Not speaking particularly of fandom, because like you, I think our fandom attitudes are just a reflection of RL ones...
It is definitely true that women see other women as threats to their own happiness. I have this problem often in making female friends. I have very few, and every single one of them is self-assured and knows her own value...so that she isn't threatened by whatever she perceives my value to be. I have difficulty making friends with girls who have low self-esteem because no matter how nice I am to them, they seem to perceive me as a threat. And then they treat me that way, and it makes me angry, and we aren't friends anymore. :P
I have been called a slut (by my own step-father, and years before I ever considered sleeping with anyone), a prude (by everyone else, for not wanting to sleep with anyone), a tease (for desiring positive male attention even though I wasn't interested in sex), and just about anything else you can imagine.
And I think that not only do these insults come more frequently from other women than from men, but they also hurt more. These are the people we have the most in common with in the world, you'd expect a bit of solidarity among women. But it never seems to be there.
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It is definitely true that women see other women as threats to their own happiness. I have this problem often in making female friends. I have very few, and every single one of them is self-assured and knows her own value...so that she isn't threatened by whatever she perceives my value to be. I have difficulty making friends with girls who have low self-esteem because no matter how nice I am to them, they seem to perceive me as a threat. And then they treat me that way, and it makes me angry, and we aren't friends anymore. :P
I have been called a slut (by my own step-father, and years before I ever considered sleeping with anyone), a prude (by everyone else, for not wanting to sleep with anyone), a tease (for desiring positive male attention even though I wasn't interested in sex), and just about anything else you can imagine.
And I think that not only do these insults come more frequently from other women than from men, but they also hurt more. These are the people we have the most in common with in the world, you'd expect a bit of solidarity among women. But it never seems to be there.