Discussion : The Way Men Are Portrayed in Episode

I needed somewhere to rant about this specific thing - and so, I decided to make my own topic about it. After reading a multitude of stories, I am fully pissed off about the way some of these authors choose to portray their male characters!
Boys can really be awesome, but, it seems they’re never portrayed this way in Episode.

When something bad happens, they don’t cry. God forbid, they show human emotion. No, they temporarily show a sad face, then get angry, and start punching things.

The way men are portrayed when with friends is absolutely abysmal. In multiple stories, I have seen the main male LI punch their best friend in their face, causing a bloody nose, making even breaking it. Best friend waves it off - no! You don’t just punch your friend in the face and get away with it! Bullshit!
And again, the way they talk. Excuse me, not all boys talk with every other word being ‘bro.’ They don’t usually explicitly talk about girls and sex, and parties and guns. This is the male equivalent of woman talking about boys and going shopping all the time. The guys who do talk like that, are Chads, and fuckboys.

Their personalities! Terrible! They treat women like shit, talk like their the cock of the walk, act all ~mysterious~.

  • “My name is Axel, I’m dangerous and hot and mysterious. All the boys want to be me and all the girls want to be with me.”
    Sure, Chad, but I’m pansexual and even I wouldn’t even fuck you.

Back to personalities - most of them are hardcore ‘no homo bro’ (not in an ironic way) boys, who are just generally dull, pieces of garbage all around, who often think that women need him to protect her. I don’t know, Angelina over there looks like she could break your hand with a stare, so go mind your own business.
As for LGBT+ men… I don’t think I’ve ever seen a non-stereotypical gay man. They’re usually an accessory of diversity to the straight MC, just like the black best friend trope. Gay men are there to talk about boys with MC, go shopping, and give fashion advice. Just, all around, a shoe-horned in attempt at diversity.
Oh, bisexual men… where? Trans men? ¯\(ツ)/¯ I’ve seen two stories. TWO. STORIES. Where there is a bi man, and a trans man. (Fantastical : The Frontier, for bi. And Love, Dahlia, for the trans). Hell, I can’t even relate to the trans male character in the latter story because he’s a rich rock star! (But, anyways, this isn’t about diversity.)

Relationships with these types of men, in Episode, are even worse. They are controlling, and not physically abusive, but usually mentally, and quite usually very exhausting.
Apparently it’s normal, and romantic, for men to get possessive towards their girlfriends, when they get near other men (and you know, this can go the other way - girlfriends getting possessive when their boyfriend goes near other women).

Usually, nice guys come along in these stories. But even though they’re miles better than whoever this other guy is, the reader still ends up forced to go and be with the asshole.

Lastly, family life in Episode. I have rarely seen stories where the fathers aren’t the bad guy in some way. Maybe they’re cheating, abusive, lazy, or just not even there. Maybe a good father will get a mention if he’s dead.
I wish there were more positive portrayal of fathers in Episode stories, because they really are awesome! I know mine is.

This ended up WAY longer than I expected, but, I suppose that’s okay. I ended up ranting about bad boys more than anything, but, whatever, I guess.
Your thoughts? Maybe you’ve got something to say, too? Go for it! I’d love to see your thoughts!

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I agree with this. A lot of Episode stories portray men in a unrealistic manner sometimes. There are a few who actually make sense with them and make them not irrational ex machinas.

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Yes!! I absolutely hate the way male characters are often portrayed in stories. I know, this doesn’t apply to all stories, but there are handfuls of stories that include these types of stereotypes.

Like, no. Not all males treat women like living crapbags. No, not all gay men prance around, and try to hit on every guy that comes in their path.

These stereotypes get really old, really fast. I know, this is a pretty different issue, but it sort of fits within the lines of the first point I made above. Stop romanticizing gang leaders who treat the MC horribly, kills people on a daily basis, and has 31 other girlfriends. Sorry, last time I checked Stockholm syndrome isn’t “romantic”.

Now, onto the second point. I really hate it when in stories, the MC’s guy friend is “revealed” to be gay within the first 3 lines that he speaks. Seriously, his sexuality shouldn’t define his entire character, and the way these characters are often portrayed is horribly stereotypical. The sad thing is, these stereotypes are often in featured episode stories.

Onto another point about male characters, why does every relationship between a female and a male in a story have to end up being romantic? Like, I’ve had plenty of male friends that didn’t result in being a romantic relationship, and I’m sure everyone else has also had these relationships. I know, I know, it would cause more drama, and that’s what these stories live for— but frankly, it’s just not realistic.
I’ve never seen the MC of a story be just friends with a male main character, unless that character is the “stereotypical gay friend” (hell, even in some featured story about bad boys, they tried to make a MC x gay best friend romance happen).

