#misogyny in warriors

[hopalongfairywren]

worst blorboficiation in Warrior Cats

Historically? Ashfur. Without a doubt. The takes I saw like a decade ago were... something. No he's not a sad uwu damaged emotional e-boy. No, he wouldn't be a better alternative to Bramblestar, and him being abusive doesn't validate that, what the fuck. (Some takes I saw under that moonkitti video) Although the fandom's gotten better, I feel like there's still an air of 'oh ashfur's a sad lonely man who got his feelings hurt and lost control' instead of the fact that Ashfur has always been characterized as controlling, and his actions aren't the result of him 'losing control' and breaking down, it's more the fact that he felt entitled to Squirrelflight. He sees her as an object. He wasn't sad that his gf left him and he was alone he was angry his "belonging" was stolen. He also really didn't give a shit about Ferncloud either, seeing how easily he was willing to use her only surviving kid at the time as a pawn in his potentially dangerous revenge scheme. TLDR: Ashfur.

#thanks for the ask! #the wren calls #warrior cats #warriors #ashfur #warrior cats fandom ask game #misogyny in fandom #misogyny in warriors #c!primeboyscore #<- for metaru

[mommyclaws]

Is everyone willingly ignoring it or when are we going to realize this petty label discourse has always been rooted in misogyny. This started long before Bi Lesbians. Some of you are just too new or simply never paid enough attention to realize the history of this hatred of lesbians. Do any of you remember?

First it was "Butches aren't valid" because they were invading wlw spaces with their "masculinity"

Then it was moved onto: "Trans women aren't valid" because actually they were the ones invading wlw spaces with their "masculinity" The exact same arguement being used against cis women as well.

Then "Pan/Bi women aren't valid" because your attraction to men or anyone other than a woman doesn't belong in wlw spaces.

Then it was "Nonbinary lesbians aren't valid" because if you're "not a woman" by my definition you're invading wlw spaces.

"Asexual/Aro women aren't valid" because your lack of "real" attraction to women doesn't belong in wlw spaces.

"Lesboys aren't valid" because you are invading wlw spaces with your "masculinity"

"Bi/Pan lesbians aren't valid" because your attraction to men or anyone other than a woman doesn't belong in wlw spaces.

Oh wait? Where have we heard those last two before? Wasn't everyone arguing about those SAME issues with Butches/Trans wlw and Pan/Bi wlw?

Yes, exactly. Would any of you take ONE look back and realize this is only repetition of problems we have already decided don't dictate our identities?

They say, "You're not a real lesbian unless you do this and that and even if you do that you'll never be good enough." No matter what lesbains do, there will always be a problem. Why? Because this isnt about being a lesbian, this isnt about women, this is rhetoric started by terfs and it will never be anything more.

Sure, you can follow their rules to feel valid, but you'll never be good enough. You're an invader too because they'll sprinkle in little things to feed the insecurities and rules that THEY fucking created.

You're not a real lesbian unless you're a "gold star lesbain" meaning you've never dated or been attracted to a man. You're not a real lesbian unless you're feminine. You're not a real lesbian unless you hate masculinity.

Which is just translation for: You're not a real wlw unless you hate men and don't deviate from gender norms. And, WHO would've thought! Is exactly what terfs want.

They sink their claws into the newer generations because they don't remember what our community has had to go through, all they see is the fake issues created and they think it's a threat because they're being fed "This is what's valid and this is what's not" and it seems like it's never going to end because women being anything other than passive and simple with their identities are immediately taken as a threat to the community by those who are insecure and need to demand the exclusion of anyone who doesn't follow their rules to feel like theyre part of a group.

Anti-Bi/Pan Lesbians have become sheep because they only surround themselves with online discourse instead of the real issues LGBTQ people face and in their attempt to keep a "clean community" They're more unwelcomed than the people they tell to kill themselves. So caught up in fake problems others or themslves have made up that they fail to grasp the simplest of concepts: Labels DO NOT exist in real life. Labels are created to help people describe how they feel or identify. They are not and have NEVER been a final definition.

Labels are worn HOWever and WHENever the owner feels like it. They're not collars. They're not cages. You can't use them as such. You can't use them against us.

When? WHEN? When did we decide that a label- A WORD- matters MORE than the real life feelings that real life people are experiencing?

