KC | 24 | they/them | US | queer
writer | libra | infp | hellenic witch
rt/etc | star wars | pokemon | zelda
steven u | adventure time | g falls | bnha
(x)(x)(x)
(changed the colors again, please let me know if it's too straining on your eyes)
It’s prevalent in many fandoms for many reasons, but I’ve especially noticed it for BNHA: F/F just isn’t as exciting as M/M (or M/F or even genfics). There are a decent number of women in canon, some cool designs, unique quirks, etc etc…. but they don’t seem to capture the transformative imagination that other ships do. M/M couples get 125k in-depth action drama comedy romance fics where their romance is the central focus. F/F couples get mentioned as a side note in that fic (and are tagged). If the F/F couple is lucky, someone writes a fluffy oneshot about them!…. Aaaand that’s it.
What is Canon’s Fault?
Of course with any complaint about the lack of F/F in fandom comes the critique of the source material itself. People like to write about rich, interesting, well-characterized characters… and many canon creators do not write women that way. For BNHA, Horikoshi regularly fails to give women long-term narrative significance. Izuku, Bakugo, Shouto, and even Shigaraki all have long-running character arcs that progress in multiple arcs. The Todoroki family (or rather, Shouto, Enji, and Touya most centrally) is fascinating and certain relationships therein are explored and are central to the major battle narrative of BNHA as a whole. When men get smaller arcs, they’re usually battle related: Aizawa’s past with Oboro being central to getting the heroes information in an upcoming battle. Iida’s attempted vengeance against Stain being integrated with a general nomu attack and leading to the capture of Stain. The stakes are always high, their arcs are a matter of life-and-death and move the greater narrative forward.
Women get… “Oh I’m not very confident, but I’ll work hard and get more confident!” in the exam arcs and school festival. It’s lovely and sometimes relatable, but often low stakes. When they get a central role in a battle arc (AKA Miruko or Nagant), we may get a chapter of backstory or so, but it never feels like a culmination of something we’ve seen building throughout. There hasn’t been long-term narrative investment in them, so their roles may move some plot forward but don’t really feel central to it.
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It’s no wonder then that fans don’t gravitate towards the women in BNHA! I understand why people go out of their way to look up Bakugo/Izuku angst but don’t even consider searching for Momo/Jirou. There’s just a lot more material already there for the male characters, that guides people towards realizing and looking for works that explore what already exists.
But Fanwork Transforms Canon
Looking at canon and saying “Oh there’s less material there” is an explanation, but it shouldn’t be a death sentence. Kaminari has close to 0 character development, Shinsou gets maybe two or three significant little moments, but somehow their ship has 7,600+ fics on AO3 (Meanwhile MomoJirou has 5,600k+ fics). Of course those numbers are without filtering to see if they’re side/background pairing or not, but it’s clear that there is energy mustered up for male side characters with one or two moments of interaction that is not extended the same way to potential F/F couples.
ALT
ALT
Why?
The easy answer is misogyny. But I think there’s another layer to how BNHA fanon grows and develops that has ended up excluding women unintentionally. Creators obviously gravitate towards the main characters, but they may develop a love for a side character along the way. When a talented creator with compelling ideas thrusts their beloved side character into the spotlight, it can have a ripple effect. A talented artist may develop a following from KiriBaku shippers, but then they have the crazy thought “Hey, just had a cute KamiShin comic idea…” Many who see may like it, but a certain subset may be inspired to also create for that ship they’d never thought of before. Because they were exposed to it in a compelling and intriguing way by a creator they like/trust, they get into the concept as well. And from there, those inspired people go on to inspire more people…
It’s a beautiful ripple, but it’s also sometimes a self-cycling loop. No matter how many new women Horikoshi introduces to BNHA, if people are recycling the same male side characters they grew attached to then there’s just not room to consider a new girl, especially when there’s not a ton of particularly compelling fanwork about her (and she will continue to lack fanwork as there is no spark and inspiration being spread).
Ultimately fandom is playground where you get to play on the structures you like. I cannot and will not dictate anyone’s tastes. But I think it’s worth exploring and opening one’s mind to new areas of play that one may have dismissed early on due to lack of exposure to compelling content. For me, I’ve had some people tell me that they started shipping certain F/F ships because of the fics I wrote… which is an incredible treasure, and is also indicative of the fact that people aren’t only relying on canon when it comes to what they ship; they can develop interests from the fan-created content around them.
“I kinda want to, but it’s just not clicking”
It’s normal to struggle with writing characters who are underdeveloped, lack screentime and narrative significance. However, that also means there’s a lot of freedom. You could be paving the way for fanon about this under-utilized woman.
