longtime dc fan and i think a lot of people are angry because alex is obviously one of the most culturally relevant instances of misogyny in media. that being said being more culturally relevant doesn’t mean it’s the worst instance of misogyny and i think bumble definitely experiences more profound misogyny in the way the actual content is presented, if that makes sense
I get you, and that's a charitable way of looking at it.
I think what's rustling my jimmies is that like, there was a couple of WC fans being mildly dismissive of Alex in that note minefield, after dozens of comments of "fuck you how could you let the fridge woman lose" and "Bumble didn't deserve to win ANY rounds" and "how could A CAT experience misogyny." But then WE get blamed for the toxicity because THEY were butthurt that the Funny Cat People have the 'audacity' to win something they feel entitled to.
Like, we've gotta be endlessly charitable as we get openly insulted because they're upset about Alex losing, a very well-known and culturally relevant character with a legacy so massive we have a whole term named after her. But condemnations of "She's just a cat, letting WC into this poll was a mistake, Bumble can't even be a victim of misogyny" only started coming around once I started talking about it.
as if it's OUR fault people got passive-aggressive or even OPENLY aggressive towards us, and that we're "just as bad" for retaliating
But like you said, it's not a "Most Culturally Relevant Misogyny" tournament, it's a "Canon Misogyny Victims" tournament. And you're not even supposed to give a shit that Bumble died. The fat, woman abuse victim is beaten to death by a dictator, and your takeaway is meant to be, "It's so sad that Clear Sky is being blamed for murdering her, now they're all preparing for self-defense against a homicidal maniac, oh nooo :("
And I think that DOES make her deserve the win here! Alex is a MARTYR. Everyone with a brain agrees what happens to her is bad. It happened in her canon because it was bad. We talk about her and keep her memory alive. Bumble gets dismissed entirely out of hand because she's "just a cat in a kid's book" as if that doesn't make it worse, and as if the kid's book didn't treat a domestic abuse survivor like a moron for even asking for help.
Anyway, just to reiterate, I love DC fans. It's not all of you guys. Alex was done dirty and deserves justice-- and it's even kind of a shame that all she became is "The Fridge Woman." I haven't even heard people talk about how she was a wary, responsible person who was still ready to rock with Kyle's new weird glowstick powers, or that she was a journalist, or that she just got brought back in another edition as a Green Lantern only to be revealed as an illusion and re-absorbed back into Kyle's mind. Nope. Even her fans just remember her as The Fridge Woman.
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Can we acknowledge for a second how insane it is that both Wally and Bart had to have significant character arcs to understand that sometimes people die?
With other heroes it's just a fact of life. People die. People die all the time. That's just the job. There's no escaping that. There was never any room for doubt.
They try as hard as they can to save everyone but they're only human. Sometimes they can't and sometimes people die.
But for Wally and Bart?
Oh man.
Wally was aware of the concept of death. He'd seen corpses, he knew that people died and that it was a commonplace thing.
But someone dying on his watch? Failing to save someone, no matter what the circumstances, was not even an option to Wally. It didn't happen. He was fast enough to make sure it never happened.
His actual literal catch phrase as the Flash was "Nobody dies."
I'm not joking.
He even had a storyline where a lady was thrown out of an airplane and Wally, who obviously can't fly and who would have no way of saving her, jumped out after her because nobody dies. And he did save her. He figured out a new way of using superspeed while plummeting to his death. The moral of that adventure to Wally was that no one should die ever when he's the Flash because he can always save everyone if he tries hard enough.
He then had another adventure where someone was going to die and he couldn't save them and he could not handle that. This man STOPPED. TIME. He stopped time because "if time doesn't move then they can't die" and he intended to never restart time because he was having a full blown panic attack over someone dying on his watch.
Thankfully he was able to calm down and figure out a plan to save them. He had to accept that it might not work and they might die and he had to be okay with that. Because he tried his best and that was all he could do. He did end up saving everyone in the end. No one died.
But I mention this because the man was in his mid 20's the first time he actually had to come to terms with the inevitability of death.
He wasn't being naive or ignorant. He wasn't being arrogant or cocky. The man had legitimately never failed to save someone.
Now Bart, in comparison, had to face death in general a lot sooner than Wally did. Wally was basing his conclusions based on his experience but Bart legitimately had no idea what death was.
He had to learn that people could die by witnessing the people he cares about have close calls. He had to learn that he could die by experiencing his own death.
I'm honestly not entirely convinced Bart has had to accept that he can't save everyone. There are arguments to be made for sure but I don't think he's ever explicitly had that "Oh shit, I can't save them. They will die" moment.
Regardless though, I think this really speaks to their abilities and efficiency in the field. Also their sheer power. It doesn't matter if it's a city of 2 million people and there's a nuke 1 second away from detonating. It doesn't matter if the criminal has a hostage at gun point and has already pulled the trigger. It doesn't matter if a building gets hit during a fight and crumbles into dust. There will be no casualties. There will be no hostages. There will be no friendly fire. They save everyone. No exceptions.
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