Postby GojiDog » Fri Jan 25, 2019 12:05 pm
Here's my take on the whole gender-flipping concept that has become an ongoing tend in recent years.
While misogyny could be a reason for some people rejecting it, I think it has more to do with fans of the established property not liking change. I like my characters the way I knew them and the way I experienced them, because that's how I knew them when I fell in love with them in the first place. Even cosmetic changes like Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century and the recent Thundercats Roar debacle were completely rejected by me because it isn't what I want these properties and characters to be represented as, and those aren't cases of gender or race flipping. They just radically changed something I was a fan of to the point that I rejected it. I don't want Sherlock Holmes to be a Sci-Fi story and I don't want the Thundercats to look like Adventure Time/Stephen Universe reject Goblins.
Fans just don't like change and changing a gender could essentially turn a character they love into something completely different from what it was when they fell in love with it, so yeah, they probably aren't going to like it.
And on the flip side, people advocating for more representation and such seem to want it just for the sake of having it, which can come across as shallow pandering. Instead of trying to transform something that already exists and risk the ire of the fanbase, why not just create your own thing? Heck, I'm always advocating for new monsters in the Godzilla franchise, and I'd be more than happy to have new female ones enter the fray. And in the past we've had Mothra, a female Rodan in the original film, Biollante, Megaguiras, the Queen MUTO, and I'd even make a case for Spacegodzilla possibly being female (assuming it evolved from Biollante), and I'd be completely fine with more being added.
But, to me, Godzilla is male. The movies call him male. The characters refer to him as a male. And he's called the King of the Monsters. It isn't necessarily a big deal as gender isn't that important to a giant destructive lizard, but I've been referring to Godzilla as a male my whole life, and I don't feel like changing it just to make some people feel more comfortable.
Last edited by
GojiDog on Fri Jan 25, 2019 12:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.