Recognize that the women are not given space to develop in canon, take a wrench and force the story to focus on them, their hopes, their dreams. Maybe that means an introspective piece about Momo’s lack of confidence, how it stems from her parents always making decisions for her, including an impending arranged marriage once she graduates. What happens when she realizes choosing Jirou instead is the one decision she’ll have to make in defiance of her parents? Or if you want something more action oriented, why not make Hagakure the UA traitor, and build up to her dramatic betrayal… except Mina refuses to accept it, and the League end up kidnapping her. Cue Hagakure wrestling with her feelings as she tries to decide what to do with Mina, and how to convince the League not to just kill her, all while the rest of UA and other heroes are trying to track them down. Or if you want comedy: What does Inko do at home all day when Izuku is out? Well just like Izuku she loves to write, and like many bored housewives she writes fanfiction! And she specializes in pro-hero RPF. She takes requests, and keeps getting requests from the mysterious SushiLover69 for Midnight to get frisky with a green-haired MILF OC……
You do have to dig. If you love digging and developing and being creative then there is rich fertile ground in BNHA. Again, there are many women, with varied quirks and roles; Horikoshi is providing the basic paints, you get to mix them to get the exact shades you want, and then you can fill a canvas with them.
The shortcut ;)
What if you just want the secret sauce that gets you as excited about a F/F couple as you are about a M/M couple? You’re struggling to build up that juiciness on your own, is there any hope?
My recommendation is: Choose a M/M couple you really like. Identify what’s compelling about it. Insert that into two gals instead.
You love the enemies-to-lovers and double-agent shenanigans of DabiHawks? Well great news, with a little bit of twisting you can get TogaChako into the same vibe. You love Izuku/Shouto for their tenderness and being a healing space to process trauma? Well hop one generation up… and you can explore many of the same themes with Inko/Rei. You adore the anger/sunshine of KiriBaku? Well Miruko’s got the anger to match, and Fuyumi’s got all the positive vibes in the world.
This does require some introspection as to what makes a story compelling to you, and may warrant some twisting, canon-bending and AUs to make it work. But then again, many people are already doing those things regularly as a matter of transformative fandom!
Concluding Thoughts
Ultimately, people write what they are excited about, and I cannot force people to write what I’m specifically excited about. I write plenty of femslash for my own enjoyment, but I am saddened that there is not always a ton for me to read. So if this post can broaden one person’s horizons and encourage them to try something new, that will bring me joy.
I don’t believe in just throwing up my hands in the air like “Well canon isn’t perfect with women, so I won’t write them”. I will continue to write the femslash that makes me happy, and would be happy if some others who read this join me as well.
It’s prevalent in many fandoms for many reasons, but I’ve especially noticed it for BNHA: F/F just isn’t as exciting as M/M (or M/F or even genfics). There are a decent number of women in canon, some cool designs, unique quirks, etc etc…. but they don’t seem to capture the transformative imagination that other ships do. M/M couples get 125k in-depth action drama comedy romance fics where their romance is the central focus. F/F couples get mentioned as a side note in that fic (and are tagged). If the F/F couple is lucky, someone writes a fluffy oneshot about them!…. Aaaand that’s it.
What is Canon’s Fault?
Of course with any complaint about the lack of F/F in fandom comes the critique of the source material itself. People like to write about rich, interesting, well-characterized characters… and many canon creators do not write women that way. For BNHA, Horikoshi regularly fails to give women long-term narrative significance. Izuku, Bakugo, Shouto, and even Shigaraki all have long-running character arcs that progress in multiple arcs. The Todoroki family (or rather, Shouto, Enji, and Touya most centrally) is fascinating and certain relationships therein are explored and are central to the major battle narrative of BNHA as a whole. When men get smaller arcs, they’re usually battle related: Aizawa’s past with Oboro being central to getting the heroes information in an upcoming battle. Iida’s attempted vengeance against Stain being integrated with a general nomu attack and leading to the capture of Stain. The stakes are always high, their arcs are a matter of life-and-death and move the greater narrative forward.
Women get… “Oh I’m not very confident, but I’ll work hard and get more confident!” in the exam arcs and school festival. It’s lovely and sometimes relatable, but often low stakes. When they get a central role in a battle arc (AKA Miruko or Nagant), we may get a chapter of backstory or so, but it never feels like a culmination of something we’ve seen building throughout. There hasn’t been long-term narrative investment in them, so their roles may move some plot forward but don’t really feel central to it.
ALT
ALT
It’s no wonder then that fans don’t gravitate towards the women in BNHA! I understand why people go out of their way to look up Bakugo/Izuku angst but don’t even consider searching for Momo/Jirou. There’s just a lot more material already there for the male characters, that guides people towards realizing and looking for works that explore what already exists.
