oi! icyhot bastard!

Stephanie Brown

She is disregarded and forgotten despite her role as Robin. She is rarely the focus of any fics or art

Steph has faced misogyny from both writers and fans for years. She was the 4th Robin, but DC only let her have the role for 3 months before killing her off in a brutal sexualized torture sequence, saying they wanted to give her "a moment of happiness before squashing her like a bug". She has since resurrected, but modern fandom now infantilizes her, treating her like a young teen when she should be fully an adult at this point and rather than emphasizing her skills proclaim that she is a novice and instead emphasize her "glittery chaos" and push an obsession with waffles onto her that is greatly exaggerated to make her seem naive and childish. Many refuse to acknowledge her time as Robin and often only portray her in fandom materials to push the development of men.

Steph is a self made vigilante who rose from troubled beginnings with a shitty home life into being one of the heroes of Gotham, often being emblematic of the city's hope and perseverance. She started as the vigilante Spoiler, spoiling her abusive father's criminal efforts while taking care of her mom who often suffered from an addiction to pills and alcohol. She soon met Batman and Robin and though they attempted to dissuade her from being a hero, she persevered again and again no matter how many times they pushed her away. She has been in and out of the Bat's inner circle several times, repeatedly given some measure of trust but then told shes not good enough for no reason. Eventually, when Tim Drake (3rd Robin and her boyfriend at the time) was forced to step down from Robin, Steph briefly took the role before Batman shut her out once again. In her attempts to prove herself she tried one of Batman's plans to stop organized crime, but accidentally started a city-wide gang conflict that ended with her capture, torture, and death. After awhile she returned to Gotham, a doctor having faked her death, and after Batman's apparent "death" she rose to the role of the 3rd Batgirl while Cassandra Cain, the 2nd Batgirl, went overseas. Steph's arc is a story of hope, redemption, grit, perseverance, and optimism in the face of terrifying odds (everyone should read Batgirl (2009)). She went away for awhile during various reboots but has returned to the continuity first as Spoiler and now Batgirl once again alongside Cassandra, and an alternate reality version of her is Batwoman, one of the only heroes of Earth 3. She is currently joining the New Titans as their leader alongside Yara Flor (Wonder Girl), Jon Kent (Superman), Red Devil, Tara Markov, Dick Grayson, and Vic Stone. She is an incredible character and I love her endlessly.

Not only was she subjected to Writer Misogyny, her character consistently gets flattened and sidelined in service to male characters in fanfiction and fanon

so back in 2010 DC did a big full company reboot of their universe that basically reset their entire comic universe. (they also used this massive ending of a bunch of titles and starting of new ones to reduce the number of women writing for them to 1% of their writers. comics companies often suck in this way). while a bunch of characters more or less just got a fresh new start, some were completely absent from this new universe at the beginning, like steph and cass. but steph and cass were a special case because they were being blacklisted by dc editorial, with dan didio labelling them as "toxic to the brand" and refusing to allow writers to use them, forcing writers to invent new characters with similar qualities just because they couldnt have the ones they wanted. this even extended to being wiped from art in certain issues. there was a cute comic being put out called Lil Gotham that wanted to have a blonde girl wear steph's batgirl 2009 costume as a halloween costume, but were forced to change the costume and hair color so that steph was not even alluded to. it took 6 years for them to finally reintroduce steph, and even longer to reintroduce cass also unrelated to the new 52 stuff but despite her death in pre reboot canon steph was never given a memorial case in the batcave, even though jason todd and barbara gordon both got memorial cases featuring their costumes following their tragedies. dc editorial taunted fans about this, putting out a "christmas wish list" at the end of one comic with a line asking for a memorial for steph, which then had a line put through it and was labeled as "can't do". fan outcry at conventions lead one writer to say they wanted to "shoot the girls who kept asking for it" so yeah dc writers were awful to steph and cass on the misogyny front, this did bleed over into the fans as well. so many people still refuse to acknowledge steph as robin

stephanie i will fight everyone for you. why have i seen her as a haha cute waffles and glitter girl who’s attached to cass at the hip everywhere. it’s genuinely like! these people are so unwilling to give her any interiority at all?? and her important relationships in canon are just sanitized and sanded down!! orr she’s written as an abuser (usually tim’s) although ive seen that much less often lately, admittedly. and for the first example her history and backstory and Actual Traits are just fucking thrown out i goes in favor of making her the Girl!!!!