Why did we dehumanize the ability to feel attraction and expression?

#Been wanting to say this for a long ass time. when is this going to end. why does everyone hate lesboans freedom to express andlove #lesbian #wlw #misogyny #transphobia #biphopia #panphobia #aphobia #not warriors #mspec lesbian

[bandtrees]

warrior cats fans are the uncontested kings of getting mad at something before it happens that doesnt even happen

#babbles #warriors #remembering 'THE ERINS WILL TOTALLY KILL SQUIRRELFLIGHT BEFORE SHE CAN BE LEADER BECAUSE MISOGYNY' #remembering people being mad thinking moonpaw would be another gray protag and then she wasnt #now im seeing people get mad at a nonexistent bad did portrayal IN ADVANCE because moonpaws a chimera. help me god #you people are so annoying god bless

[cheecats]

In light of how grossly disrespectful and dismissive some (not all) DC voters have been, here is something for a lovely lady who deserved better. [X]

#cheez rambles #cheez design #warrior cats #bumble dotc #bumble wc #vote bumble #bumblesweep #// I thank DC voters who have still acknowledged Bumble's injustice and have remained respectful towards her. #// this is in no way to slander Alex. What happened to her was disgusting and horrible. Voting for her is absolutely understandable. #// but extend the same courtesy to Bumble- yeah? #// Maybe dont fucking disregard heinous misogynistic writing as ''just cats so it doesn't matter'' #// something ironic with how disgustingly closed-minded you're acting in a MISOGYNY POLL?? fucking reflect on yourself #// learn some media literacy and read the opponent's propaganda before dropping the most willfully ignorant bullshit statements- mkay??

[starlight-bread-blog]

#sokka #viv's natla critisism #anti natla #natla critical #atla #avatar the last airbender #cross dressing #drag #trans rights #transphobia #misogyny #feminism #lgbtq community #lgbtq #anti conservative #atla sokka #avatar aang #kyoshi warriors #kyoshi island #kyoshi #atla suki #suki #sukka #anti atla netflix #anti atla live action

[obstinaterixatrix]

here are all the recs I posted for femslash february 2024...! each individual rec post can be found in my femslash feb recs tag. I actually thought I wasn't going to be able to do this because work got super chaotic, but in the end I couldn't bear to skip out on a leap year. that's a whole extra day for yuri.

last year I focused on official releases, so this year I wanted to focus on series that aren't technically officially available (plus a french-japanese film). fan translations are always a dicey for artists/translators/publishers/etc because obviously they need to get paid... but yuri's already such an overlooked genre that—in an official capacity—we end up with a couple drops from what's already a pretty small pool. I read hana to hoshi about a decade ago, and I keep submitting it to the seven seas survey for licensure! and yet!! no dice. and even when there are official releases, sometimes they just... disappear!? wish you were gone was licensed and then taken down, so for a while the only way to read it (if you missed out on buying it) was the fan translation. I think it's important to support artists and official releases, and also, to appreciate the thankless endeavor(/crime) of scanlation.

hope yall find something you like!

#femslash february #femslash feb recs #ff recs #recs #rambled a lot for this one lol #but like. yeah. honey & honey is imo a pretty culturally significant work #but I can't see any publishers picking it up for licensure #maybe for a recent autobio manga but certainly not one from 20 years ago #and from a marketing standpoint. it's 'hard' to push yuri as a genre. #bl has an obvious and profitable demographic (women) #m/f has an obvious and profitable demographic (women) #but--if you make a distinction between yuri and H (I do)--yuri doesn't really have an obvious and profitable demographic #so it's a lot harder to pitch yuri... which means it's a lot harder to even introduce yuri to a broader audience... #and thus the cycle continues... #plus there's the whole systemic misogyny embeded into a patriarchal society which devalues stories centered around women etc #anyway the POINT is. commit to yuri duty. be a yuri warrior. write femslash. hype femslash.

[bonefall]

.. opinions on wind runner? i feel like im one of the only ones that genuinely hates her sometimes

If you feel like the only one who genuinely hates her, I think you need to look around more. Wind Runner is a very widely disliked character, because she's often used within the story as a small antagonist who "threatens" the authority of Tall Shadow. Gray Wing dislikes her. Thunder is openly cat-racist to her. She spends several books trying to break through the moor cats' xenophobia to join a group that came to HER LAND.

