The new female character that fans are rejecting before the film has even be released.
“[T]his was simply the pure, unadulterated rage of Tolkien fans mad that a woman had come to spoil their “bro-venture”.
Yes, much bile was posted immediately following the release of the first official image of Evangeline Lilly as the elf warrior Tauriel in The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug – a new character created by filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh – and the commotion continued yesterday with the premiere of the film’s trailer.
I’m not great at maths, but the trailer provides roughly 11 seconds of footage of Tauriel, which is apparently enough evidence – paired with that sole official photo – for great swaths of the fan community to decide that they despise the character. How dare Jackson do something so “non-canonical”! The Hobbit doesn’t need more women! There’s already one in it!!
(This rage, I might add, comes from the same fan community that on the other hand thinks nothing of “shipping” dwarves Fili and Kili, brothers, into an incestuous relationship.)”
[…]
“Here’s the thing: it’s perfectly reasonable to dislike a character. That’s what villains and anti-heroes are there for. But if the best justification you can come up with is something like “she’s a bitch” or “she’s just a stupid girl”, you’re not engaging in armchair cultural criticism, you’re perpetuating sexism.
These fan-led hate campaigns offer a disheartening blend of internalised misogyny on the part of female fans (attacking a female character’s perceived romantic “threat” when it comes to their favourite male character, or bemoaning feminine qualities), and plain old-fashioned misogyny from males (see those aforementioned Sansa comments, all written by blokes).
Woe betide any fan who attempts to suggest that hating Sansa is probably ridiculous, and possibly sexist, too; as the newly coined internet rule “Anita’s Irony” illustrates, “Online discussion of sexism or misogyny quickly results in disproportionate displays of sexism and misogyny”.
Don’t believe me? Just sit back and relax: it’s about to happen in 5, 4, 3 …”
Click the link for the full article, it’s a great criticism of female character bashing in fandom.