Real Women Don't Wear Dresses/Anime and Manga/Axis Powers Hetalia


 * According to Axis Powers Hetalia fangirls: Female countries in APH are ALWAYS inferior, poor or weak!
 * Not to mention the mentality of some fangirls that all the female countries are THIRD WORLD or insignificant and not historically relevant as the male "First World" countries. Trying to call them on the "Third World" generalization can be almost futile.
 * Some female fans are notorious for suggesting that Hungary cannot be masculine in any way or tough because she wears silly FLOWERS in her long hair and is usually depicted in a maid dress as an adult, going as far as to suggest that she only was ever "strong" because she thought she was a boy. Never mind that her strength has been shown as a so-called dependent housewife too (with her biggest demonstraction of physical strength happening when she still was the cute maid at Austria's manse), that as a "boy" she wasn't portrayed as completely invincible either (she's lost at least twice to "the Ottobastard Empire" and is shown either complaining for it or in the aftermath of having been defeated), and that she's still more than capable to keep people like France or Prussia at bay long after her Curb Stomp Battle against Prussia's army.
 * And it doesn't end here, either. Having avoided Chickification as described above is NOT enough for the "feminist fringe" of the fandom, who keep whining and accusing her of ONLY being strong for Austria's sake and nothing else ever. Try telling them otherwise and these fangirls will accuse YOU of being a bad fan who refuses to see how "offensive" and "terrible" Hungary is in their view.
 * In fact, there's a semi-BNF in Hetalia fandom who is infamous for her doing what she can to show Hungary in the worst light possible while calling herself a "concerned feminist" Hungary was strong only as a boy! She lost her strength when she grew up into a girly weakling! Austria forced her into these horrid girly dresses and she did it to suck up to him! She's soooooo weak and submissive and offensive, but it's also bad to give her depth in fanwork because it makes her a Mary Sue! To the point that you can mention her behavior and keep her name in secret in some circles, and the fans will likely go "oh, it's her".
 * There's also the fact that Austria is shown as being weak in combat, and yet no one bashes him for being a Non-Action Guy dependent on his wife/girlfriend for protection from other nations the way some bash her for willingly going into battle to protect her husband/boyfriend. I wonder why.
 * Belgium has also had criticism leveled at her for appearing in a dress in the anime, even though she appeared in the source strip in the same outfit and her very first character design (circa 2006) showed her in a dress as well. Poor Belgium didn't do a thing to earn ire for a long time, and when she DID come out as a character she was shown as a feminine yet assertive Cool Big Sis unlikely to just let males boss her around - this doesn't stop the "feminist" fans from trashing her, calling her "Spain's Shallow Love Interest" or yelling "BELGIUM YOU WHORE, GET AWAY FROM MY MEN".
 * Or claiming that she's weak because her Volume 3 cameo was in relation to the male countries Spain, Netherlands and Romano (who ironically is shown as a pint-sized Wholesome Crossdresser), which of course indicates that she was there solely to further the importance of the male countries. Because obviously her being shown with her brother Netherlands, her ex boss Spain and her fellow Spanish Empire territory Romano couldn't have just been a reflection of her historical ties with the three of them. Sigh.
 * Not to mention that she declared her independence from Netherlands when the differences were too great between them. That sound like a weak, easily pushed around female to you?
 * And then there are the fans who complain loudly about how the females become weak characters in fanfiction who exist solely to be the author's self-insert and/or be with the author's favorite male character. Which is sometimes true, but some of them seem to think that this is always the case (when it's not) and/or believe that having any kind of important relationship with a male character, romantic or platonic, automatically reduces a female character to an "accessory" for the male. Apparently, it's only the male characters who can be in relationships with other males without compromising their statuses as strong characters; it's not like there's a trope specifically about male characters being reduced to flat, submissive stereotypes that happens to have a long list of Hetalia males in the example section, after all.
 * Belarus is a stubborn, determined character, often seen carrying a knife. She isn't shown actually fighting a lot, but in Real Life the country has made it through many wars. And Russia is completely terrified of her. But she's bashed because she doesn't represent a wealthy country, she is dependent on and in love with Russia, and she dresses like a woman. Come on, seriously? She scares Russia, that has to count for something!