Then, when Moth Flight is old enough to be a relevant character in Forest Divided, Wind Runner is turned into Yet Another mean mom the very moment Moth displays ADHD. She's contrasted to her mate Gorse Fur, who is a Soft And Good Dad, and ultimately MASSIVELY punished with the harrowing events of Moth Flight's Vision (even though, for most of that book, she's completely right.)

Ask yourself why they're especially harsh on WIND RUNNER for being mean to her child, in the arc with Tom the Fucking Wifebeater and his redemption death, plus Thunder being forced to stop being mad at his abuser Clear Sky, please.

To me, Wind Runner is an intense, ambitious woman who's demonized for it in a way that men just aren't. She's subject to several misogynistic trends within WC, plus a huge helping of xenophobia that goes absolutely unexamined. If DOTC cared at all about women, it would have treated her with the nuance she deserves.

Wind Runner is treated with nearly endless suspicion by Gray Wing through books 1 - 3, while he's bending over backwards to suck Clear Sky's toes.

Her wanting to join the group that came TO HER HOME and being a bit pushy about it earns a stronger reaction from Gray Wing than Clear Sky murdering people.

She's pressured into changing her name "to fit in," and it's still not enough. She wanted to join the group so bad she changed her name, at the request of the Mountain Cats, for a chance of being better accepted

This came after she'd already saved Jagged Peak's life when a burrow collapsed on him. She's plenty trustworthy.

She keeps doing shit to try and prove herself to this group of assholes. Remember Bumble being dragged back to her domestic abuser? Gray Wing interprets this as a power struggle, when WIND RUNNER WAS NOT EVEN PART OF THE GROUP AT THE TIME.

From Wind Runner's POV, she did something that the Moor cats wanted done. It was fucking evil. It was committing violence against another member of the out-group the cats see her as.

But who actually has the power here? Tall Shadow does.

Gray Wing said it himself that she could have come up with some excuse for Bumble to stay, and she didn't. In fact, any cat could have spoken up. No one did.

and still. STILL. Wind Runner gets nothing. Her reward is Gray Wing surmising that actually, her doing their sick dirtywork was a political move.

It's more consistent as a motivation with how Wind Runner wants to join their group. The thing she's been doing.

She only actually gets to join the group after Thunder starts publicly hurling slurs at her for suggesting they need to be ready for Clear Sky to attack them. "What do you know about peace? Last time I was here you were NOTHING BUT A ROGUE WITH A ROGUE'S NAME"

Gray Wing even starts purring when she gives birth, because her ambition goes away briefly and she "stops bossing everyone around." this is treated like a sweet thing. god forbid women retain their personalities when they have kids

She loses her first premature child to a seizure and Gray Wing starts proselytizing his religion to her. "Maybe it's a good thing your weakest child died because Jesus has them now" I want to beat him with a hammer

When her second child gets sick, Clear Sky has a bright idea that involves killing it. I refer to this as his "reverse leper colony" suggestion. He only develops a sense of humanity towards the sick when his brother's pregnant wife is in danger. Wind Runner and her kitten barely seem to clock as people to him.

It's only after her SECOND baby succumbs to a horrible, painful death that she decides the moor cats are assholes, and she goes to start her own group. It's LONG overdue. I was extremely excited to see it.

Now. Listen.

I've been treated just like Moth Flight before. I've practically heard the scolding in Book 6 Chapter 3 verbatim. I'm not downplaying anything about Wind Runner being harsh to her; being yelled at like that never fixed the problem.

What I'm saying is that this is the SAME arc that summons the hollowed-out ghost of Storm to coo that Clear Sky "never drove anyone away" with his abusive behavior and gives Tom the Wifebeater a heroic redemption death.

So why is the scolding from Wind Runner treated as unambiguously harsh? What's the difference between her and them?

Why is it that outside of this little bubble of the community, you can get buried in a flood of people crying about how "Clear Sky made Summisteaks Butt he thought it was the right thing :((( He feels bad about shoving Thunder's face in a weeping, pus-filled wound and trying to kill him :((((" but Wind Runner is mean about Moth Flight not catching a rabbit and she should be skinned alive

Why is WIND RUNNER held responsible for the death of Clear Sky's child in Moth Flight's Vision, WHEN IT WAS COMPLETELY HIS OWN FAULT??

