Internalized Misogyny in Fandom

This isn't something new, unfortunately. Sexism is everywhere, fandom included. But there's been a huge massive amounts of it presented recently to an alarming amount that I literally had to stop and walk away from the computer. I was that livid. What shocked me were how it wasn't the fandoms that constantly express blatant sexist and problematic issues such as in Glee and Supernatural, but from positive, empowering pro-woman ones like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars. The amount of hate spewed towards the woman characters of these shows, particularly towards Buffy and Veronica, and more specifically stemming from their relationships with the men in their lives and how they so-called treated those men (a.k.a. these people end up placing the male characters on a pedestal while blaming and shaming the women), and calling them derogatory names thinking it justifies anything is just outright vile and disgusting.

For example: someone commented on how Buffy was a "whore" because of the way she treated Spike and how she still holds feelings for Angel, another person said that Veronica was a "bitch" because she didn't forgive Logan for the Madison thing, even went on saying that she should have just "gotten over it" because she "suffered way worse" and she should have thought about his feelings instead of being selfish and only thinking about herself. Even in the Gossip Girl fandom, people end up shaming Blair Waldorf calling her a "bitch" and a "slut" because she doesn't stay with Chuck, while at the same time excusing and justifying all the mistakes and horrible things Chuck has done himself. These people feel the need to hate and shame women every chance they get, making cowardice comments about how they are "bitches" and "sluts" and actually think it's okay, while defending the male characters because apparently they can do no wrong.

And all these things are just the tip of the iceberg of the kind of sexist bullshit that happens in fandom, and real life, on a daily basis.

I was bombarded with a shitload of it just the other day, and while I do my best to defend and make my points whenever I see something that offensive pop up it was completely unbearable this time and I couldn't stomach it anymore. It's disgusting, repulsive and it needs to be called out on whenever it occurs. I just couldn't believe someone would have the audacity to post something that horrible about strong female characters who, while flawed, are just human and you can understand where they are coming from. It's just unbelievable.