Another Different Kind of Meme

[branchandroot]

A post Synecdochic made noted something I've thought on occassion myself, and got me thinking. The particular passage:

...fandom, as a whole, is more women than men. And women are taught, are trained, to step aside. We're told a thousand ways that it's not right to take credit for what we do, and it's not modest to accept praise, and it's not good and it's not right to say yes, I worked hard on this, and I am proud of how it came out; we must say oh, it's nothing instead.

And, you know, I've seen an awful lot of that just lately, and found myself doing it, too.

So here's my response, and a meme if you like since I highly encourage my flist to give it a try:

Guidelines: Say what you're good at, what you work at, what makes you proud. Use at least two superlatives (eg. wonderful, excellent, fantastic, very, extremely). No qualifications (eg. maybe, mostly, generally, sometimes) allowed. Don't worry if you have to edit a few times to manage this. Do not lj-cut it.

Being Proud of Myself

I am an excellent writer. In fact, I am an equally excellent writer of both fiction and critical analysis, and I'm damn proud of that fact. I am superb at tracing out all the details of a text and setting out the ways they could fit together. I work hard to satisfy myself that an essay or story is good before I post it, and when I go back to stories, even years later, I always find things, often a lot of things, that make me say "Yeah, that was it; that's good". I am aware enough of how many different ways stories can work to make deliberate choices about how I want the one I'm working on to go, and I can make my choice come out. My characters are who I want them to be, and I'm proud that I can make that happen.

Also? I write really hot smut.



(*trying not to twitch* This is really hard to do when I know I'm going to post it openly. There was a lot more profanity in the first go.)

Comments

[rondaview.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is so so right. and thought-provoking. I realize now that I am self-deprecating to the point of vicious self-mutilation (which is, of course an exaggeration. but) -- I never thought to connect it to my gender tho! and maybe how I was raised (eg cultural values of humility and whatnot?). I always assumed it was purely a personal quirk. maybe not so much, now.

What an interesting meme.

[branchandroot]

It's true, a lot of us are raised that way, and it gets reinforced all our lives. I mean, even trying to think of things to call this, it got me! Self-praise, being proud of yourself, congratulation yourself... the connotations of all those words are childish or boorish or otherwise bad/wrong. And that's just... well, wrong!

And even in the cultures where saying such things for yourself is gauche for /anyone/, well ideally that's public modesty and your inner sense of self-worth should still be strong right? Only it doesn't seem to quite work out that way a lot of the time.

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

I'm so stealing this. ^_^

[branchandroot]

^_^V Spread the love.

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

What gets me is that pride is always seen as arrogance.

[branchandroot]

I hear you. And, gosh darn it, there should be such a thing as justified pride.

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

The difference between pride and arrogance is the ability to "put your money where your mouth is." It's why I love Atobe, because he is as good as he thinks he is.

Oh, did you sign up for the saiunkoku fic exchange?

[branchandroot]

I thought about it, but one thing I'm /not/ good at is writing to request. *wry* Besides, I don't want to let the Emperor!Seien bunnies get away!

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

*sighs* I had to ask. Oh, well - you'll get some good fics to read out of it, and maybe it'll jumpstart the fandom. I really haven't had any ideas for it... though I am LOVING your Emperor Seien fics.

[branchandroot]

*hearts* It's a fun arc; I haven't had the chance to do this much humor in a while.

I really hope we do get some more action in the fandom. I can understand how hard it is to fic off the novels, but with anime /and/ manga going strong, surely people can catch bunnies now.

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

I think it's the complexity of the world, matched together with the ongoing nature of the series. I could fic if I'm trying to set it early, but there's points in the series which I wouldn't want to deal with - the Sa Clan comes immediately to mind.

[branchandroot]

So true, especially with the twists that Sai seems to like putting in! I'm up to where canon-time starts and trying to work that stuff in feels like tiptoeing around a minefield; of course, I think that's fun. *snerks*

Oh, and that first quote in the meme is from synecdochic; you might want to mention that, for when other people copy it off. ^_^

pride

[kenllama.livejournal.com]

Latin has words (don't remember what they are) to distinguish between unjustified wrath (the kind you hold onto in ways that mostly hurt yourself) and righteous anger (which can give you the determination to need to deal with injustice). I don't think we really have individual words in English that are so clear on the distinction (hence the need for adjectives in the above...)

It seems like we should have similar distinction between arrogance and pride. in part, that might be a matter for (re?)claiming pride as a good thing. Pride is reckoned as a virtue in Feri, which is both challenging and exciting.

[chronolith.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful meme.

[branchandroot]

*cuddles* It seemed like something that a whole lot of us could stand to do.

[written-in-blue.livejournal.com]

That? That was damn near impossible to do.

[branchandroot]

Isn't it? Isn't it? I was stomping on my socialization every third freaking word! Good grief.