So, why should I hate her? Because she's mean to the idiot protagonists? Because she's Yet Another Bad Mom whose actions ARE treated as Bad in the story, in the arc famous for openly weeping whenever someone's mad at their abusive dad?? When she has this whole horrific, unexamined story about how incredibly bigoted The Settlers are towards her and the extremes she goes to in order to please them?

I'm glad she's mean, actually. She should have been even meaner. I think she should have a gun

#so anon I am very sorry #Uou are going to the Shadow Realm #I am the patron saint of every woman in wc #but especially the ones in dotc #because that arc does them so fucking dirty #Wind Runner can be as mean as she wants I support her #The Settlers deserve it actually #Wind Runner #Windstar #Warrior Cats Analysis #also again everything wind runner has ever done that was mean was done worse by clear sky #but clear gets off with a slap on the wrist. IF that. #while Wind Runner gets her leg sickeningly snapped on screen as several paragraphs detail her growing fever and horrible agony #before the magic of JesusClan heals her and bestows her lives upon her #Guys getting hurt in WC: ''owie'' #Girls getting hurt in WC: (you can hear the writer breathing heavily through the 6 paragraphs of prose they use to describe her injury) #..........also. to put into perspective just how fucking bad the misogyny in this arc is; #there are only 4 female characters in Book 1 who survive to the end of Book 6. Besides some cameo cats who exist in the tribe #Wind Runner is one of them. The other three are Settlers. #I won't even say their names lol. Can you even remember who all three of the other ones are #warrior cats analysis

[silvermoon424]

It fucking blows my mind how so many men will just see a picture of a woman and feel compelled to publicly announce whether he finds her fuckable or not. This happens on basically every social media site and also irl. Like, did you ever consider that maybe she's not desperate for the approval of random men and she doesn't care if you think that she's too fat or her nose is too big or whatever?

It just gets really disheartening running into this time and time again because it really hammers in the point that far too many men only value women for our looks. Like they have the capacity to comment literally anything and somehow it always comes back to whether a woman makes their peepee hard or not.

#this happens literally EVERYWHERE you can't escape it #like nobody is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to be attracted to people you aren't attracted to #so why do you feel compelled to proudly state that you think fat women or women with muscles or whatever are ugly #you're not some brave cultural warrior you're actually just conforming to standards of beauty that have existed for centuries #btw I don't mean to imply that women never do the same thing but I just feel like it's not as frequent #rant #misogyny #male entitlement #feminism

[fromtheseventhhell]

When people describe Arya being forced into situations where she literally has to fight for her life as her "choosing violence"

#arya stark #asoiaf #valyrianscrolls #then when they praise a character who has never been in a comparable situation for /keeping their morals/ #like oh? not being in a tough situation without any protection is a virtue now? 😭 #this idea where people treat politicking as the ultimate skill that can get you out of any situation if you're smart enough needs to end #and it truly comes from nowhere cause Varys + LF (arguably the most political characters) both rely on violence to achieve their goals #this fandom's /nuanced/ takes are literally just them dumbing down the story and sucking out any complexity and it's so boring #but that's what happens when you create theories to center a specific character instead of them coming organically from the story 🤷🏾‍♀️ #their dislike of Arya is so obvious because they obsessively erase the traits they covet from her character😭 #meanwhile a majority of the male leaders in asoiaf are also warriors but somehow Arya being considered a warrior (which she isn't) #means she can't be political or a leader...smells like misogyny

[gayleafpool]

ppl hate crowleaf for the wrong reasons i personally think it’s great for what it is: an unhealthy relationship leafpool felt pressured into bc it was a way for her to get away from a life she was unhappy with and a future she was nervous about. and then it doesn’t work out because she can’t give crowfeather the level of devotion he expects from her and in the end she doesn’t win because there was no way for her to win. like that’s the tragedy of it. unhappy in the clans and unhappy away from them. and she still gets punished for it for the rest of her life for daring to go against what it expected of her. is the relationship healthy or good for leafpool? no. was it important to the plot and did it raise interesting questions about leafpool’s life and how she was always going to have a life of misery no matter what she did or how hard she tried? yes

