![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I can develop my brooding potential
Nov. 21st, 2009 03:06 pmThere's been an interesting discussion on defining "manpain" in a fannish context here on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
smallbeer's lj. Manpain is one of those things that's easier to point to than define - Angel has manpain; Jack Harkness (Torchwood variant) has manpain; Fox Mulder has manpain; G Callen has all the manpains; Batman is manpain - but it seems to manifest as a self-involved, all-encompassing trauma to the exclusion of acknowledging or empathising with other characters' pain. Nobody could ever be (is ever allowed to be) in as much pain as this guy. It's the deployment of a cheap trope to fast-track character investment, but all too frequently that's as far as it goes; sometimes it seems like there's nothing to this character but their trauma, and it's used as an excuse for endless brooding and douchebaggery. Manpain is Trauma As MacGuffin, if you will - what the trauma was/is doesn't matter, it's how it pushes the narrative/character along.
Not every male character who has trauma in their backstory has ~manpain~, but if their trauma is the yawning black hole around which everything else swirls...then yeah, maybe they do have The Manpains. It's a delicate balance between interesting character quirks and flaws shaped by trauma and LOL GET OVER YOURSELF.
All of which is to say:walkingshadow made a delicious flowchart on how to tell if your pain is ~manpain~.
Also relevant (because Tim Minchin has a song for all occasions): Dark Side.
smallbeer's lj. Manpain is one of those things that's easier to point to than define - Angel has manpain; Jack Harkness (Torchwood variant) has manpain; Fox Mulder has manpain; G Callen has all the manpains; Batman is manpain - but it seems to manifest as a self-involved, all-encompassing trauma to the exclusion of acknowledging or empathising with other characters' pain. Nobody could ever be (is ever allowed to be) in as much pain as this guy. It's the deployment of a cheap trope to fast-track character investment, but all too frequently that's as far as it goes; sometimes it seems like there's nothing to this character but their trauma, and it's used as an excuse for endless brooding and douchebaggery. Manpain is Trauma As MacGuffin, if you will - what the trauma was/is doesn't matter, it's how it pushes the narrative/character along.Not every male character who has trauma in their backstory has ~manpain~, but if their trauma is the yawning black hole around which everything else swirls...then yeah, maybe they do have The Manpains. It's a delicate balance between interesting character quirks and flaws shaped by trauma and LOL GET OVER YOURSELF.
All of which is to say:
walkingshadow made a delicious flowchart on how to tell if your pain is ~manpain~.Also relevant (because Tim Minchin has a song for all occasions): Dark Side.
