Mimi

It's no lie to say that mischaracterisation is very, very prevalent in the blue lock fandom and therefore in its shipping space - which is usual for a fandom and isn't even necessarily a bad thing. That being said, the way most nagireo shippers characterise Reo just kinda irks me.

Something I've talked about a few times in my previous posts is how the fandom often makes Reo seem more feminine than he actually is. What I mean by this is that they try to fit him into this sort of 'angsty teenage girl' archetype despite him not really acting like that at all, and this is partially because the majority of the nagireo fanbase consists of teenage girls (myself included).

But what I'd like to point to out is that the main reason people try to feminise Reo is because of how expressive he is.

We all know that Reo was going through it during the second selection, and because of that, there are a ton of scenes of him breaking down or being all up in his emotions. Because of this, the fandom tends to view Reo as emotional, and that's where this characterisation comes from. He's only seen as feminine because he's seen as emotional, and that's exactly what I hate.

It's such a stereotypical and heteronormative way to view his character it's actually frustrating. Especially because of how deeply it's rooted in misogyny and patriarchal standards. The whole idea that being expressive or emotional is 'feminine' in some way is one that has been notoriously used to oppress women, and that's what my issue with it is.

The thought that Reo is inherently feminine or girl-like in some way JUST because he's emotional sometimes directly helps in promoting misogynistic and heteronormative ideologies.