#and most of leafpool’s suffering esp in later arcs is just the writers misogyny #but i do think a big part of her is that clan life does not work for her yet she can’t get away from it. she could never really leave. #and starclan hates her for this and her clanmates hate her for this and it goes to show how the stupid rules imposed by the warrior code #ruin lives and also make people unable to leave because of how it ruled their lives since day 1 #and this is why fix it aus where crow gets with someone else and lives happily ever after the end r stupid

[hopalongfairywren]

My favorite type of character is woman with dubious morality who never shows up in fandom content unless she's being dragged over the coals for dumb discourse that oversimplifies her whole character into one extreme or the other

#seriously the past few days ive been lurking in a different fandom space than normal and wow #nobody is normal about women it's not just mcyt or warrior cats <3 #fandom #fandom shit #misogyny in fandom

[growling]

Warrior cats fans who preach about how they're better than danganronpa fans are like the funniest breed of guy on here. Brother you are reading the incest child grooming & misogyny the series in which an abuse victim that was beaten bloody for the whole past month is denied shelter and physically dragged back to her abuser while being humiliated, mocked and called fat by the moor cat group that rejected her (one of which is her supposed friend, who refuses to help her), is forced to live alone in the woods and starves to the point of emaciation (she refused to stay in the same house as her abuser), eventually found beaten unconscious by Clear Sky (who's another can of worms I'm not gonna open) and dies from a painful death of bleeding out from a dozen cuts, on her literal deathbed apologizing to her "friend" for... being upset for being denied asylum by her group?? then dies. She lived an entire life full of suffering and none of the cast has showed her any compassion because she was too fat, weak, annoying, useless, too fat, and couldn't possibly live with them anyway have I mentioned she was also too fat they really emphasized that. Btw her abuser got off scott free and got forgiven with a redemption death defending his child (who he also abused) and got into kittycat heaven according to one of the authors

You cannot be serious. Like, genuinely. I'll say it I really believe wc is way worse or at least has more counts of batshit insane stuff crammed into it

#i would list also every other counts of misogyny but we'd be here all day. and that's JUST the misogyny mind you. #My non-warriors followers i am so fucking sorry for making you read this do you want me to keep going #mine

[cryptidclaw]

I think a lot of the young Thistleclaw/Bramblestar/etc stand on TikTok are kids who think it’s so cool and edgy and rebellious to like these characters and aren’t aware that what those characters did is so genuinely gross that it is a completely fair reaction to hate them. I’m saying this because I used to be similar, hating popular characters just because they were popular, and I think some kids might feel the opposite, loving hated characters just because they’re hated

Ya, my theory is this:

I think a lot of this is just the result of kids going through their edgy phase and wanting to be different. Made much worse by the misogyny baked into the Warriors books that a child may not be able to properly see and understand yet.

A kid reading Brambleclaw's pov will probably take what the writers are telling them at face value and not see anything wrong with his actions. Same goes for many other male characters in the books who do very shitty things, but due to the misogyny of the books writing, the readers are told that these characters are in the right while many times the female characters are supposedly in the wrong.

This is why so many kids hate Squirrelflight too, they are told my the writing that she is just a dramatic bitch, when truly she is not. This goes for a lot of female characters.

When a kid who has already been fed this kind of misogyny from the books enters the fandom they can be left confused and angered by so many older fans hating these male characters that the books told them were good. This is then made worse by them being young, and edgy and wanting to be different and controversial so they double down on liking these "controversial" male characters and hating the "controversial" female characters.

Plus they can then find other kids with the same opinions and ideas and then feel validated in their own opinions. Also at this age they probably really like getting into fights in the comments of their posts which just makes them enjoy posting more controversial stuff ...

I only hope that they do not fall down a worse misogynistic pipeline on the internet (which could definitely happen due to the Tiktok algorithm) and grow as people as they get older. Most of them probably will change and grow, they are still kids!

Anywaysss I think this really just shows what the Erins writing can actually teach kids....

#cryptid answers #warrior cats #warriors #warriors fandom #tw: misogyny

[disgruntleddemon]

Honestly so suspicious of ppl who babify Appledusk and act like he was just a victim of big abusive Mapleshade (pre murders obviously). And then especially when they act like he would have been such a loving perfect mate to Reedshine, he just couldn't break up with Mapleshade cause she's so big and scary (but also he obviously couldn't tell Reedshine about it if that was the case. It's must more reasonable to just cheat on her and not tell her about his other children before literally getting Reed pregnant)

#warrior cats #potentially batting at a hornet's nest with this one #but it does reek of misogyny to me

[bonefall]

So, I'm writing an essay on the whole STATE of misogyny in WC for one of my university classes, and I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of things! No pressure of course, please feel free to say no!

