🎵 I'm Going To Hit You With A

While a lot of the antiblack stereotypes thrown at Alya seem neutral on a surface level, they tend to interact with her gender quite a bit. Alya's variant of the "black best friend" tends to relate more to the "mammy" and the "sassy black friend" stereotypes, which specifically harm black girls and black women (this is specifically in the sense that a huge part of Alya's character is dedicated to providing emotional support to Marinette, assisting her with things she can't or doesn't want to do, and helping her grow as a person, all of these things forcing her into the gendered role of the black caretaker/maternal figure). In contrast, Nino's variant tends to fall more into the trope of the "funny/goofy black friend," which is predominantly used for male characters (the difference between this role and the previous one is that these friends are not expected to provide significant physical or emotional support; in contrast, these friends tend to cause a lot of problems for their white friend—see: Rocketear and illusion—playing into the racist notion of black boys and men being amusing but incompetent). Even with a stereotype that hurts black people of both genders, the specifics of said stereotype tend to rely on gender roles and biases.

As for Alya's demonization in fanon, this too takes on a gendered lens. Yes, the "violent black person" is stereotype that harms black people of all genders and ages; however, Alya's portrayal specifically fall into the Sapphire stereotype, defined by the Jim Crow Museum (https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/antiblack/sapphire.htm) as framing black girls and women as "rude, loud, malicious, stubborn, and overbearing." Said source also identities this stereotype as the Angry Black Woman trope, another one that should be understood as misogynoir, not just anti-blackness.

The last major thing I'd like to touch on is what was mentioned about who these critics are. I agree that Alya's critics are predominantly female whereas Marinette and Chloe's critics tend to be more varied in gender (I am not going to describe them as predominantly male, as I personally dony find it consistent to what I've seen and witnessed from their critical communities). That said, I don't fully understand how this explains the discrepancy in misogyny allegations. This may come from my bias as a woman, but I've seen and heard of more than my fair share of women who participate in and have internalized misogyny. Perhaps it's not the more obvious kind fans are used to calling out, but women can be just as prone to centering male characters, hypocritically bashing female characters, policing identities and the expression of "gendered" traits, and most crucially, deciding what "type" of woman actually counts/is acceptable in fandom spaces. The last point in this list is yet another issue that harms black women and girls, as they are most likely candidates for not being considered the "right kind" of female. These behaviors are not suddenly feminist when they are perpetrated by women—if it disproportionately harms women, it's misogyny.

Alya's treatment and the hatred she receives is misogynistic because it:

- Punishes her for failing to meet the expectations of a stereotype (the sassy/mammy-coded black best friend) that hurts black women and girls despite the reasons that she "fails" often being because she was placed into this stereotype in the first place.

- Expresses that punishment through mischaracterizing her as another stereotype that hurts black women and girls (the violent Sapphire/Angry Black Woman).

- Comes from people (women or otherwise) who have internalized misogyny problems and are most prone to targeting black women and girls.

I said this in a comment to someone else, but I'm not making this post to say that Chloe doesn't deserve sympathy, (or even Marinette for that matter) I just want more people to acknowledge that only these two characters really get "girl-based defenses" (aka that extreme hate for them is either misogynistic or failing to interact with the challenges of being a teenage girl).

My issue with only these two characters getting these defenses is just that: only these two characters getting these defenses. I respect people who make these points about Marinette and Chloe and don't salt Alya, but only not salting on her while not making the effort to address the double standards her criticism tends to entail is a problem.

Misogyny doesn't exclusively affect Marinette and Chloe, so frustration with the show's (and fellow fans') misogyny shouldn't be exclusively expressed in their favor. Despite this, only a select number of fans (such as the analyses made by the talented @flightfoot) actually address how the disproportionate hate Alya receives is rooted in misogyny.

If I'm dropping all pretenses of vagueness (which is admittedly necessary to prevent further miscommunications), Alya is specifically facing misogynoir. I am of the mind that the absurd volume of hate Alya receives is a product of sexism and racism/anti-blackness, and I am also of the mind that implicit racial biases are the primary reason why very few fans make posts appealing to Alya's girlhood as a defense, or even acknowledge her as a victim of misogyny when defending other characters (this matters because these aforementioned posts tend to give off the impression that the character being defended is the only victim of fandom misogyny in miraculous ladybug, thus making them the only "real girl").

It was a bright, slightly chilly fall morning in Day Creek Park. Only a few people were there at the moment, due to it only being six in the morning, but they all were enjoying a break from normal, everyday life and being in nature regardless.

None of these people knew what laid beneath the park, however. Deep underground, a laboratory stood, covered in dirt and grime, and disguised to look like a gigantic boulder to the untrained eye. There were no windows, and all of the exits eventually led to places far away from Day Creek Park. Wouldn’t want any civilians to find out about the lab, or what it was doing, after all.

