Ianto Musings

[ithildin]

You know, something I've been pondering the last few months as I've been watching Torchwood is what if Ianto were female? My thinking is that the very things his fans like about him, they'd hate if he was a she. To me, it seems that he has a lot of characteristics that female characters are frequently bashed for in fandom.

[runs and hides from the legions of Ianto fans]

Comments

[macgeorge1.livejournal.com]

One of the very best things about Torchwood is that they have been deliberately coy in revealing things about the characters. Ianto is, in his own way, even more enigmatic than Captain Jack. There is so much to be known there, clearly, but he has it all locked up inside.

However, from what we actually have seen of Ianto, he's not particularly likable, frankly. He's a dour, repressed control freak with little (if any) sense of humor. Male or female, those aren't endearing characteristics.

But I really haven't been involved in the fandom, to date, because typical fandom reactions drive me screaming from the room. Yes, if Ianto were female, he would be the object of fannish hate because he was a direct rival for Jack's 'love' (in the somewhat warped perspective of girly fans). All the female characters' characteristics (good or bad) are typically judged in their worst light, which shouldn't surprise anyone. Women are almost always much harder on other women than they are on men. That's not just a fannish reality, it's just one of life's realities that, like everything, gets even more magnified in the world of fandom.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I'm not involved in the fandom either -- or at least what for me is being involved in a fandom. No email lists, no fic, don't discuss it on related websites/comms/boards. I just like to talk about it casually here and with other friends.

[unovis-lj.livejournal.com]

I don't think any of them are very likeable (again, Seinfeld comes to mind). Control freak I can see, humorless maybe, except for his naming tricks -- well, and stopwatch tricks -- and taking care of the scutwork and knowing how to fade into the woodwork, while not magnetic is still useful. I had the impression of Jack grabbing him at will and need rather than Ianto clinging to Jack, though he was certainly as upset as Gwen over any threat to Jack. Not enough to fall in with Owen's plan to bring him back, though. Just enough to claim he wasn't worthless and that Jack needed him. Probably not the first time he's had to insist on that.

I bow to your superior knowledge of fangirl behavior. Yuck.