Eh, I'm not convinced that the issue here is some fundamental failure to respect masculinity. Characters being OTT emotional is a really common failure state of inexperienced writers in general. It takes practice to develop an emotional range from the subtle to the overt. Early on if you just have your characters stomping around and hollering and crying and flipping shit about whatever, no hidden motives, no withholding - it's easier to feel like "yeah! I'm really doing something here!" You remember works of fiction that Gave You Feelings and you want to mash all the same buttons, without the craft knowledge to appreciate all the groundwork that was laid to get to this point. So you just kinda... gun it? I see this lack of subtlety/sanding-off of rough edges from people whose woobies-of-choice are female or NB, too.
And fanfiction being an amateur space, there are plenty of people at this skill level and plenty of other people who are content to read stuff at this skill level. And hey! It doesn't work for me, but I respect the earnestness, and the community aspects of it. As such I don't think anyone has an obligation to learn how to dial it back... Because if you're someone who defaults to playing everything really loud, that can take ages and a lot of concentrated thought, and for any given hobbyist, maybe that's not the fun part.
...And even among people who do have better writing chops, in fandom some people make a conscious stylistic choice to just slam the catharsis button whenever and wherever possible. Because that's The Shit They're Here For, and they're riffing off the established canon characterization to give it a little more punch. Maybe these are people who'd do the buildup themselves and set a more reserved baseline for the characters if they did original fiction, but! Oh, look, someone's already done the time-consuming part! Meaning it's time to just jump in there and start hurting people's feelings! Assume the issues of ego and pride and repression have already been overcome and let's cut right to the marrow!
I dunno - I'm coming at this as someone who makes a conscious effort to play stuff quiet, and write prickly jerks with weird hangups. But I do it that way because it's a fun puzzle for me and almost all my favorites are jackasses. I think it's a matter of experience and personal preference, not that people who write softer are necessarily lacking in understanding.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-16 04:10 pm (UTC)And fanfiction being an amateur space, there are plenty of people at this skill level and plenty of other people who are content to read stuff at this skill level. And hey! It doesn't work for me, but I respect the earnestness, and the community aspects of it. As such I don't think anyone has an obligation to learn how to dial it back... Because if you're someone who defaults to playing everything really loud, that can take ages and a lot of concentrated thought, and for any given hobbyist, maybe that's not the fun part.
...And even among people who do have better writing chops, in fandom some people make a conscious stylistic choice to just slam the catharsis button whenever and wherever possible. Because that's The Shit They're Here For, and they're riffing off the established canon characterization to give it a little more punch. Maybe these are people who'd do the buildup themselves and set a more reserved baseline for the characters if they did original fiction, but! Oh, look, someone's already done the time-consuming part! Meaning it's time to just jump in there and start hurting people's feelings! Assume the issues of ego and pride and repression have already been overcome and let's cut right to the marrow!
I dunno - I'm coming at this as someone who makes a conscious effort to play stuff quiet, and write prickly jerks with weird hangups. But I do it that way because it's a fun puzzle for me and almost all my favorites are jackasses. I think it's a matter of experience and personal preference, not that people who write softer are necessarily lacking in understanding.