Inside, the lab was completely opposite to its dirty, rock-like exterior. The walls, floors, and ceilings were stark white and well polished, the various technologies were both up to date and regularly maintained, and everything was well organized and put away.

It was also completely quiet and still, the whole establishment internally shrouded in darkness.

And yet, the Asian American teenage girl in Room 59, sitting on her dilapidated bed and frantically crossing wires on a small, rectangular machine, as the gray and white fox ears on the sides of her head drooped, and her gray fox tail laid on her bed, knew she had to hurry.

“Come on, come on!” She whisper yelled at and shook the machine as small sparks came out of it, and its screen she could barely see continued to show gibberish nonsense, instead of anything comprehensible. “Work, you damn thing, work! Ugh, all of those scientists make it look so easy to use these things! Why is it so hard to rewire one!?”

The girl took a deep breath, which inadvertently ended in a groan she desperately tried and failed to keep quiet. Her eyes widened, and she intently listened for any noises or signs that anyone else had heard her. After about a minute, however, she finally began to breathe again, only letting out a small sigh as she fell onto her bed, and almost slamming the device next to where she laid.

She looked at the alarm clock on the small dresser next to her, her eyes widening and ears and tail shooting up after she saw the time.

6:58 AM.

Two minutes before the laboratory’s lights came back on.

Two minutes before Dr. Kronos came back.

Two minutes before him and the other scientists’ experimentation on everyone trapped here, including her, resumed.

“..Shit.”

The girl immediately bolted upright upon her bed, her tail curled around her, and her ears flattened against her head. She grabbed the small machine and desperately began to cross its wires again, with her blurry, poor vision making her unable to even clearly see them, but the only thing she achieved was giving herself a small shock from one of them, causing her to drop the machine again. It then promptly fell apart once it hit the bed.

“Shit!” She yelled, her attempt to be quiet all but forgotten. She grabbed the pieces of the device and slid off the bed to get to her dresser, falling to her knees as she frantically looked through its first drawer.

The girl then suddenly heard a soft click. The glow of the bright lights from outside the room creeped into it from underneath the door.

She also heard the soft click-clack of boots calmly moving across the floor soon after, causing her to freeze and look at the alarm clock again.

7:00 AM.

Dr. Kronos, as usual, was right on time.

And his footsteps were getting louder and louder.

“Ugh, snap out of it!” The girl screamed at herself, shaking herself out of her trance, and continuing to rummage through the drawer. “Who cares if he’s here now!? Maybe if I hurry, I can fix this hunk of junk, and get out of here-”

The door opened.

The girl once again froze in place.

“Subject 59,” Dr. Kronos said as he walked into the room, his words and steps measured and slow. “May I see what you’re holding? Or will I have to take it away from you again?”

The girl whipped her head around as Dr. Kronos walked over to her, hugging the pieces of the device close to her chest as the rest of her body turned to face him.

“...You’re gonna have to pry all of these from my cold, dead hands,” She growled, looking up at his blurry face and shooting him a glare, her ears and tail erect and bristled.

“...”

Dr. Kronos looked down at the pieces, then at the girl, his eyes cold as ice.

“Did you destroy another one of our badge scanners, Subject 59?” He said, crossing his arms. “Are you planning on rewiring it, so it can help you escape?”

The sound of more scientists entering the facility could now be heard, as well as other experiments waking up. Some of them began screaming and yelling at the scientists to stay away, while many others started sobbing and begging for them to leave them alone, that they didn’t want to be tested on today.

“...Yeah. I was, and I will!” The girl finally said, standing up as she continued to glare at Dr. Kronos. “Sure, it did fall apart, but I will fix it! I have to! I need to see the sun and Scaredy again!”

“And how will you fix something you clearly broke beyond repair, I wonder?” Dr. Kronos countered, gesturing to the pieces with his hand. “As far as we know, you have no experience in fixing or even making technology, there is no one around you that wants to teach you how to do so, and we have no reason to teach you ourselves, or to hire a teacher for you.”

“So what?” The girl said. “I’ll find a way to do it, anyway! I’ve been overhearing you and the other scientists asking each other and talking about how your technology works, and that’s enough for me! But you don’t wanna hear that, now do you? You think I’m just a helpless little girl, who you can push around and do whatever you want with-”

The girl was then interrupted by Dr. Kronos snapping his fingers while muttering a word under his breath, a silver handcuff appearing on one of the girl’s wrists a second after he did so, as well as loud footsteps getting closer and closer from outside the room.

The girl tried to yell at him, like she had done many times before, but she soon found that her mouth wouldn’t open. She settled for glaring at him instead, and a few seconds later, a black scaled, broad shouldered were crocodile, who wore a bodyguard uniform and had absent yellow eyes, a silver collar around his neck, and was at a height that towered over both the girl and Dr. Kronos ducked his head as he walked into the tiny room.

