(made rebloggable on request)
Oh yeah definitely, I think especially her being the first female member of the Team introduced combined with her being a “girly-girl” who wears skirts and likes to cook set her up for a lot of ridiculous scrutiny that never really let up no matter how she developed throughout the series. And, not to drag another character into this, but I actually can use Dick as a point of reference for it not being so much the character traits that have bothered people but that they’re coming from M’gann. Throughout season 1 M’gann had her “Hello, Megan!” catchphrase and Dick had the Dicktionary (whelmed, aster, traught, etc.)—“Hello, Megan!” became that thing nothing could ever possibly be more annoying than (I’ve… literally seen that as an early pro-La’gaan statement, that La’gaan isn’t annoying because nothing could be me more annoying than “Hello, Megan!”), while the fandom embraced lines like “feelin’ the aster” and “get traught or get dead” as its own personal catchphrases (ironically, from a tv show). In season 2 M’gann was considered a slut for getting with La’gaan, I guess, that quickly after Conner breaking up with her? Meanwhile Dick’s love life is… Dick’s love life that I’m not even about to get into.
And of course, the clincher, M’gann’s season 2 methods vs. Dick’s plan (which has actually been said by Greg to have been Kaldur’s original idea, but they planned it together; still it was largely considered Dick’s plan while the season was airing). Both lost “family” over the timeskip (M’gann - Marie, Dick - Jason), both were doing what they were doing to protect, both were doing what they were doing to gain intel, and both were keeping what they were doing a secret from the rest of the Team, both ended up hurting people (though in different ways). Looking at the general fandom sentiments while season 2 was airing, Dick is a sympathetic, tragic character for giving into his dark side this season and “being the Batman” as he said he feared being in the season 1 therapy sessions; M’gann’s a bitch. Now, you could say it’s because Dick was showing more regret and internal conflict from the get-go while M’gann was pretty sure of herself up until the end of “Before the Dawn” (and I’m just counting her actions against enemies, she’s shown nothing but remorse for what she attempted to do to Conner), but once M’gann did show regret to the point where it crippled her in battle, she’s “too emo.” (I literally didn’t know people still used the word “emo” until the morning “Cornered” aired.)
(Honorable mention: fans were saying M’gann was dumb for not listening to her boyfriend when he told her what she was doing was wrong, but Wally comes in and tells Dick the plan is getting out of control and the fandom turns on Wally for what was definitely one of the most bizarre Saturday mornings I’ve had in this fandom.)
Now I’m not saying getting over these things = instant M’gann love just add water, but from what I’ve seen, yeah, I totally get the feeling that a lot of it stems from the fact that she’s a she.
Yes. All of this. If you hate M’gann for being feminine, or any of the reasons above, that is subconscious misogyny. No matter what she did she couldn’t please certain fans. They hated her for being a girl and they came up with bullshit excuses to defend their hatred for her because they didn’t want to admit even to themselves the real reason why they disliked her (just like fans found reasons to hate Artemis when really they only disliked her because she came between Dick and Wally.) There was no way she could win. These are also great points because I actually didn’t notice how much M’gann and Dick had in common and how M’gann was criticized for the same things we embraced about Dick. I hated how some fans vilified her over her relationship decisions, when Dick received little criticism. Talk about slut shaming. I could emphasize with M’gann and I don’t see way it was so hard for other to do the same.
I also noticed this with Teen Titans. There are fans who vehemently hate Starfire and love Raven because she is a darker character, just as some fans can’t stand M’gann but adore Artemis for being edgier. I was one of them when I was eight. I didn’t know any better because I’d been trained by society to look upon characters like Starfire with disgust. Revisiting the series there was absolutely nothing wrong with her, I love her, and there was nothing wrong with M’gann either, even though that wasn’t her real personality. She was struggling with her identity and self acceptance. My point it that kindness and femininity is not weakness and having a bubbly personality doesn’t make you any less intelligent.
And let’s face it. Both those alien chicks can kick some major ass.
Anyway Dick and Wally really beneifted from being popular from comics and other cartoons, being the most mainstream characters on the team. In the show itself they actually received the least story and development on the team. But to me honestly, YJ’s take on those two characters was sub-par.
So you think their characterization is sub par BECAUSE the writers didn’t beat you over the head with it?
Really to me what it comes down to is writing, I could really care less about the morality of the characters outside of how it relates to their stories and the overall plot. my favorite M’gann actually was the morally ambigous M’gann of the second season just because I thought M’gann’s season 2 character arc was better handled than her season one arc (which was boggled down too much by too much focus on her romance early on.)
So you don’t like characterization UNLESS you only get it in ONE WAY?