Moderator's note: there's also propaganda featuring a lot of cool art of Stephanie Brown. You can see the ask here.

Barbara Gordon

Fandom loves to just paint her as Batman's tech support or Dick Grayson's understanding, girlbestfriend ex :/

She's a literal genius, hacker extraordinaire, capable of rivaling Batman in her stubborness and need for control. There's so much wrong with this woman; I love her. She's insane and deserves to lez out with Black Canary <3

Comic book woman. But being serious the killing joke and her being one of the most popular examples of fridging, her sexualization, Tom Taylor’s Nightwing run with her in it, her very very often being reduced to a side piece to a male character, etc, etc.

My beautiful disabled wife who is invading everyone’s privacy <333

barbara is usually just associated with dick. oh and she’s oracle and she knows everything haha. we’re not going to think about why she is such a controlling person with her finger on the pulse of everyone in the hero/villain/sometimes high up ppl in power though because she’s just there to be a bamf girlboss and/or for exposition. and of course! in the comics she’s not always oracle or even always in a wheelchair because she’s a Cool Woman and therefore can’t be permanently disabled and in a wheelchair because dc loves ableism!! DIE BY MY BLADE JFCCC

Now I hate to bring up shipping and ship wars, but if you for whatever reason wish to see misogyny directed at Barbara Gordon, then you need to look no further than the anti dickbabs tag. Have a scroll through yourself, the way some of these people talk about her is vile. Calling her ugly and/or comparing her in looks to dick grayson's other love interests, stuff like "why would he choose the bland boring librarian over a literal gorgeous warrior princess" (< not a direct quote but I've seen its like). As if calling a woman ugly or not as pretty is a valid criticism of a woman, or anyone for that matter. 90% of the ships criticism is directed solely at Barbara. If it's Dick getting criticised, then it's usually either a footnote in a paragraph ripping apart Barbara or it's "I don't like the way Dick is characterised in this pairing" but phrased in a way that implies that they blame Barbara and not the writers for dropping the characterisation ball. There are some valid criticisms about how her character has, in runs like Tom Taylor's nightwing, been scrubbed of her interesting flaws (the same flaws that they call her toxic for), but the language they use is so gross. Specifically I'm thinking of the way she is compared and likened to a pet dog always following Dick around and calling her pathetic for it. Like yes, I do dislike the way she is written almost entirely in the supportive girlfriend role during that run, but think for one moment about the kind of language you are using. Also additional propaganda for Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain too, there was a tumblr poll I think months ago asking which Batfamily character has been sexualised most by Comics. Babs Steph and Cass were all options in that poll. Dick Grayson won. They make a few jokes about a male characters butt and everyone loses their minds meanwhile the sexualisation of women in comics (any media really) is so prevalent that people don't even notice it.

Sakura Haruno:

NUMBER ONE MOST HATED FEMALE CHARACTER FRRRR AND FOR WHAT. FOR WHAT! FOR BEING A 12 YEAR OLD (WITH THE EMOTIONAL REGULATION & INTERPERSONAL SKILLS THAT ENTAILS) CHILD SOLDIER WHO WAS KINDA MEAN TO THE PROTAG AND BOY CRAZY???? BC KISHIMOTO CANT WRITE WOMEN?????!?!?!?! Everyone hates Sakura soooo much saying she's useless, doesnt add to the plot, is annoying, etc to the point where even ppl who have never watched naruto know about how hated she is. What was her crime except being a girl in a shounen series and being "underpowered" compared to the powerhouses that are her teammates? She literally still wipes the floor with 90% of the cast let's be real here, she literally got a hit in on a fucking alien goddess but GOD FORBID a woman be emotional bc now she's a horrible person who only knows how to whine and cry and stands by while the heroes fight (even though shes a healer and it makes no sense for her to be a frontline fighter when she's much better used as a support 😭). sakura hate is so goddamned prevalent and feels like the blueprint for a lot of hate OTHER female characters get in shounen series 😭😭😭