“W16, take Subject 59 to Room 5,” Dr. Kronos said simply. “Do what I’ve always ordered you to do; I don’t need to repeat myself, do I?” The bodyguard’s collar glowed white, and he immediately grabbed the girl by the wrist, then followed behind Dr. Kronos while dragging her on the floor.. While she was being dragged out, however, the girl screamed, grabbing his large clawed hand and desperately trying to make him let go of her.

Other scientists, experiments, and were creature bodyguards walked around them once the three of them left the room, with most of the scientists and bodyguards not even looking at them except to nod at Dr. Kronos and his bodyguard, and the other experiments were almost all looking at the ground with sad, weary eyes.

Three of the scientists also subtly nodded to each other and behind Dr. Kronos as they crossed paths, however, and as they went their separate ways without any bodyguards or experiments following them, they all went inside a big, empty room, and started pulling out their phones.

Meanwhile, the girl was still trying to yank herself free.

“Let me go, let me go!” She yelled. She then bit and scratched the bodyguard with all her might, which made him cringe in pain. He still kept a firm grip on the girl's wrist, and kept moving.

“I said, let me go!” The girl screamed, and then kicked the bodyguard’s leg with all her might, causing him to finally let her go and stumble away from her.

Dr. Kronos merely rolled his eyes. He snapped his fingers and whispered something under his breath, and the girl’s handcuff glowed before she immediately fell to the floor, unable to move anything except her eyes and mouth.

Suddenly, the girl heard growling nearby, but the sound was quickly cut off as soon as it started.

“Why do you keep trying, Subject 59?” He asked coldly as he walked over to and stood over her. “All of your previous escape attempts and ways of fighting back have failed. You will never see Subject 67 again, nor will you ever see the light of day entirely of your own volition. You are almost an adult. The other adult experiments here have given up, so why don’t you be mature for once in your life, and do the same?”

The girl clenched her jaw.

“And why should I listen to you, you bastard-”

“It’s Dr. Kronos-”

“I don't CARE!” The girl interrupted, glaring at Dr. Kronos. “You don’t call me Val, my actual name, so why should I call you by yours!?”

“It’s because I deserve respect,” Dr. Kronos replied, glaring back at Val, “And you do not.” “And who decided that!? You!?” Val snarled. “Look, I don’t care if I’m “mature” or not! I’m still going to get out of this hellhole, and I'm still gonna find Scaredy, no matter if you and every other bastard here will like it or not-”

“Enough,” Dr. Kronos said while doing a zipping motion over his mouth. And suddenly, Val couldn’t open hers again, though she continued to glare at Dr. Kronos.

Dr. Kronos then sharply turned to look at the bodyguard, who, despite being way taller than him, shrunk a bit at his glare, his gray eyes wide and clawed hands and arms moving closer to his chest.

“May I ask why you're hesitating, W16?” Dr. Kronos said. “Grab her. Now.”

As the bodyguard’s eyes turned back to yellow and he reluctantly went around Dr. Kronos to Val, picked her up, and started following the scientist once more, Val wondered if fighting back would ever be worth it at all…

Her mind then returned to Scaredy(who was technically Subject 67, but Val had nicknamed her, “Scaredy Snake”), a sentient snake, fellow experiment, and, from her thirteenth birthday to her fifteenth one, her only friend. She remembered how they used to share a room together, after she had been alone in said room for so long, as punishment from the scientists for fighting them so much. She remembered how Scaredy had never really said much and was scared of everything, and how she had been the only one that she had really opened up to.

And she remembered how everything had changed on that fateful night.

How a tall, gray werefox had gotten into Val and Scaredy’s room, and tried to take both of them away to who knows where.

Val had tried to fight her off, but in the end, she was only able to save herself. She had watched as the werefox and a brown haired boy wearing a light green and purple jacket had gone off with a terrified Scaredy, with Val kicking and screaming for them to bring her back while trapped in the bodyguard’s arms, alarms blaring as the werefox, the boy, and Scaredy eventually ran out of her sight.

Just thinking about all of that renewed some of Val’s vigor. She needed to get out of this laboratory; if not for her sake, then definitely for Scaredy’s. She didn’t know where she was, but she didn’t care. Wherever she was, poor Scaredy was probably terrified out of her mind right now, and she needed someone to get her out of the horrible situation she was almost definitely now in.

And if the werefox and the boy were still with her? Val would kick both of their teeth in. The only problem was…the scientists controlled practically everything in the lab.

Val had tried to escape using her powers once, but there was a reason it was only once; it was basically an unspoken rule to put handcuffs on “troubled experiments” in order to keep them from using their powers and under control, and Val was no different.

