@lritter @hypostase @olivia 💯 this is part of the problem

I grew up reading a lot of sci-fi, which at the time^ skewed extremely far towards “male / masc protagonists are the only protagonists” – many young girls & women have always been able to imagine ourselves as the hero(ine) & write ourselves into the stories out of sheer necessity (yes it’s not ideal ‘coz “if you can’t see it you can’t be it” is frequently true, but many of us managed)

but $deity forbid there’s a sci-fi story with a female / femme protagonist that becomes popular – many young boys & men get an attack of the vapours and start bleating about it being “unrelatable” 🙄 (i.e. they finally stumbled on something in the world that didn’t centre them) 😮‍💨
 
 
 
^ yes, still now, but a tiny bit less so