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Alicorn comments on A rationalist My Little Pony fanfic - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: DataPacRat 10 August 2012 08:53PM

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Tags: fanfic story writing mlp

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Comment author: Pavitra 20 September 2012 03:10:01AM *  3 points [-]

I started reading this fic, and... we need to talk.

In chapter 2, the protagonist tries to think through the practical implications of being female. The result is one of the worst examples I've seen of male nerd cluelessness about women, to the point that I would have sooner expected to see it as a satire than as a real example.

Lest anyone who hasn't read the fic think I'm exaggerating, the offending paragraph runs as follows:

I waved [my tail] back and forth again, and as it brushed against my hind end... I might as well face up to another aspect of my change. I was about as female as it was possible to be - the rather large, fleshy protuberence hanging between my hindlegs being about as un-male an organ as existed. I could get raped. I could get pregnant. I could die of pregnancy-related complications. Not to mention I could still catch rather embarrassing STDs. So if I really did want to keep on working on my plan to live forever, with minimal risk... I was going to have to stay chaste. (Or was that celibate? I always got the two mixed up.) And to make sure that I avoided impaired judgment and reduced inhibitations which might lead me to break that - I'd have to stick to being a teetotaler, with no alcohol, drugs, or other intoxicants.

To summarize, the protagonist literally reasons "I am female; therefore I must avoid sex at all costs." If you don't know why that's a problem, then I'm out of giveashit to explain it at the moment, but you can start by searching "sex-positive feminism". This male-yes female-no view of courtship is Wrong and Bad, and you should feel bad.

Comment author: Alicorn 20 September 2012 03:50:17AM 10 points [-]

Oh, come now; if I suddenly acquired new sex-related complications on the order of being able to get pregnant, and I was also a new species, I'd probably want to avoid that for at least a while. The character doesn't know about what birth control may or may not be available, what STDs may or may not be rampant, what pregnancy and childbirth are like for cows, or what the sexual mores of the society she's in might be! And also has much more on her mind than figuring out how to get laid, let alone with species she's never considered fornicating with - and the pregnancy one would be from sex with a gender she's never been attracted to. "Yep, probably better not have any sex" is a perfectly reasonable reaction.

Comment author: Pavitra 20 September 2012 04:05:08PM 4 points [-]

That is a valid line of reasoning that arrives at the same conclusion, but it's not the reasoning put forth in the fic.

Comment author: Alicorn 20 September 2012 04:35:31PM 3 points [-]

The sex change alone does suffice, and the line of reasoning used in the fic would make no sense if the character's sex were not new.

Comment author: Ritalin 29 October 2012 01:43:59AM 0 points [-]

Not that she manages to hold on to it. I swear, there seems to be a rule that Human In Equestria fics end up involving sex with a native one way or another. Maybe it's a way for the human characters to become symbolically "married" to the nigh-utopian setting?

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