Musing: fandom - Rinoa Heartilly

[wilderthan]

Final Fantasy VIII's Rinoa is often quite disliked. I can see why people dislike her character, too, though replaying the game once I was slightly more mature I tried to look for what was interesting in her, what was realistic about her. I don't mind, though, when people just can't stand her.

What I mind, though, is when someone says they don't like her because she's [quote] "a silly slut". There is absolutely no evidence for that in the game -- she has a romantic plot with Squall and a past with Seifer is implied. If that makes her a slut, I despair of the world entirely.

I hate the trend of flinging the word "slut" around, in its entirely -- I hate it when I see it applied to any female character because nine times out of ten, it's just knee-jerk "oh noez [female character] stole my bishie, fuck u wh0re diiiie" and/or "oh noez [female character] broke up [slash pairing], fuck u wh0re diiie".

This just in: Rinoa Heartilly is not a slut. Switching fandoms, neither is Anna Milton, or Jo Harvelle, or Cassie Robinson, or Jessica Moore... (SPN fandom is a big culprit.)

Dean Winchester? Probably a slut.

When/if I run the Women of SPN Big Bang, I think I'm going to ban the word slut.

Comments

[06seconds-left.livejournal.com]

This is so true. Personally, I dislike Rinoa, but not because or her relationship with Squall and Seifer. I think it's her personality I don't like, although I never did figure out which part of it or why.