fail_fandomanon

ayrt

Yeah, I can see him just wanting to draw the men out first since he's noted that difficulty with drawing women. Hetalia is definitely not a "no-fail" series, but it's as you say, the problems with gender representation aren't limited to just this manga or him. It probably just gets more reaction since they're meant to be personifications of nations, rather than a basic female character.
Some fans have their own perceived notions of country genders that could also come off as sexist (if not more), like the whole brew over the possibility of Portugal being a woman and it being blasphemy for a woman to have held power. Some of the more rabid fringe of Filipino fandom want Philippines to be a woman, as he'd be a "faggot" if he were a man and Hetalia needs more women to clean away the gay. Yep, there are parts of fandom that are very anti-slash like that. But to be fair, there are those who would prefer Philippines as a woman since the Maria Clara image is a part of their culture too. It's just that the bad apples are the loud ones as always.

DA

being anti-slash and in Hetalia fandom? how does that even work? I'm glad I haven't run into those people...

Some of the more rabid fringe of Filipino fandom want Philippines to be a woman, as he'd be a "faggot" if he were a man and Hetalia needs more women to clean away the gay

IIRC it was even worse. That specific part of the Filipino fandom wanted Philippines to be a girl so she would either:

- Represent the old stereptype about Filipino women being housekeepers and maids for rich people (so they argued that the maid in Spain's house was OMG PIRI IN DISGUISE)
- Be America's One True Love and/or Spain's little girl
- Be Japan's super rape victim whom he fell in love with in the end. (lolwat)

Add their ugly anti-Korean screeds of the "Korea was a dirty rapist who abused Piripiri waaaah WE HAET KOREA EEEEW", and we're set. Stuff like that is why, afaik, the LJ comm for Filipino Hetalia fans ended up banning these themes.

the whole brew over the possibility of Portugal being a woman and it being blasphemy for a woman to have held power.

That's why I'm so disappointed in many, MANY Portugal fans that I thought of as being sane. I remember a Portuguese Portugal RPer that I really liked since her Port interpretation was pretty nice to play with, until I saw her sprouting that shit about how Portugal should only be male and a girl!Port would ruin everything. I understand the whole male-oriented Portuguese culture stuff, but it was still very jarring. :/

And we're not even counting those who whine about how girl!Port would OMG ruin their hot Port/UK yaoi, or the rabid Portugal/England fangirls that bash America and the USUK pairing as well. Like the tumblr whiner who said girl!Port would be just "another clumsy, big-tittied, sexualised stupid girl -- like all the Hetalia females" and got chewed on for that.

NA: Looking at all this from a distance (as a very occasional reader of the comic), it kind of makes me wish Hetalia had gone with a Brother Country/Sister Country set-up like Scandinavia and the World. (Which I don't like much these days - I feel it's often got much more of a "lol, look at me, I'm so tasteless" vibe than Hetalia does, which is especially grating with non-Scandinavian countries - but this one aspect of it is practical.)

Ugh, don't remind me of the anti-Korean bullshit spewed from the Filipino fandom fringes. Their logic was that since Korea was under Japan's colonial empire at the time, some of the soldiers that raped Filipino women must have been Koreans. Ergo, Hetalia's Korea=RAPIST BASTARD! to them.
Even though some of the same ones also bashed Himaruya for not portraying Japan as a heterosexual rapist, so I got lost on whatever logic they were trying to display.

I got most disgusted when one said they wanted to draw a doujinshi where Korea rapes Philippines while he's disguised as Japan, then Japan comes and saves the day. And yet these people are mad at Himaruya for not going into Japan's crimes? What. That type of doujinshi would sound just as revisionist, and would be pretty damn offensive to Koreans too.

AYRT:

It's even more illogical consifering the whole "comfort women/forced prostitution"... where many of the girls and adult women trapped in it were actually from Korea (alongside Taiwanese, Chinese, etc.). IIRC that's one of the biggest contention points among the already complicated Japanese/Korean deals even to these days.... and yet these Filipino rabid fans treat Korea as if he was to blame for the rape of Filipino women? I'm, like, WTF.

I got most disgusted when one said they wanted to draw a doujinshi where Korea rapes Philippines while he's disguised as Japan, then Japan comes and saves the day. And yet these people are mad at Himaruya for not going into Japan's crimes? What. That type of doujinshi would sound just as revisionist, and would be pretty damn offensive to Koreans too.

Whaaaaaaaat. That, I didn't know. How can these people see how offensive is that shit not only to Koreans and Japanese, but to Filipino people themselves? If I were Filipina, I would think at least twice before saying shit like that. And it kinda reminds me of that horrible fic where Japan wins WWII and sexually enslaves ALL of his siblings to keep them as his harem after the war, raping or forcing them to rape each other purely for his amusement. Eeeeew.

Look on the bright side not all Filipino fans want that sh**ty doujin *worried face*
(Im a Filipina and I think some of the Filipino fans should think first )

Not all of us thinks like that TT^TT

I wish good apples were the loud ones *worried face*