Literally theeeee strongest kunoichi to ever exist with no kekkei genkai, clan name, or Anything helping her get a foot in the door. She's civillian-born and still stands shoulder-to-shoulder with her peers who are reincarnated gods (or close to it), one of whom has a sacred bloodline and another who has a tailed beast and also clan blood… In the history of the series only one other person would be comparable in achievement and strength (Minato), and her prowess as a healer 100% eclipses him. She's kind and empathetic and strong and deserves so much more than the slander she got from the fans!!!!!

she suffers from being written by a man who hates women but instead of realising this fandom instead decides that she's evil for being 12 years old. many people forgive dogshit writing choices for their male favs as dogshit writing choices but for sakura no shes an evil bitch i guess

shes literally one of the main characters & thee main characters best friend & yet she's constantly less popular than other male characters or treated in a way thats so incredibly misogynistic. she broke open naruto's chest to manually beat his heart with her hand. she was a fully fledged doctor at like 14 years old. she has super strength. she has a homoerotic rivalry. its not her fault she got miserably heterosexually married to sasuke 'homosexual' uchiha we all need to unite against our common enemy (the author) here

One of the main trio of characters we start and then go through the story with, achieves incredible fits in her own field, yet all the fandom has to say about her is how "useless" she is. Because boys. (Also the fact that the anime apparently added plenty anti-Sakura scenes and people don't care for her actual manga characterization does not help.)

Despite not being as super-duper-special as Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura kept up with them with her own power-ups. She succeeds Tsunade. She becomes an incredible healer. She supports her friends through and through. She believes in best in people and she's loyal to a fault. She lands a punch on a god-like big bad in the final battle, despite many not being able to touch said being. She is, actually, a multi-faceted character, and sometimes being a supporting friend of a super-duper-special hero is not any less impressive and strength-demanding than being said hero. The story wouldn't be the same without her, and that's the point. She deserves SO much better from both the fandom and the anime adaptation.

She's always getting brutalized in fanfics for sasunaru, called stupid and useless etc

In a series that likes to present itself as being about the value of hard work and eschewing destiny she is the only one that’s actually self-made and accomplished. Sakura should’ve been Hokage

she's sidetracked or turned into a homophobe for the popular yaoi, treated as annoying and unredeemable for being literally 12, and straight up ignored by half the fandom while the other just goes "girlboss who has the braincell!!!!" and then does nothing else with her character

She was the strongest shinobi in all of the verse im not taking any objections she did ALL OF IT without ANY HELP FROM ANYONE also one of the most interesting arcs in the anime

I don't even watch the show and I still know that the writer never giving her anything to do and making her lose every fight was interpreted by the fandom as her being useless and widely hated, including seeing her as "getting in the way of" yaoi stuff. Again I don't even go here but she looks cool and sounds nice so I hope she's respected by people somewhere.

sakura has been the butt of "useless" jokes her entire entire life and everyone is so quick to push her aside and give her less prominence when she's genuinely a really interesting character with complex emotions and drivers and of course everyone calls her annoying (derogatory) too as if the other twelve year olds she was introduced with weren't also annoying but sasuke and naruto are considered annoying in a positive way if theyre considered annoying at all. she gets left out of merch all the time thats not the fandom thats like official. and she's a main character!

