I don’t mean to be rude; but I don’t think I’ve ever seen this, does anyone have any examples?
- Supernatural
- Doctor Who (Steven Moffat specifically)
- Sherlock (Steven Moffat specifically)
- Actually Steven Moffat is basically just this sentiment given human form.
- A version of this happened with The Magicians, tbh. Though instead of expectation: men, reality: women it was expectation: smug nihilists, reality: mentally ill queer folks.
- Arguably Game of Thrones.
If we broaden it outside of television...I think Star Wars falls into this, at least the sequel trilogy. Maybe the MCU as well. And I can't help but think of every band that's ever complained that their fanbase is mostly women. 5 Seconds of Summer comes immediately to mind.
In general, most white male creators seem to have this massively entitled mindset where they want--and think they deserve--the time, attention, and enthusiasm that creative fandom (i.e. the side of fandom more dominated by women) is known for.
They want our eyes for ratings, our word-of-mouth for free publicity, our metas for social media buzz, and our spending power for merch and cons. But they don't want us. And they don't really want the responsibility of telling a story to a thoughtful, engaged audience, regardless of that audience's demographic makeup. They just want to be praised for whatever schlock they cough up.
And like any other spoiled brat, they will break their toys before they share them.
It goes all the way to the top for kids shows. Toy sales will crash a show. Makes sense, but if those toys are gendered for boys instead of the female viewers, they won't usually switch up the marketing and move them to the girl aisle. They cancel the show outright.
Mind you it is perfectly possible to make the switch in marketing, but execs would rather throw it all out than have something that doesn't perform well with male viewers. For example the Rey merch was not expected to be popular, for some reason, there had to be public outcry to get merch of one of the main 3 protagonists. A PROTAGONIST. The fact that she wasn't a huge part of the 1st launch says a lot already.
And what happened when female fans got too invested in the Sequel Trilogy? The entire writers room didn't necessarily lash out, but they sure forgot how to behave.
Paul Dini: Superhero cartoon execs don't want largely female audiences
#WhereIsRey (initial)
#WhereIsRey (ongoing)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was designed to be the opposite of The Last Jedi
You're all sitting on the hot take of the decade tbh
And yet when they fond out that boys were watching MLP:FIM in droves, they had NO PROBLEM with it.