Along the lines of the last argument— another unrealistic thing in episode stories is how the MC and LI, always end up falling in love with the other. Like, it’s not very common that if say, you love someone, that they’ll love you back. It’s just not likely. You have to have a relationship with that person, going farther than just one date. I am aware that this could happen, but it’s unlikely.
For example, in an episode featured story, (the Baby Project, I think?) apparently the LI already loves the MC with all of his heart, after they knew each other for like, what— a day?
I get that it’s more romantic this way, but I, personally think it would be a really cool idea for a story to include a male character that the MC likes, but he just doesn’t have the same feelings. There could be some drama there, too!

Ooookay. This little rant probably went on for a little too long— and even though I haven a bit more to say, I’ll just end it here :zipper_mouth_face:

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I actually have two stories with good fathers. One where the father is more supportive of MC’s career choice than the mother. My current one for the fantastical entry, the father protects his family. And my first story, the male character is protective, but the MC can take care of herself and actually rescues him more often than he rescues her. And their love doesn’t happen instantly. Attraction can happen instantly, but not love.

I think it’s because I had positive male role models in my life. My dad, in my eyes, was the best human being ever. The people who write these stories that you (and I and many others) detest may not have positive male role models or may have experienced meeting boys like that in real life or just emulate from other stories they have read.

It’s unfortunate. I think the only way to combat it is to try to write stories with realistic male characters in a more positive light.

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I completely agree and support you in this!
Well, I tried to create male characters as close to reality as possible. I don’t see the issue in doing it, just look at your brother, father, friend, boyfriend. We have so many amazing boys surrounding us. I think the thing is that is some trend these days. Only thing that is pretty scary to me is that young girls will believe in this. They will send away good guys for bad boys. No, not every boy will change his abnormal behaviour because of you… and people with this twisted vision of love will be dissapointed.

Let’s turn good caring guys to trend. (already workin on it, in my upcoming story one of MCs is gay and not feminine at all, also with really supporting father and their realtionship will be important part of story)

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As a author, I strongly agree with you. In my story confidential I made sure to have a guy interest who is the TOTAL OPPOSITE of how they are portrayed in the more popular stories. But I do know that in limelight, the guys can’t cry. I tried to do that in my story The Great Masquerade and it came up as an error :frowning:

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I 100% agree.
I support feminism but, I do think guys have feelings too. We as people shouldn’t break them down or call them worthless just to build the confidence of the opposite sex. Not all men are cold blooded, rolling stones. They have hearts too.

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Um, I don’t understand what does feminism has to do with guys not having feelings? Pretty sure feminism is against the toxic masculinity that forces men to pretend they don’t feelings, so?

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As a female myself, I’am aware that women portray feminism differently.
It’s the equality of the sexes. In the process of gaining this equality, some feel the need to bash men.

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This is exactly my trigger tbh. I don’t see how people think this is an acceptable or effective way of gaining respect in any form.

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Glad someone understands :woman_facepalming:t4::joy:

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But that’s not feminism. Feminism is about equality, and about abandoning these archaic conceptions of how women and men should act, women being weak, and men being strong, what being weak and strong entail, etc… The fact that people who proclaim themselves as feminists like to bash on men has nothing to do with feminism. It’s some of the people, not the movement.

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I’m sorry… these are my beliefs and I’m not debating them.

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I’m just saying your “beliefs” are harmful misconceptions, and as someone who is a woman, and proclaims to support feminism, you should know that.

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In her defense, she did not state feminists as a whole. She said some feel the need to bash men, not all.

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I understand, but she didn’t need to bring feminism into it. The phrase: “I support feminism but, I do think guys have feelings too.”, makes it seem as if feminism is against men having feelings.

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Can everyone stop with yeh drama :rage: people are allowed their own opinion a so let it go like you don’t need to make a big thing out of it @Alissonian just leave it and walk way :revolving_hearts::revolving_hearts::revolving_hearts:

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It is valid she brought up the topic of some feminists feeling they need to tear men down to feel equal though because that, in a way, does contribute to the disregard of men’s feelings and struggles. And it does happen. Keep in mind, I am sure these are the extremists doing such actions and an extremely polarized view on anything can lead to chaos really. That’s just my view on it though.

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Alright not sure how feminism (or at least a dreadfully misunderstood version of it) got into this discussion but anyways, moving on…

One thing I hate about some love triangles in stories is that one (usually the canon/primary) LI is a bad boy demonstrating all the qualities of toxic masculinity while the other is a super timid and awkward “nerd.” The options are just so polarized; it’s as if male characters can only be written as single-faceted caricatures of common stereotypes.

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Clarifying what I stated earlier…
While discussing the topic of portraying men in a bad light; I feel that some women who claim to be feminists use the movement as a way to degrade or berate men. In the process of so called trying to empower other women, they purposefully insult men in efforts to build their own self-worth.
And no, this attitude is not what feminism stands for, nor does it define or make you a feminist. I’ve seen it too often, which is why I placed my comment in the section about men being portrayed in a bad light.

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