whykikyouwhy wrote...
TheBlackBaron wrote...
bleetman wrote...
(Yes, this is sarcasm. Feel free not to obliterate me. I prefer not being obliterated. I do sometimes wonder how much of the ire directed at Isabela is because she sleeps around, or because she's a woman who sleeps around, which is probably unfair of me.)
The latter, for sure. In fact, I would say that she sometimes gets more ire for that than for, say, stealing the Tome of Cousland Koslun.
In my experience, other women especially tend to judge harshly because of that.
I've actually seen a lot of criticism/ire/vitriol from men-folk. Which is interesting. Were I a psych major, I would be having a field day.
In western culture, there's a pretty severe dichotomy in women's gender roles - men are raised to desire "A lady on the arm, and a **** in the bedroom". Someone like Leliana can easily be classified into such a role, which is a reason why so many people complaining about the romances in DA2 look to Leliana as an example of an awesome romance done right.
With women, it's partially because of how enforced our gender roles tend to be. We squabble and fight among ourselves for dominance just like anyone. The "accepted" role is the male-supported one, so the female denigrators tend to try to exclude women like Isabela because they fall outside of societal norms. The only response to this is that such women must be shunned. It happened when women started wearing skirts shorter than ankle-length, it started when women started to vote, and it started when women started going to work alongside the men. I'm sure it will happen in the future as well over other things we currently view as acceptable.