 * Don't forget Taiwan. She does represent a rather wealthy land (a member of the Four Asian Tigers!), which has gone through lots of trouble too. She's represented as a Plucky Girl who isn't afraid of Modern China (and either mouths off to him or gives him Amusing Injuries) and boldly states what's on her mind. But the fandom? "She's just a useless little girl who doesn't do anything, dresses up in pink, has stupid flowers and surely wants to be Japan's slave-wife over everything because she tells China to leave him alone! HOW DARE SHE?!"
 * People are confusing fanon!Taiwan with canon!Taiwan and forgetting that just because some Japan/Taiwan fanfics depict Taiwan as obedient and submissive to Japan does not mean that she's that way or even romantically interested in Japan in canon. Yeah, it's frustrating to keep on finding fics that don't seem to have taken Taiwan's canon spunkiness into account at all or assume that Taiwan sassily telling China to leave Japan alone in a single panel must mean that she swoons over Japan and would never ever sass at him like she does with her other brother, but that's not the fault of her character or canon. (Not to mention how there are a number of fics out there that portray her more in line with canon as a sassy, mischievous girl who gets one up on her older brothers, so it's not like this is even an all-fanon problem either.)
 * When China's drama track was released, some "fandom feminists" began screaming that Taiwan was "just a useless Satellite Character" and "China's stupid baby sister" instead of "a woman with her own agenda who doesn't submit herself to China". When confronted, they started spitting "The Bechdel Test, Hetalia would never pass it" and expressing all kinds of hate for the Hetalia females. It's even more stupid when we consider that the drama track was the main source of Taiwan's character until the fourth manga volume, which showed a rather similar characterization -- and she wasn't exactly shown as "submissive" and "useless" in either of them. Or that Hong Kong and South Korea have consistently been shown at China's side too, the former being under China's rule in real life and the latter fawning over China to almost ridiculous degrees, and yet nobody calls them useless or submissive to China.
 * Addressed here: Clearly, women having a personality is a PROBLEM!
 * This also brings up the problems that the Nyotalia girls face in fandom. They either are: a) used as ammo to bash the already existing Hetalia females ("they are women with power and agendas, unlike the weak bitches that the sexist bastard Himaruya created"); b) slutshamed and/or called Mary Sues without basis ("Female!America dresses like a hooker, eeeeew we bet she's a cheap whore and not a badass!", "Female!England looks like a Tsundere Mary Sue!, I hate and judge her already"); and/or c) as shown above, demeaned and looked down purely for their gender ("I loooove the male charas, but I hate their genderflips! Cocks are hot, tits are EW.")
 * Some people are really, really OFFENDED by the mere possibility that Portugal may be given a female nation-tan. We wonder what's their reason... ah yeah, this one. Bet it's because either: they think that Portuguese Empire would somehow be less awesome and badass if a woman represents it; they won't be able to portray the Anglo Portuguese Alliance as hot Ho Yay with England; or the Iberian Union days with Spain will immediately mean for them that "Portugal was an oppressed wife to Spain, OMG".
 * What makes all of this wank about the gender ratio really interesting is that Himaruya once stated that the reason there were so many more males than females was that he found it harder to draw females than males at first. Considering that he's drawn a lot of sketches for the female and nyotalia nations recently, it's more than likely that the skewed gender ratio was simply a product of initial art limitations rather than any intended sexism.
 * There are those who go so far as to say that THERE ARE NO FEMALE COUNTRIES IN HETALIA AND THOSE WHO APPEAR TO BE FEMALE HAPPEN TO BE CROSSDRESSERS !
 * Liechtenstein. Despite being a very patient, mature, and strong-willed girl who is able to skillfully take care of her older brother's Hair-Trigger Temper and is seen carrying a rifle, the fandom loves to peg her as a helpless little girl who only clings to Switzerland for protection.
 * Ukraine also gets picked on for this for being a Shrinking Violet. Fans will often only see her as a crybaby and call her weak for acting that way. That is, if they aren't calling her a Mary Sue for being a relatively well-liked Team Mom and still caring about her younger siblings (and having a prominent chest). Often, they tend to overlook the fact that she is hinted to be a Lady of War who carries around a saber with her military uniform and is outright stated to be someone who will stand her ground no matter what.


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