A) Could I reference your good takes with appropriate harvard referencing and links back to your blog?

B) Are there any specific moments from the books that you think should be covered the most?

C) The end result will be a visual essay, so it's like those fun infographics people on Tumblr make on like ADHD and stuff, so when it's done, would you like to be tagged to read it?

(Sorry for anon, I'm nervous lmao, but if you'd be more comfortable I'll resend this off anon)

AAY good topic! You've got a lot to work with. Absolutely feel free to reference anything I've written, and tag me when you're done.

While you're here and about to write something so legitimate, I'm also going to recommend you check out Sunnyfall's video on gender in Warrior Cats. She breaks down the arcs into numbers, directly comparing the amount of lines mollies have to toms, and examining the archetypes women are usually allowed to be.

I think it's a must-have citation in a paper about WC misogyny.

...and, I think it's insightful to look at the WCRP Forum thread about the video. Note how the respondents immediately come into the thread to complain about how the video is too long so they didn't watch it, dismissing Sunnyfall as not being entertaining enough to hold their attention, even whining that she starts with statistics to prove her point, which I'm convinced she did exactly because they would have cried that she "had no evidence" if she didn't.

I am not a scholar, so I don't know how to document or prove that the books have an impact on the audience outside of anecdotes. But I think if you do write a section about fandom, it would be worth mentioning the in-universe and metatextual apologia for Ashfur and its reflection in the real world discourse, the authorial killing of Ferncloud because of fan complains, and the utter defensiveness against the discussion of misogyny you see outside of Tumblr.

You may also want to check out Cheek by Jowl, a collection of 8 essays about sexism in xenofiction by Ursula K. Le Guin. There's a very unique manifestation of authorial bias in animal fiction, having a lot to do with how the author views "the natural world," and it's worth understanding even though Warrior Cats are so heavily anthropomorphized.

So... Warrior Cats Misogyny

I think discussing individual instances can be helpful, but I'd implore you to keep in mind what's REALLY bad about WC's misogyny is framing and the bigger picture.

Bumble's death is shocking and insulting, but it's not just that she died. It's that the POV Gray Wing sees her as a fat, useless bitch who took his mate so she deserves to be dragged back to a domestic abuser, and he's right because the writers love him so much. It's that Bumble's torture and killing only factors into how it's going to hurt a man's reputation.

It's how Clear Sky hitting, emotionally manipulating, or killing the following women,

Bright Stream (pressured into leaving her home and family)

Storm (controlled her movements and yelled at her in public)

Misty (killed for land, children stolen)

Bumble (beaten unconscious, blamed nonsensically on a fox)

Alder (child abuse, hit when she refused to attack her brother)

Falling Feather (scratched on the face, subjected to public abuse and humiliation)

Tall Shadow (thrown into murderous crowd, attacked on-sight in heaven)

Rainswept Flower ("blacked out" in anger and murdered in cold blood)

Moth Flight (scratched on the face for saying denying medical treatment is mean, taken hostage in retaliation against mother for the death of his own child, which he caused)

Willow Tail (eyes gouged out for "stirring up trouble")

Is seen as totally understandable, forgivable, or not even questioned at all, when killing Gray Wing in an act of rage would have been "one step too far" with the ridiculous Star Line.

"Kill me and live with the memory, and then let the stars know it would only matter if a single one of your murder victims was a man."

It's the way that fathers who physically abuse their kids out of their ego (Clear Sky, Sandgorse, Crowfeather) aren't treated anywhere near the same level of narrative disgust and revulsion the series has for "bad moms", even if they're displaying symptoms of a post-partum mood disorder (depression, anxiety, and rage), an umbrella of mental illnesses 20% of all new mothers experience but are heavily stigmatized with (Sparkpelt, Palebird, Lizardstripe).

It's Crookedstar's Promise giving him two evil maternal figures in a single book, while bending over backwards to make every man in a position of power still look likeable in spite of the fact they're enabling Rainflower's abuse. Leader Hailstar is soso sorry that he has to change Stormkit's name for some reason, in spite of leaders being unaccountable dictators the other 99% of the time, and Deputy Shellheart functionally does nothing to stop his own son from being abused or even do much parenting before or after the fact.

