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Nov. 29th, 2009 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kolI don't fundamentally understand why people ship Rangiku and Gin. I understand why people ship the "good" girl with the "bad" boy-- there's that hope that this insert that save that boy, can tame that wildness out, make him a proper boy. Kind of a dark Peter Pan/Wendy shipping-- I have my own Bleach OTP that falls into this category (Ulquiorra/Orihime), so I understand the attraction there.
But taking a look at the canon shows firmly that Rangiku has not changed Gin, has not pushed him out of his destructive ways; there is tragedy there, which I see and understand why people feel drawn to writing the two, especially with how Rangiku stood up to Gin before he left. And I have read and enjoyed several of these fics, because they respect both characters and try and make sense of the awfulness.
But I don't understand how people can ship these two as their OTP and think Kubo is actually going to have the two have a happily ever after. That even after Gin slices a character in half, he's going to be redeemed by Rangiku's magical hooha and they can go on to have pretty pretty babies. That Gin isn't really evil, he's just the Edward of Bleach, crinkly eyed instead of sparkling it up everywhere. But at least you can see where these people are going, making Gin change so the pairing at least makes sense.
The ones that really get my forehead wrinkling are those who ship Rangiku with just!as!he!is!portrayed!sociopathic!Gin, who write fic after fic of Rangiku being dominated by Gin, hurt by Gin, and always coming back for more. As if she wasn't a strong woman who has stood up to this potential abuser (we have no sign in canon that Gin has ever actually abused Rangiku, save for him always leaving her when they were children), who held that sword against his and did not back down. Rangiku is just a vessel in many of these fics, existing just to take the punishment.
Because what gets my forehead wrinkling is these people actually think this is canon, that this delightfully colorful woman with a gigantic heart and the gumption to take on three enemies at once would willingly be a doormat for this sociopath. And it really bothers me, not just because I over identify with Rangiku, but because this happens to strong women in fandom all the time and I'm sick and tired of it.
The moment a woman shows any agency, fandom comes along and robs her of it. And then you have shows like Supernatural that seem to love nothing more than to deny women agency, and it just leaves me furious and wanting to smack something, because women are not empty vessels for people to pour abuse in. Women are not sacrificial lambs you get rid of to make your life easer by appeasing some otherly power. And sure, you can hit the back button when you come across yet another Rangiku as a victim fic, but there comes a point when you just can't take it anymore and have to vent on dreamwidth where no one will see it anyway.
But taking a look at the canon shows firmly that Rangiku has not changed Gin, has not pushed him out of his destructive ways; there is tragedy there, which I see and understand why people feel drawn to writing the two, especially with how Rangiku stood up to Gin before he left. And I have read and enjoyed several of these fics, because they respect both characters and try and make sense of the awfulness.
But I don't understand how people can ship these two as their OTP and think Kubo is actually going to have the two have a happily ever after. That even after Gin slices a character in half, he's going to be redeemed by Rangiku's magical hooha and they can go on to have pretty pretty babies. That Gin isn't really evil, he's just the Edward of Bleach, crinkly eyed instead of sparkling it up everywhere. But at least you can see where these people are going, making Gin change so the pairing at least makes sense.
The ones that really get my forehead wrinkling are those who ship Rangiku with just!as!he!is!portrayed!sociopathic!Gin, who write fic after fic of Rangiku being dominated by Gin, hurt by Gin, and always coming back for more. As if she wasn't a strong woman who has stood up to this potential abuser (we have no sign in canon that Gin has ever actually abused Rangiku, save for him always leaving her when they were children), who held that sword against his and did not back down. Rangiku is just a vessel in many of these fics, existing just to take the punishment.
Because what gets my forehead wrinkling is these people actually think this is canon, that this delightfully colorful woman with a gigantic heart and the gumption to take on three enemies at once would willingly be a doormat for this sociopath. And it really bothers me, not just because I over identify with Rangiku, but because this happens to strong women in fandom all the time and I'm sick and tired of it.
The moment a woman shows any agency, fandom comes along and robs her of it. And then you have shows like Supernatural that seem to love nothing more than to deny women agency, and it just leaves me furious and wanting to smack something, because women are not empty vessels for people to pour abuse in. Women are not sacrificial lambs you get rid of to make your life easer by appeasing some otherly power. And sure, you can hit the back button when you come across yet another Rangiku as a victim fic, but there comes a point when you just can't take it anymore and have to vent on dreamwidth where no one will see it anyway.
