Okay as far as I’ve understood this roundhouse kick at Wally is about him flirting all the time? since the Legend of Korras dude Bolin also flirts, but in a gentleman way? Right?
[cut has some gifs]ok
i’m really tired and angry so a lot of this may come off less coherent and more rude than i would like and for this i apologise
but heres the dealio
arguments like this fail to take into account:
- age is not an excuse
- “it’s normal” is not an excuse
- neither is “everyone does it”
- it’s “normal” for people to use “retarded” and “gay” as pejoratives but that doesn’t make it okay
- it’s “normal” for hollywood to whitewash things when they get film adaptations but that doesn’t make it okay
- wally has obviously been conditioned (like most other cis males his age) to think that behaving like he does around women is okay but that doesn’t mean it’s okay
- also i think there may have been a slight breakdown in communication here so let me make this quite apparent:
- this is not all about wally
- i like wally
- yes, he has flaws and behaves like a jerk sometimes
- but he is a fictional character and in fact the person he is harassing is a telekinetic telepathic shape-shifting martian superhero who could reduce him to a smear with very little effort
- so
- HE IS NOT A THREAT TO HER
- HE NEVER WAS A THREAT TO HER
- unless he becomes evil and tries to set her on fire he will never be a threat to her!
- but
- the fact that he did this to m’gann in complete innocence clearly demonstrates that he would do it to another girl in similarly complete innocence
- he’s not trying to be an asshole
- he’s not trying to threaten or intimidate her
- he does mean well
- but if he flirts aggressively and sexually with some random civilian and refuses to back off because she didn’t say no
- (because maybe saying no is hard sometimes when you’ve been taught all your life to just deal with it and it’s a compliment
- because maybe she’s heard horror stories about guys behaving even worse when you reject them outright
- because maybe a hundred million reasons that aren’t necessarily “she isn’t bothered by it”)
- THAT IS DEFINITELY A PROBLEM
- HOW ‘WELL’ HE MEANS WILL NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT THE GIRL IS GOING TO FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE
- HOW YOUNG HE IS WILL NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT THE GIRL IS GOING TO FEEL THREATENED
- he isn’t dropping creepy lines and constantly flirting with m’gann because he’s an asshole or because he knows she won’t have a problem with it
- he is doing all that shit because he genuinely thinks that this is a good life choice
- this
- is
- a
- problem
- for fuck’s sake
- wally’s inability to deal with women respectfully is indeed realistic and it’s a good character flaw which IS addressed in-show and he’s never rewarded for his ridiculous behaviour AND I AM REALLY QUITE HAPPY ABOUT ALL OF THIS
- but when people defend his actions with a fiery passion
- and argue it forward and backward and always try to arrive at “it doesn’t matter because he has good intents”
- that is when i lose it
- because these exact same arguments are used to excuse sexual harassment in real life
- it’s when the BOYS WILL BE BOYS argument evolves from “he’ll be a creepy ass to you at 16” right up to “he won’t take no for an answer at 22”
- it’s when “if you really don’t like it you should say no more emphatically”
- it’s when street harassment is written off as just a form of flattery
- it’s called rape culture
- it all
- fucking
- contributes
- THIS ISN’T ALL ABOUT WALLY
- THIS IS PART OF A BIGGER ISSUE
- HOLY CRAP
- ——!!!!
- fuck
- sorry
- tenzout
AAAALL OF WHAT PHEONEE JUST SAID, SERIOUSLY, THANK YOU.
