User blog comment:Don25/ Cody deserves to return, but without Sierra./@comment-30567301-20171202013034

on the sierra if she was a man thing:

sorry but, in the total drama fandom and also many other fandoms, when women make mistakes, they will always be taken more seriously than a man who makes mistakes. i see female characters all the time being taken at a unfair standard. take zoey for example, one of the most controversial characters. i don't think that everyone should like her, but she's always cited as "revolves around mike" which i feel is such a horrible criticism because zoey literally has more plots, interactions, relevance, and airtime than mike. she's a dependant person who RELIES and acts on mike, but the only one who revolves around one another is mike revolving around zoey.

another example is sky, another polarizing figure. she was very much sl*t-shamed for her altercation with dave and whilst there was a good amount of sky supporters, she was still branded as a wh*re and such. most of the hate that was thrown towards sky's way felt very biased and probably based on person experience of being turned down by a girl too... just saying.

even leshawna, a character people liked in total drama island losing popularity in both total drama action and total drama world tour for being "sneaky" and "aggressive" for her trash talking and beating up of heather. not only does this seem sexist but also double standards considering bridgette, who cheated on her boyfriend on live tv, seemed to be forgiven almost immediately by the fanbase for it, cause she's apparently innocent and pure.

take beth in total drama action, replace her with cody with the same function, would he be NEARLY as disliked as beth? the answer is... no. and it's not because they're that different of characters. it's that people don't wanna see female underdogs.

look at the winners we have. most of them are guys, in both of the main countries of the series (US and canada). the only female protagonists with good fanbase reception overall were gwen, heather, and the cadets. meanwhile beth, zoey, and sky are shut out. meanwhile, nearly all the guys had mostly positive reception. why is this? because the target demographic (teenage boys) don't wanna see females in main roles unless they are hot or badass.

women have a lot more taboo things to them. they usually have to be somewhat visually appealing, they can't be too girly or they're branded as annoying (see: katie and sadie), they can't be too much of anything or they'll either be basebreakers or just plain hated. this is why characters like courtney, sierra, and sugar get so much negativity. they're too much for the teenage boys, therefore they are annoying and needy. however, if they are too little or too ugly? they're bland. hey, if a girl is bratty or has things to say, she'll be hated, cause unless she's a badass hottie like heather, they're ungrateful trashy b*tches who need to die.

people always try to bring up the argument of "if she was a MAN then" but it usually never works because if she was a man, she wouldn't be nearly as crucified because women are supposed to be the perfect ones without flaws. it's no surprise to me characters like lindsay, samey, and kitty are some of the most popular in the show because they're all pretty, basic, and inoffensive when it comes to annoying the audience. even heather was originally not a well-liked character until she got her "redemption" in total drama world tour.

even though that 9 times out of 10, the females will have more to offer when it comes to versatility and narrative, 9 times out of 10 they will also have a more difficult time reaching the audience in the first place.

beth flirts with multiple guys so she's a sl*t but cody flirts with multiple girls and stalks gwen and he's a lovable stud. jacques is super goofy so he's funny, but josee is too serious and mean so she's a b*tch. duncan messes around with multiple girls at the same time and he's cool and edgy, meanwhile sky is a hypocritical witch.

also, just saying, your scenario would never ever be pursued. it happened once with dave and look how that turned out. boys don't wanna see boys crush on girls and not succeed in the courting.

basically what i'm trying to say is, you can try and call reverse sexism all you want, but if you don't factor in the already set-in biases then your statement will hold no water.