Real Women Don't Wear Dresses/Live Action Television


 * There was some backlash against the supposed Chickification of Dax in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when she eventually hooked up with Worf. Essentially, she was always an old soul in a young body and some fans objected to that "young body" part getting played up when she did things like jump into his arms and get broody, despite the fact that she was an Action Girl throughout the series and even
 * And the action that got them together? She picked up a sword and challenged him to a duel. Worf tended to suffer serious injury when they slept together, even.
 * The saddest part is that the only way in which Jadzia Dax was traditionally "feminine" was that she fell in love and entered a relationship. Otherwise, the writers tried to load her up with every positive "masculine" trait possible. She could kick ass in martial arts plus a variety of specialized weapon combat, she had the experience of multiple previous male lives, she'd most recently BEEN A CROTCHETY OLD MILITARY MAN, she was shown as being cool-headed, brave, and even stoic when necessary, she liked to use the Holosuites to indulge in eye-candy hotties giving her massages, she had Curzon Dax's history of being guy-buddies with Captain Sisko, she flirted with the native cuties on whatever planet they were visiting, and so on and so forth. Yet romance somehow "negated" her "masculine side." Heaven forbid she be someone traditionally "feminine" like Keiko O'Brien, who, during the course of the show, gets engaged, gets cold feet, gets married, gives birth, moves to a space station along with their young daughter to accompany her husband's career move, works first as a civilian botanist, then as an elementary school teacher, gets pregnant again, and has a second child. She not only does calligraphy, she also cooks -- and bakes.
 * Zoe Washburn of Firefly, of all people, gets this treatment from the livejournal blog of allecto.
 * Specifically in the episode "War Stories", where Wash . Zoe gets this treatment because
 * The same critic (I presume) also accuses Wash of abusing Zoe. Her (the critic's) argument for this is that all white male/black female relationships she's known have been abusive. Never mind that the show makes it abundantly clear that Zoe wears the pants in the relationship and any attempt to abuse her would put Wash in a body cast for a year, this woman claims her own limited experiences are conclusive evidence.
 * The same critic later attempts to make her point by claiming that when it came to the episode's bounty, Zoe began to say something about it being marked for the Alliance and Mal telling her to shut up (in Chinese), which would infer that Mal used his power as a man to dominate and "abuse" his female (and black, as the critic wastes no time pointing out) subordinate. In fact, it was Wash who had made the comment about the bounty being marked, and Mal telling Wash to shut up, not Zoe.
 * Whether Mal aimed his remarks at Zoe or Wash wouldn't have mattered, really. He wasn't dominating or abusing his female or his male. He was giving an order as the captain. Just because he's usually easygoing and pleasant-demeanored with his crew doesn't mean he doesn't expect them to jump when he tells them to. Especially since when he decides it's time to start giving orders, the orders involved are often things like "fire at will" and "run like hell."
 * Allecto somehow applies this to all of the female characters. She rags on Kaylee for having the gall to want to hook up with Simon, Zoe for...erm being married...? (she seems to think that all marriages ought to be celibate or something), and Inara for her profession. Neverminding the fact that Inara is the only one on the ship who makes a steady living.
 * Allecto appears to be a rare type of really extreme Straw Feminist who believes it is inherently impossible for heterosexual sex to be consensual.
 * Brutally subverted by Battlestar Galactica's Caprica 6.