sakura is genuinely so interesting and has a character arc and has to struggle with not having innate birthright power and being compared to the boys on her team and when sasuke leaves (sorry for the spoiler?) her reaction to it is so interesting especially contrasted to everyone else's like the way she views sasuke's absence is so different and so human and so characteristic! a character doesn't have to be physically strong to be interesting but of course thats the metric shonen fans are going to use and even on that front sakura SHOULD be stronger than she is it is plain misogyny that she doesn't get as many interesting power developments or specific fights. and is shafted aside to be a healer as is the fate of all women in naruto. anyway. but the fights she gets are genuinely really good and dynamic and they all push sakura to be a more self actuated and confident person! i think only so much can be accredited to the authors misogyny because he does take care to give sakura complexity and depth and it's the fandom that loves to scrub it away and blame it on the someone else. also i just find it personally compelling that she sees the actions her loved ones take and even if she understands them objectively she still takes them personally. i think it is very difficult to undergo what team 7 has and not take things personally and it is easy for a fictional character to be purely selfless and noble but sakura is very much selfish and she knows it and it makes her feel ugly inside but haven't we all felt that way!? being ashamed of our own feelings and reactions???

Sakura Haruno is my "In the trenches" character here, and hiding behind the author's misogyny has become a MASSIVE issue over time in the naruto fandom. Initially fandom was perfectly comfortable calling her useless, saying she was the worst person ever, saying she was so stupid for continuing to chase after Sasuke (but also praising the male main character for doing the exact same thing ofc) etc but then it became a lot less socially acceptable on tumblr to say all that openly. So NOW you get people just hiding behind "kishimoto is a raging misogynist and can't write women" to say the exact same things they always were. And look, Kishimoto isn't a great writer and he absolutely has problems with how he writes female characters. But I've come to feel like that's something people are using to completely write the character off without examining her any deeper than that. (and you esp can't escape the shipping discourse with her, it is some of the most accepted "female character is bad because she's in the way of my mlm ship" misogyny I've ever seen in any fandom.)

The Sakura anon who was talking about people hiding behind the author of Naruto's misogyny made a really great point, I think. Yes, in some cases the source material itself is misogynistic towards a character, but that does not cancel out the misogyny from the fans. I've seen a few times people saying a character "doesn't count" because it's the *show* that was sexist, but I think show and fandom misogyny often go hand in hand. Yeah, Kishimoto didn't really care that much about Sakura, but he's not the one who wrote torture fics about her for the crime of "getting in the way" of two boys

Piggybacking off that last Sakura ask/propaganda by saying the fandom not only hides behind the authors misogyny but they also like to hide behind other liking other female characters, that the same sexist author wrote, when they were shown much less than Sakura. Of course Kishi didn't fuck them up or fuck them over. They had the luxury of not being the female MC. Worse yet, ppl also cherrypick when to blame kishi's writing and when not to while pretending to be objective when they do so. They exaggerate the shit out of her flaws & acting like she's this oppressive psycho with the whole cast as her perpetual victims. Any positive thing that is said or constructive criticism about Sakura that doesn’t involve holding her to a different standard than other characters is seen as "erasing" majority of her character. Her flaws define her 100%, but other characters, are allowed to have their redeeming moments/qualities exist alongside their flaws. Or just have them ignored entirely & it's accepted fandom wide. But not Sakura, never Sakura. In fact, when someone says “hey Sakura isn’t that bad” or “okay, maybe she is that bad, but she didn’t write herself. Other characters are terribly written as well” There is a visceral, “burn them at the stake” reaction from people. This fandom gets such a haughty attitude with ALL Sakura fans because they personally don't like the character, so no one should. For any reason. I always thought that Sakura antis got away with being unhinged, and hypocritical it pissed me off. I just had to leave the fandom for good. Sorry about this. I just wanted to rant/vent 😅