But Fanwork Transforms Canon
Looking at canon and saying “Oh there’s less material there” is an explanation, but it shouldn’t be a death sentence. Kaminari has close to 0 character development, Shinsou gets maybe two or three significant little moments, but somehow their ship has 7,600+ fics on AO3 (Meanwhile MomoJirou has 5,600k+ fics). Of course those numbers are without filtering to see if they’re side/background pairing or not, but it’s clear that there is energy mustered up for male side characters with one or two moments of interaction that is not extended the same way to potential F/F couples.
ALT
ALT
Why?
The easy answer is misogyny. But I think there’s another layer to how BNHA fanon grows and develops that has ended up excluding women unintentionally. Creators obviously gravitate towards the main characters, but they may develop a love for a side character along the way. When a talented creator with compelling ideas thrusts their beloved side character into the spotlight, it can have a ripple effect. A talented artist may develop a following from KiriBaku shippers, but then they have the crazy thought “Hey, just had a cute KamiShin comic idea…” Many who see may like it, but a certain subset may be inspired to also create for that ship they’d never thought of before. Because they were exposed to it in a compelling and intriguing way by a creator they like/trust, they get into the concept as well. And from there, those inspired people go on to inspire more people…
It’s a beautiful ripple, but it’s also sometimes a self-cycling loop. No matter how many new women Horikoshi introduces to BNHA, if people are recycling the same male side characters they grew attached to then there’s just not room to consider a new girl, especially when there’s not a ton of particularly compelling fanwork about her (and she will continue to lack fanwork as there is no spark and inspiration being spread).
Ultimately fandom is playground where you get to play on the structures you like. I cannot and will not dictate anyone’s tastes. But I think it’s worth exploring and opening one’s mind to new areas of play that one may have dismissed early on due to lack of exposure to compelling content. For me, I’ve had some people tell me that they started shipping certain F/F ships because of the fics I wrote… which is an incredible treasure, and is also indicative of the fact that people aren’t only relying on canon when it comes to what they ship; they can develop interests from the fan-created content around them.
“I kinda want to, but it’s just not clicking”
It’s normal to struggle with writing characters who are underdeveloped, lack screentime and narrative significance. However, that also means there’s a lot of freedom. You could be paving the way for fanon about this under-utilized woman.
Recognize that the women are not given space to develop in canon, take a wrench and force the story to focus on them, their hopes, their dreams. Maybe that means an introspective piece about Momo’s lack of confidence, how it stems from her parents always making decisions for her, including an impending arranged marriage once she graduates. What happens when she realizes choosing Jirou instead is the one decision she’ll have to make in defiance of her parents? Or if you want something more action oriented, why not make Hagakure the UA traitor, and build up to her dramatic betrayal… except Mina refuses to accept it, and the League end up kidnapping her. Cue Hagakure wrestling with her feelings as she tries to decide what to do with Mina, and how to convince the League not to just kill her, all while the rest of UA and other heroes are trying to track them down. Or if you want comedy: What does Inko do at home all day when Izuku is out? Well just like Izuku she loves to write, and like many bored housewives she writes fanfiction! And she specializes in pro-hero RPF. She takes requests, and keeps getting requests from the mysterious SushiLover69 for Midnight to get frisky with a green-haired MILF OC……
You do have to dig. If you love digging and developing and being creative then there is rich fertile ground in BNHA. Again, there are many women, with varied quirks and roles; Horikoshi is providing the basic paints, you get to mix them to get the exact shades you want, and then you can fill a canvas with them.
The shortcut ;)
What if you just want the secret sauce that gets you as excited about a F/F couple as you are about a M/M couple? You’re struggling to build up that juiciness on your own, is there any hope?
My recommendation is: Choose a M/M couple you really like. Identify what’s compelling about it. Insert that into two gals instead.
You love the enemies-to-lovers and double-agent shenanigans of DabiHawks? Well great news, with a little bit of twisting you can get TogaChako into the same vibe. You love Izuku/Shouto for their tenderness and being a healing space to process trauma? Well hop one generation up… and you can explore many of the same themes with Inko/Rei. You adore the anger/sunshine of KiriBaku? Well Miruko’s got the anger to match, and Fuyumi’s got all the positive vibes in the world.
This does require some introspection as to what makes a story compelling to you, and may warrant some twisting, canon-bending and AUs to make it work. But then again, many people are already doing those things regularly as a matter of transformative fandom!
Concluding Thoughts
Ultimately, people write what they are excited about, and I cannot force people to write what I’m specifically excited about. I write plenty of femslash for my own enjoyment, but I am saddened that there is not always a ton for me to read. So if this post can broaden one person’s horizons and encourage them to try something new, that will bring me joy.
I don’t believe in just throwing up my hands in the air like “Well canon isn’t perfect with women, so I won’t write them”. I will continue to write the femslash that makes me happy, and would be happy if some others who read this join me as well.
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