I guess what a lot of it boils down to for me, is that absolute feeling of frustration I get when my logic is overidden as a person simply because I do like slash couples (it doesn't matter that I like het and femslash, obviously) or there are rare instances when I do strongly dislike a female character.
I don't know how common or widespread this is in regards to other fans, so I can't make any blanket statements. But I do remember feeling very hurt and angry because I was accused of hating a female character--one of my absolute favorite characters in the entire series; I absolutely ADORE her!--simply because I think a romantic relationship between her and the main character would be unhealthy and lead to much heartache on her part. And that stemmed from the fact that I'm a 'slash' fan, so I 'hate' female characters.
I think that attitude is absolutely poisonous. It reduces anything I might have to say as to how a female character is written and how I react to them as 'you're a misogynistic slash fan, so of course you wouldn't understand'. It reduces my love for my OTPs to something shallow and meaningless, because of course I couldn't have ended up falling in love with them because I watched/played/read the series and was entraced by the way these two men interacted--just as I become entranced with the way my het OTPs interact, or my yuri OTPs interact--it's because 'you're a slash fan, so you'll hook any two hot guys up'.
I run into that train of thought every time I open my mouth on the subject on nearly every fandom board I post on. Many time I'm expected to sit there, silently fuming, when the subject if broached while BL fans are mocked for being "ugly" or "annoying" or "stupid"--because it's okay to 'bash' other people if they have a fandom image of bashing other characters.
That is where I most often see misogny in fandom come into play--when guys (and girls), who two minutes ago were drooling over couples they like--feel perfectly justified dismissing the looks, emotions, and intelligence of an entire segment--an overwhelmingly FEMALE segment--of the fandom simply because 'they're annoying'.
As far as characters I dislike go, I don't like feeling guilty for disliking a female character, even when I think my reasoning is sound. I've never felt bad for dimissing Chiaki (my least favorite anime/manga guy EVER, I could rant forever and ever about how much of an asshole he is) as "I hate him because he annoys me", whereas when I feel the same sort of "get off my SCREEN already!" sensation towards Tamao, I feel like I have to write a term paper on what bothers me about her just so that it's justified enough so I'm not a "misogynistic fangirl".
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I don't know how common or widespread this is in regards to other fans, so I can't make any blanket statements. But I do remember feeling very hurt and angry because I was accused of hating a female character--one of my absolute favorite characters in the entire series; I absolutely ADORE her!--simply because I think a romantic relationship between her and the main character would be unhealthy and lead to much heartache on her part. And that stemmed from the fact that I'm a 'slash' fan, so I 'hate' female characters.
I think that attitude is absolutely poisonous. It reduces anything I might have to say as to how a female character is written and how I react to them as 'you're a misogynistic slash fan, so of course you wouldn't understand'. It reduces my love for my OTPs to something shallow and meaningless, because of course I couldn't have ended up falling in love with them because I watched/played/read the series and was entraced by the way these two men interacted--just as I become entranced with the way my het OTPs interact, or my yuri OTPs interact--it's because 'you're a slash fan, so you'll hook any two hot guys up'.
I run into that train of thought every time I open my mouth on the subject on nearly every fandom board I post on. Many time I'm expected to sit there, silently fuming, when the subject if broached while BL fans are mocked for being "ugly" or "annoying" or "stupid"--because it's okay to 'bash' other people if they have a fandom image of bashing other characters.
That is where I most often see misogny in fandom come into play--when guys (and girls), who two minutes ago were drooling over couples they like--feel perfectly justified dismissing the looks, emotions, and intelligence of an entire segment--an overwhelmingly FEMALE segment--of the fandom simply because 'they're annoying'.
As far as characters I dislike go, I don't like feeling guilty for disliking a female character, even when I think my reasoning is sound. I've never felt bad for dimissing Chiaki (my least favorite anime/manga guy EVER, I could rant forever and ever about how much of an asshole he is) as "I hate him because he annoys me", whereas when I feel the same sort of "get off my SCREEN already!" sensation towards Tamao, I feel like I have to write a term paper on what bothers me about her just so that it's justified enough so I'm not a "misogynistic fangirl".
It gets very frustrating sometimes.