I finished naruto recently and tbh I didn't like sakura a lot, but it was because I felt the plot did her dirty, erased potential that she certainly had and displayed (ex sakura vs sasori) and took away a lot of her character traits and development just to make her obbssed with sasuke. I don't hate sakura, I'm js not a big fan of her, and if other people don't like her due to constructive and unbiased reasons, there's nothing wrong with that. HOWEVER. ever since I went into the naruto fandom, ive realized the hate for sakura is insane. Rather than actually critiquing sakura for real writing issues, some fans literally insult sakura for no good reason. I've seen fans hate on sakura a lot for saying the things to sasuke about orphans (I never really considered that a big deal and also I thought that scene was rlly funny lmao) and of course for getting in the way of sasunaru.. (ochaco🤝sakura). The worst thing I've seen tho has to be the people who insult sakura because shes "ugly" and fans who harrass sakura fans by calling them the r slur. This is actually disgusting and has nothing to do with writing any more. Smh

Joan Watson:

In Joan's case the fans that attacked her were mostly from another fandom, BBC Sherlock, who were mad that a woman was playing Watson. Sometimes they were racist also since she is Asian.

Joan is the best adaptation of Watson out there and a great take on the character. Never forget when Sherlock smashed a plate in anger and then Joan smashed a plate and was like Well look at that that didn't solve anything. Or when she outsmarted Moriarty.

the level of hatred and disdain people had for the character Joan Watson and the show elementary (which also spilled over to the real life actress Lucy Liu) even though they never watched the show was absolutely wild. And literally the only reason was because they turned John Watson from "white dude with just enough characterization to be gay shipped with Sherlock" into a self-confident, genuinely complex Asian woman. People back then ate up EVERY Sherlock adaptation or AU… but somehow the only adaptation that was considered to be universally hated trash was the one where your fav is adapted as a woman 🤨

I’m so glad I stayed off the internet enough back in the day that I haven’t personally seen any of the smear campaign against Joan Watson my beloved. It’s sad though that I immediately knew it was because of Johnlock and the fact that Lucy Liu is Asian. The bright side is that every single person who I know in real life and online who has watched this show knows that making John Watson into Joan Watson was genius. She’s hated by people that have never watched a single episode. What’s sad is when I think of a race or gender swap in modern media I think that nobody has done it better than Elementary.

Sakura Haruno:

NUMBER ONE MOST HATED FEMALE CHARACTER FRRRR AND FOR WHAT. FOR WHAT! FOR BEING A 12 YEAR OLD (WITH THE EMOTIONAL REGULATION & INTERPERSONAL SKILLS THAT ENTAILS) CHILD SOLDIER WHO WAS KINDA MEAN TO THE PROTAG AND BOY CRAZY???? BC KISHIMOTO CANT WRITE WOMEN?????!?!?!?! Everyone hates Sakura soooo much saying she's useless, doesnt add to the plot, is annoying, etc to the point where even ppl who have never watched naruto know about how hated she is. What was her crime except being a girl in a shounen series and being "underpowered" compared to the powerhouses that are her teammates? She literally still wipes the floor with 90% of the cast let's be real here, she literally got a hit in on a fucking alien goddess but GOD FORBID a woman be emotional bc now she's a horrible person who only knows how to whine and cry and stands by while the heroes fight (even though shes a healer and it makes no sense for her to be a frontline fighter when she's much better used as a support 😭). sakura hate is so goddamned prevalent and feels like the blueprint for a lot of hate OTHER female characters get in shounen series 😭😭😭

Literally theeeee strongest kunoichi to ever exist with no kekkei genkai, clan name, or Anything helping her get a foot in the door. She's civillian-born and still stands shoulder-to-shoulder with her peers who are reincarnated gods (or close to it), one of whom has a sacred bloodline and another who has a tailed beast and also clan blood… In the history of the series only one other person would be comparable in achievement and strength (Minato), and her prowess as a healer 100% eclipses him. She's kind and empathetic and strong and deserves so much more than the slander she got from the fans!!!!!

