"?

 

[visiblenoise]

I cannot imagine what kind of mental state one would have to be in to feel so personally offended that some actors made fun of whores and prosthetic legs in a few seconds of an interview, so as to call for an apology. Even if we were talking about a whore with a prosthetic leg. In fact, I imagine that a whore with a prosthetic leg would have more of a sense of humor about it.

 

[DementedSheep]

Because when you shame a fictional character for something, then you shame anyone who does something similar/has that trait as well. It's not about the fictional character, it's about the mindset behind the insult.

And sometimes people just get way to attached to some characters.

 

[Twintix]

I insult fictional characters all the time, but that's because my mom watches shows where every single character I see is an unlikable twatmuffin. Considering that they're, you know, non-existent, they really shouldn't aggravate me as much as they do...
(Just to clarify, I don't watch these shows to get irritated. In fact, I leave the room as soon as I can. I've just tried to give the shows a chance, but the characters just piss me off)

But seriously, we have people who celebrate fictional characters' birthdays. (That may just be one of the saddest sentences I've ever typed) This hardly comes as a surprise.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Well I insult god all the time. Aint no biggy. Surely a god's got better things to do. Plus i'm certain Stephen Fry did the same in a recent interview. My rule of thumb is; if Stephen Fry is ok with something, it has to be ok for us all!

Captcha: Hot sauce. Indeed Captcha, indeed.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

There's lots of people who really love their fiction. It's not as much being unable to separate it from reality as it is realizing it's not real and still preferring it while understanding that it's fiction.

When you think about it, who affects you more? Some random person you never knew, who lived their entire life in a different place and who didn't ever interact or affect you in any way or your favorite fictional character who bewitched you with their stories and gifted you hundreds of hours of entertainment, making you care about their fictional lives much more than you care about the lives of even some distant relatives you may never speak to.

I think most people would say they were affected by the fictional character much more than most of the 7 billion people who actually exist. That being the case, of course people will mind when someone offends or insults their favorite characters. That character matters to them much more than they may matter to you.

 

[Tilly]

Insulting fictional characters?

Didn't that used to just be called blasphemy? Ba-dum-dum-chu.

 

[Aerosteam]

By this logic you should go to jail for killing fictional characters.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

You can't really do that though unless the author puts you in the story and has you kill them in there and even still you would only have consequences in that dimension of the fictional world. Jurisdiction doesn't cross states, you think it crosses planes of existence?

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Welcome to the future: a dark, bleak time where the unending silence of dread is only broken every 0,5 seconds by the ear-splitting screeches of hysterical fangirls, their eyes glimmering a bright yellow as they endlessly prowl the corridors of our dark prison of political correctness, ever eager to punish disobedient or loud prisoners.

I just read an article about the working conditions of factory workers in Bangladesh, and this is the big news on the Internet today. Let's face it: We are the rich people from the Hunger Games. We are the Empire.

 

[EyeReaper]

I do kinda get where the angry people are coming from. I mean if I was to say "Oh I hate that black character, he's an n-word." could I justify that by saying "But I'm talking about a fictional character"?

I don't think it works the same way. Slut is a personality trait, a character type. "The N-Word" is just a derogatory term for someone's skin color.

Anyone can be a slut if they sleep around enough, not everyone can be black.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

So I was browsing the interwebz today, and came across this story:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/04/23/chris-evans-jeremy-renner-black-widow-slut-scarlett-johansson-avengers/26235729/

Here's one of the comments on it: "Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner should apologize for shaming Black Widow".

Ok, I get that people can complain that Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner were being juvenile (though I think it was abundantly clear they were kidding around), but "shaming Black Widow"? I mean, she's a fictional character, she isn't real, how can you shame someone who doesn't actually exist? Should I get in trouble for saying Harry Potter is a wimp? Or that Loki is an asshole?

Aha, so you've never run afoul of the Tumblr League for the Fictitious Persons' Equality, also known as the rabid fans who react to criticisms levied at their favorite characters as if they needed someone to white-knight criticisms away...

Yes, I'm sad to say that even suggesting that the currently massively popular shows that generate billions of GIFs per year might have problems seems to be grounds for immediate verbal attacks, nowadays. Separating fact from fiction seems to be really hard, especially when you've developed a fairly concerning attachment to fictitious characters.

Still, that's to be separated from those who do like to overthink characters they appreciate, but who have enough sense to realize that their interpretation isn't sacrosanct. A friend of mine likes to put together homoerotic fics about Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, and that's fine. I have enough sense to realize her work isn't canonical, and she also has enough sense to realize that she's giving copywrited characters her own personal spin. It doesn't make her the holder of some sort of superior narrative thread.

It doesn't matter if a fictitious character is a woman or a person in a wheelchair, you can't shame or otherwise denigrate a concept. Ideas, to bastardize another fictitious character, are bullet-proof. There's no tangible way or form in which Black Widow could be shamed. The person onscreen isn't Black Widow, it's Scarlett Johanssen playing Black Widow. As for Black Widow as she exists in the printed media, she has no way, shape or form that she could use to defend herself, except perhaps whatever her current scriptwriter chooses to put in her word bubbles.

A rather huge difference that today's audience tends to forget all too easily.

 

[Somekindofgold]

Remember when we could laugh at stuff instead of getting offended? I miss that time.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Considering the context of the 'insults' ...they weren't 'insults' or (for fuck sakes) 'slut-shaming.' It was very clearly the two of them just shit-talking Widow as though they were their own characters, bitter about their 'relationship' potential with her. Ie. A joke.

This was dumb.

So dumb.

But yeah, this is the world we live in now, apparently. Buckle in, folks.

It's only going to get worse.

Renner's 'apology' was gold though.