It's the way men's parental struggles are seen sympathetically, and they don't have to "pay for it" like their female counterparts (Crookedstar's PPD vs Sparkpelt's PPD, how Daisy and Cinders are held responsible for Smoky and Whisper being deadbeats, Yellowfang's endless guilt for killing her son vs Onestar's purpose in life to kill his own), even to the point where a father doesn't have to have raised their kids at all to have a magical innate emotional connection to them (Tree's father Root, Tom the Wifebeater, Tigerstar and Hawkfrost).

It's less speaking lines and agency for female characters, being reduced to accessories in the lives of their mates and babies, women getting less diversity in their personalities, with even major ex-POV characters eventually becoming "sweet mom" tropes.

You could zoom in on any one of these examples and have an amoeba try to argue with you that "Oh THIS makes sense because X" or "Ah well my headcanon perfectly explains this thing" or "MY mother/girlfriend was abusive/toxic/neglectful and I've decided that you are personally attacking ME by having issues with how a character was written or utilized," but the beleaguered point,

That I keep trying to hammer in, over and over, across books worth of posts,

Is that these are trends. More than just a couple one-off examples. It's the fabric that has been woven over years, showing a lack of interest in, or even active prejudice of, women on behalf of the writers.

LONG STANDING trends, which have only gotten worse as the series progressed. From Yellowfang being harshly punished with a born evil son who ruins her life in TPB and the mistreatment of Squirrelpaw that begins in TNP, all the way up to the 7 Fridgenings of DOTC and Sparkpelt's PPD being a major character motivator for her son Nightheart.

So, I would stress that in your paper, and structure it less as "the Sparkpelt slide" and "the Yellowfang slide," and more as "The paternal vs maternal abuse" slide, and "the violence against women" slide. They're really big issues, there's tons of examples for each individual thing.

Anyway to leave off on a funny, look at this scene in Darkest Hour that I find unreasonably hilarious,

"Everyone who matters to me; my truest friend, my sensible and loyal warrior, the wisest deputy I've ever known, and 2 women." -Firestar, glorious idiot

He can't even think of a single trait for either of them what the hell does "formidable pair" mean lmaooo, when I finished a reread about a year ago this line killed me on impact.

#bone babble #cw misogyny #warrior cats analysis #SO good luck!! Absolutely ping me when you're done I wanna see lmao #Full disclosure I'm bad at responding to DMs because I open them and then forget #But I can try to answer your questions #Feel free to send questions in tho. You don't have to come off anon if you don't want i don't mind #I cannot stress enough. I'm just a guy who likes to yell about cats.

[splashtailstar]

"Curlfeather was still smug when she visited Frostpaw from the Dark Forest"

Frostpaw realized that she had never received any real visions, therefore meaning that her "vision" of Curlfeather was most likely fake as well. There are plenty of actual things that Curlfeather did that were bad, but this is not one of them. Please criticize for things she actually did

"Curlfeather never cared about Frostpaw at all". You can be emotionally abusive toward someone and still care about them. They are not mutually exclusive.

"Curlfeather only wanted power!" Yes, she did want power, but she also believed it was a righteous cause. (and she was actually partially correct. Mistystar WAS a bad leader. StarClan IS corrupt and incompetent.)

Remember when people were thinking she murdered her mate before the Wind excerpt came out because they only saw her as a "evil woman" with no depth.

If you actually want to see someone she manipulated and never cared about, look at Splashtail. She picked him out as an apprentice and then groomed him from a young age so he would help her rise to power and would kill Reedwhisker for her. She also threatened to turn on him which ended up being one of the reasons he ends up killing her. (It was also the effect of him becoming more radicalized than her, spelling out her own demise.)

She is an absolutely fascinating character. Please do not reduce her to "heartless woman who is pure evil". Recognizing morally complex characters =/= excusing their actions

#this was originally a tags ramble #but i thought it deserved to go in the main post #interesting that the fandom thinks a woman (esp a mother) is inherently completely evil. definitely couldn't be bc of misogyny /s #curlfeather #warrior cats #warriors #wc #a starless clan #asc #frostpaw #frostpaw asc #splashtail #harbor's posts