she suffers from being written by a man who hates women but instead of realising this fandom instead decides that she's evil for being 12 years old. many people forgive dogshit writing choices for their male favs as dogshit writing choices but for sakura no shes an evil bitch i guess

shes literally one of the main characters & thee main characters best friend & yet she's constantly less popular than other male characters or treated in a way thats so incredibly misogynistic. she broke open naruto's chest to manually beat his heart with her hand. she was a fully fledged doctor at like 14 years old. she has super strength. she has a homoerotic rivalry. its not her fault she got miserably heterosexually married to sasuke 'homosexual' uchiha we all need to unite against our common enemy (the author) here

One of the main trio of characters we start and then go through the story with, achieves incredible fits in her own field, yet all the fandom has to say about her is how "useless" she is. Because boys. (Also the fact that the anime apparently added plenty anti-Sakura scenes and people don't care for her actual manga characterization does not help.)

Despite not being as super-duper-special as Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura kept up with them with her own power-ups. She succeeds Tsunade. She becomes an incredible healer. She supports her friends through and through. She believes in best in people and she's loyal to a fault. She lands a punch on a god-like big bad in the final battle, despite many not being able to touch said being. She is, actually, a multi-faceted character, and sometimes being a supporting friend of a super-duper-special hero is not any less impressive and strength-demanding than being said hero. The story wouldn't be the same without her, and that's the point. She deserves SO much better from both the fandom and the anime adaptation.

She's always getting brutalized in fanfics for sasunaru, called stupid and useless etc

In a series that likes to present itself as being about the value of hard work and eschewing destiny she is the only one that’s actually self-made and accomplished. Sakura should’ve been Hokage

she's sidetracked or turned into a homophobe for the popular yaoi, treated as annoying and unredeemable for being literally 12, and straight up ignored by half the fandom while the other just goes "girlboss who has the braincell!!!!" and then does nothing else with her character

She was the strongest shinobi in all of the verse im not taking any objections she did ALL OF IT without ANY HELP FROM ANYONE also one of the most interesting arcs in the anime

I don't even watch the show and I still know that the writer never giving her anything to do and making her lose every fight was interpreted by the fandom as her being useless and widely hated, including seeing her as "getting in the way of" yaoi stuff. Again I don't even go here but she looks cool and sounds nice so I hope she's respected by people somewhere.

sakura has been the butt of "useless" jokes her entire entire life and everyone is so quick to push her aside and give her less prominence when she's genuinely a really interesting character with complex emotions and drivers and of course everyone calls her annoying (derogatory) too as if the other twelve year olds she was introduced with weren't also annoying but sasuke and naruto are considered annoying in a positive way if theyre considered annoying at all. she gets left out of merch all the time thats not the fandom thats like official. and she's a main character!

sakura is genuinely so interesting and has a character arc and has to struggle with not having innate birthright power and being compared to the boys on her team and when sasuke leaves (sorry for the spoiler?) her reaction to it is so interesting especially contrasted to everyone else's like the way she views sasuke's absence is so different and so human and so characteristic! a character doesn't have to be physically strong to be interesting but of course thats the metric shonen fans are going to use and even on that front sakura SHOULD be stronger than she is it is plain misogyny that she doesn't get as many interesting power developments or specific fights. and is shafted aside to be a healer as is the fate of all women in naruto. anyway. but the fights she gets are genuinely really good and dynamic and they all push sakura to be a more self actuated and confident person! i think only so much can be accredited to the authors misogyny because he does take care to give sakura complexity and depth and it's the fandom that loves to scrub it away and blame it on the someone else. also i just find it personally compelling that she sees the actions her loved ones take and even if she understands them objectively she still takes them personally. i think it is very difficult to undergo what team 7 has and not take things personally and it is easy for a fictional character to be purely selfless and noble but sakura is very much selfish and she knows it and it makes her feel ugly inside but haven't we all felt that way!? being ashamed of our own feelings and reactions???

Ruby Rose: