I've been a fangirl since around 2012, and while the life can be great, there are a lot of things happening now I disagree with (especially since 2016 happened). Up until now, I haven't had a chance to voice said opinions since they are pretty unpopular, but with a medium outside of Facebook, or even as anon on Tumblr (Though I know there are SJWs on Odyssey, I'm not naive), I have a little more of an opportunity to share what I really think.
Unpopular Opinion #1: It's perfectly fine to ship for the sake of shipping, or because those characters work together, not just because "We need more LGBT representation!!!"
Now, I know what you may be thinking, "Jane, you don't have a right to say anything about this, you're straight-cis!" While I am, I do have plenty of friends in the community and fully support them, plus I've written a share of gay characters myself. I remember the days where people could just ship. Compatible personalities? SHIP IT! Boy and a girl? SHIP IT! Same gender? SHIP IT! They stared at each other for longer than usual? SHIP IT! They're simply just so darn cute together? SHIP IT! There are many other reasons ships come to be, but there's no room to list them all. Lately, I've been lurking around Tumblr, and apparently, some people are shipping couples like Captain America/Bucky Barnes merely to, I guess, "fight the hetero-normative power", and now it's apparently not okay to ship slash unless it's for that reason. Okay, yes, she there should be more good LGBT couples in the media, but it's okay to ship slash, femslash, and others of that persuasion for different reasons. I for one ship Shion and Nezumi from "No. 6" because A. Their opposite personalities mesh well together, and B. They genuinely seem to care about one another. And if you watch "No.6", you may agree, or not. But the point is, there are a lot more reasons to ship slash and femslash without screaming for representation. Or you can ship them simply because you can. Whatever! There's no need to make shipping political!
Unpopular Opinion #2: Just because a cast of something is diverse, it doesn't necessarily make it good or better
Going off the last one: There are some good diverse movies/TV/books/games out there. Overwatch, for example, has characters of many different races and genders from all over the world, plus the storyline seems interesting, and it looks like fun to play. Awesome. Though, there are some bad examples. While I haven't seen the new "Ghostbusters", from the trailer, I knew it was going to be bad. Not because the cast was all "average" women, it just looked like one of those awful summer comedies typically advertised on YouTube. Another example of this would be the "Annie" remake. This one was actually okay. Most of the songs were catchy AND good at the same time, plus Ms. Wallis played the title character well... and she could actually sing. However, the writing was still meh. It could have been a lot better than it was. The fact that some of the characters were racebent has nothing to do how good it was. Something else that boggles me is the need to racebend characters just for the sake of diversity, and no other purpose, such as the race of a character not being specified from their description. As an author, this just infuriates me, and I'm sure many other authors will agree. If a character is written as white, a white actor should play them. If a character is black, a black actor should play them, and so on and so forth. Sure, diversity is good, but there is still such a thing as good and bad.
Unpopular Opinion #3: It's Okay to like a character everyone hates
Ross from "Friends." Napoleon Dynamite. Princess Peach. Prince Hans. Franziska von Karma. These are just a few of the characters I personally like whether it be due to good characterization or how amusing they are, though many in those fandoms disagree. Anyone can like whatever character they like for their own reasons. Maybe different reasons from other people who like those characters. The only thing not okay with that is the majority who hate those characters giving crap to people who like them simply because they don't agree. Let people like what they like!
Unpopular Opinion #4: Entire Fandoms aren't toxic.
Yes, I'm looking at you Bronies (My Little Pony) and Steventhusiasts (Steven Universe). You have my deepest sympathy. It's those few toxic people that give you guys a bad rep. However, I know how to differentiate between the fandom as a whole and the few that they're known for. There are good people in "toxic" fandoms. Hey, those fandoms aren't toxic at all, it's just those people! Yet those poor fandoms get stepped on all the time. They shouldn't be judged because of those little posts or actions that not everyone in them does!
Unpopular Opinion #5: You can cosplay whoever you want, regardless of race, gender, body type, etc.
I cannot stress this enough. If you want to cosplay a character, YOU COSPLAY THE CRAP OUT OF THEM! It's not canon, so nothing is wrong with cosplaying a character that is different than you are! If you want to cosplay Pearl, but you're a little chubby, GO FOR IT! If you want to cosplay Amy Pond, but you're Asian, DO IT! If you want to cosplay Black Widow, but you happen to be male, COSPLAY HER! The decision is YOURS who you want to cosplay as, not Tumblr's, not your friends, not your Facebook group's, YOURS. You're free to put your own spin on it as well. Fem!Eleventh Doctor? RIGHT ON! Steampunk Effie Trinket? WOOP! Haters still on you no matter what? Well, haters gonna hate. YOU'RE putting together the cosplay. YOU'RE the one who will be working said cosplay at the con/meetup/photoshoot/whatever! The decision is yours, not theirs, yours.
