Awesomesauceness wrote:
On the subject of phil, and very off topic (I was reading through a lot of old threads and saw things about breaking gender stereotypes), I wonder how phil breaks those stereotypes? It's always mentioned that he does in his own way, but I am very confused as to how. Perhaps it's because I'm from China and live in Hong Kong, that I'm not getting a western culture thing? Because to me phil doesn't seem to break a lot of gender stereotypes. Sorry if this seems really offensive, and I do want to learn more and become more "woke" about these things. Dan's behaviour in general seems really stereotype breaking to me, especially with him dropping out of college! Tbh I was super concerned and felt a whole range of negative emotions when he mentioned that because it's almost completely unheard of here unless a) you're crazy or b) you've run out of money. I guess that was a culturally conditioned part of myself that just sort of jumped at that. I get how Dan's behaviour is breaking a lot of gender stereotypes in the west, but it's really quite normal in the place I grew up (in an urban Chinese centre surrounded by upper middle class Chinese kids and mostly had friends who were generally interested in art). Maybe someone can enlighten me about phil? I'm so interested!
Okay wow 2nd post and i'm already attempting to quote and engage in a discussion, look at me go!
I think they both break some kind of stereotypes in different ways. Dan is more open about it and does it in a way that is kinda..i wanna say popular for a lack of a better word. Nail polish for example, and not in a black emo way, is still considered quite a female accessory, so seeing a guy wear it is still seen as breaking a gender stereotype. He's also quite vocal about the issue itself, so that helps seeing him as breaking the gender stereotype.
Phil is, in a way, a bit more subtle I think, but there are things that he does that could be seen as non-stereotype. His bubbly-ness for example, the way he portrays his innocence and child-like attitude that in traditional media and western pov is still reserved to females, and mostly young ones. Loving anime and animals and being vocal about it. He has a gentle aura around him, something that reminds people of someone innocent (even though we all know he's a grown man who is I think very far from innocent). I think in that way he could be seen as not fitting the stereotype of big buff burly man.
(forgive any typo or dumb sentence, my other fandom is having a freakout and i'm here trying to write about three different things at the same time. Also engaging with new people is scary)
liola!
Hopefully someone else can pick up from here.