i keep seeing that post ranting about a screenshot of some other post saying “I’d rather have a story with no women than one where the women add nothing and are shoehorned in”

and every time I have a moment of agreeing with the screenshot, because for a split second I interpret it as saying “if your women characters could all be replaced with sexy lamps and the story wouldn’t change, then what’s the point of including them, you clearly are so uninterested in writing women that you shouldn’t bother”

there’s no context to indicate whether the original writer meant it this way. The poster who’s ranting about the screenshot interprets it as someone who is sexist and probably views all women characters as adding nothing to the story. and they probably saw more of the post before they cropped it into a screenshot, so I can’t really argue with them

but anyway, I like the fact that I’ve curated my Internet experience well enough that my initial response is still often the most charitable interpretation

it may be naive but it’s good for my mental health

also. the term “shoehorned” in relation to sexy lamps is amusing to me

that is one shoe-horny lamp