Attempting to run out of one of the exit doors revealed that said door was locked and, when Val tried to use a stolen scientist’s keycard on it a few days later, she didn’t know that said door had an invisible body scanner as well.

Then, once she was out of all other options and decided to act as annoying and unruly as possible towards the staff, so they would have no choice but to deem her a “failure” and toss her out of the lab, Val discovered that misbehaving didn’t cause one to be tossed out. It just led to them having to endure even more abuse.

Val suddenly shivered and rubbed her back when she thought about the last one.

At this point, was it really worth it to keep fighting back, when things kept getting worse because of it, and there seemed to be no hope in actually escaping?

Yes, Val would probably never see Scaredy ever again if she did stop, but, it wasn’t like there was a high chance of that happening if she didn’t.

She was now in Room 5, with the scientist standing near an operating table, and the bodyguard dragging her towards it.

“It is time for your final experiment, Subject 59,” Dr. Kronos said, silently gesturing to the bodyguard to stop moving, and then to start strapping Val to the operating table. “After this, we will use you how we see fit, and you will obey.”

Val snorted at this.

“I don’t see how, seeing as you’ve never told me what you’re planning on doing with me, anyway,” She said, her whole body shaking a bit despite herself, as the bodyguard made her lie down on the operating table.

“We do not need to tell you what our plans are for you,” Dr. Kronos said. “This final experiment will consist of having a microchip installed into your brain, making you only be able to truly listen to what we tell you, and carry out what we want you to do.”

Wait.

What!?

Val swore she heard growling again, a bit louder this time, but only for a half second. Narrowing her eyes at it, she continued to look directly at Dr. Kronos and scowled.

“So what, you're planning on making me your docile little puppet!?” Val spat out, her ears shooting and tail puffing up as the bodyguard paused for a moment with wide eyes to listen to Val’s and Dr. Kronos’ conversation. “You can't do that! I have free agency, and can do whatever I damn well please! I’ll just destroy your mind control bullshit with my iron will!”

“The microchip will make us be able to override your free will and agency,” Dr. Kronos said matter of factly, while going to a cupboard on the other side of the room in order to get some tools. “Once it’s activated, all that you know about and classify as yourself will be locked away inside your brain, and you won’t be able to remember anything. The only thing that you’ll be able to cling to will be our words, and our orders.”

“WHAT!?” Val screamed, her eyes wide. She tried desperately to wriggle out of the bodyguard’s grasp as he cuffed her to the table, but to no avail. “This is bullshit! I didn’t agree to any of this! Let me go right now! Let me go, let me go, LET ME GO!”

“There is no one who will “save you” from this, Subject 59,” Dr. Kronos said, closing the cupboard after he got the tools, with one of them being a small microchip, and beginning to calmly walk over to Val with all of them, after he also put some gloves on. “Just as much as there has been no one who would save you, ever since your parents handed you over to us. Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for this day? How long have I withstood your petty tantrums, and had to tirelessly deal with your childish rebellion?”

Val continued to scream and shake as the bodyguard hesitantly backed away and slipped on a small, barely noticeable sheet of ice. Dr. Kronos rolled his eyes, thinking he just slipped on nothing. Then he put most of his tools, besides a syringe and the microchip, which he then pocketed, on another, smaller table, which was a few inches away from the operating one. He then filled the syringe up with some kind of liquid, and soon, he was looming over Val’s now frozen form, her head turned up and eyes locked onto his, as a final show of defiance.

Dr. Kronos smirked.

“Goodbye, Valerie,” He said. “No one, not even Subject 59, will miss you-”

More growling; this time, it was so loud that Dr. Kronos could now hear it, and he immediately spun around.

“Would you BE QUIET-” Dr. Kronos then instantly paused himself when the bodyguard, now suddenly to the right of him, lunged at his throat.

“Cease this violence at once, W16!” He exclaimed, struggling to say it calmly as he stumbled away, barely able to avoid the attack. “You will be killed for this if you don’t stop. Is that what you want?”

The bodyguard said nothing. It just let out a terrifying roar and lunged at Dr. Kronos again.

Meanwhile, Val squinted as she tried to watch all of this happen, but she, as usual, could only see blurry figures in a dim room, with all of the movement quickly making her get a headache. She cursed at her poor vision under her breath, but then suddenly felt someone once again standing over and uncuffing her from the operating table. Val’s eyes darted in that direction…but no one was there.

“WHA-”

An invisible hand quickly covered Val’s mouth. The last cuff finally came off, and then-

“If I were you, I would step away from the experiment right now,” Dr. Kronos said coldly, the bodyguard having suddenly disappeared. He glared at the invisible person as he slowly started to pull his phone from his pocket. “LEAVE, or be torn to shreds by-”

“FROST!”Dr. Kronos’ phone flew out of his hand as it was hit by ice, and Dr. Kronos scrambled to grab it before it fell to the floor.