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Post by mistytail on Oct 8, 2012 19:55:07 GMT -6
This wouldn't be so incredibly unrealistic/problematic/unacceptable if the cats in Warriors behaved more like actual cats. Don't get me wrong - even then, there would be serious issues with this. It's just that the Warriors fandom (particularly the younger members of said fandom) have this game of pick-and-choose the levels of anthropomorphism with no consistency. They say their cats fall in love, do romantic stuff, whatever - and then make toms aggressive and violent, and she-cats apparently masochistic in some way. It's essentially the adage of "you can't make your cake and eat it too". If you want one, you have to write the entire world and context to support it. There should be no sudden switching between two binary opposites like this. Exactly. If Warriors were significantly less anthropomorphized, I would be much less likely to call people out on this, or on several other canon and fandom issues. The problem is with the inconsistent anthropomorphizing and rules and regulations of Clan culture. Because the cats are treated really as small, furry humans (and even that's a stretch because they're flatter than a cardboard box), the issues regarding sex and gender are really important because kids are digesting this. But, if they acted like normal cats (I will point to Tailchaser's Song for being really good at this, and also just better reading in general), it wouldn't be so bad.
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Post by celestialsquared on Oct 9, 2012 14:31:45 GMT -6
This wouldn't be so incredibly unrealistic/problematic/unacceptable if the cats in Warriors behaved more like actual cats. Don't get me wrong - even then, there would be serious issues with this. It's just that the Warriors fandom (particularly the younger members of said fandom) have this game of pick-and-choose the levels of anthropomorphism with no consistency. They say their cats fall in love, do romantic stuff, whatever - and then make toms aggressive and violent, and she-cats apparently masochistic in some way. It's essentially the adage of "you can't make your cake and eat it too". If you want one, you have to write the entire world and context to support it. There should be no sudden switching between two binary opposites like this. Exactly. If Warriors were significantly less anthropomorphized, I would be much less likely to call people out on this, or on several other canon and fandom issues. The problem is with the inconsistent anthropomorphizing and rules and regulations of Clan culture. Because the cats are treated really as small, furry humans (and even that's a stretch because they're flatter than a cardboard box), the issues regarding sex and gender are really important because kids are digesting this. But, if they acted like normal cats (I will point to Tailchaser's Song for being really good at this, and also just better reading in general), it wouldn't be so bad. All good and valid points. I suppose this range of anthropomorphism in the fandom not only affects the behavior of the characters, but how the reader/writer imagines what the cat to be in general. As a result, one fanfiction can be vastly different than the other. I find the abusive relationship fics to be popular among all fandoms across the board, so I'm not surprised to find this in the Warriors fandom as well. In fact, I expected it more because some might take the realistic cat approach and make mating more about lust than love. Not too sure if that's worrisome since this is a fandom aimed for young people, but that seems to be what most of them are into nowadays.
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drheiter
Apprentice
I'll explain this spectacular operation only once%\7\%
Posts: 50
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Post by drheiter on Oct 10, 2012 15:10:19 GMT -6
Pretty much just wanted to say here that I really agree and I think this is incredibly well-said.
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