Subject: Also see my apology on ffrantsrants.
Author:
Posted on: 2011-01-05 01:24:00 UTC
More whining about "fauxpology". Since that's exactly what they'd say whatever I said, I'm tempted to make another post saying "You know what? Yes. I lied. I don't care what any of you think." Won't help, but God do I want to ...
So, on Fanficrants, user of (as far as I saw) indeterminate gender and orientation shows up complaining about flames received from users also of indeterminate gender and orientation. Flames were because flamers were offended that user dared to include a hetero relationship between a canon female and his/her male OC. Fandom is a shooter game populated with a very high percentage of female characters, which leads me to believe it's marketed at young men. I don't think it was meant to be particularly feminist, it just has a lot of girls in it. There are no canonical romantic/sexual relationships at all, but fandom has a lot of yuri/femslash-type fics, naturally. I don't know what proportions of the fandom are actually made up of what genders and orientations. Male OC flirts and has relationship with one of the girls, whose orientation is, as noted above, not confirmed in canon. He is described as capable of "holding his own" with canonical abilities which the girls show but which are also used by the male characters. No hint that he has excessive powers or is capable of always defeating all the women.
Commenter on ffrants gets angry because apparently from what they've picked up from the rant they've decided OP is being misogynist and invading a "lesbian safe space". Please see above notes about nature of fandom.
I comment saying that I'm confused as to how a male character just being there is offensive to women.
Commenter repeats that "lesbian safe space" is being invaded and goes off about feminism.
I say I'm actually deeply offended by the idea that feminism requires the erasure of men, say that truly strong female characters will still be so and may in fact be more so with a male to interact with and I also think vice versa for male characters - surely showing a competent man interacting respectfully with equally-competent women shows both in a better light than erasing one lot? I then point out above description of canon and fandom, and repeat that I don't see what the problem is with one male character appearing in one fic and having a relationship with one female character who could possibly not be a lesbian despite common fanon.
Commenter insists that implication of OP is that male OC is taking over fandom and defeating all female canons and that I am wrong for "giving the straight male the benefit of the doubt" (as if giving the OP the benefit of the doubt when HELLO HE/SHE'S STILL WATCHING OUR COMMENTS is wrong) and am accusing the lesbian reviewers of the fic of being "over-reacting screeching harpies".
I point out that there is no evidence that OP is straight and/or male, nor that the reviewers are gay and/or female (see above), and that, in my words, "This is fandom, people will throw similar fits over what flavour breakfast cereal you describe characters as eating".
Commenter hissyfits at me, calls me "asshole", and flounces without responding to these points.
Okay, I understand that people may be uncomfortable with a male OC in a fandom which was designed as a feminist-type story. But I don't think this one was. It just happens to have a lot of girls in it. Okay, I shouldn't have got drawn into the argument and I apologise for that, but I'd like to have someone whose opinion I trust tell me whether I am wrong for thinking that male characters in a female-populated fandom are not inherently evil and wrong merely for being male. If I am, I apologise, but I still really don't see from the given evidence that there was that much of a problem.
I know I haven't been around much lately, but as someone who knows the series in questions very well, allow me to explain.
The Touhou games have an all-female cast. There are two males: one of which is a turtle used for flying and has not been seen in a decade, the other is a cloud. There is one more male in the side works in a book, and he is a shopkeeper. None of these male are powerful; in fact, the shopkeeper is noted several times as being very, very weak.
The Touhou fanbase is a little absurd. The shipping and such can go between any two characters for very little reason even if the characters have never met. However, in canon, there are NO relationships between ANY characters whatsoever. In fact, most of the ship are between character who have never met, or want each other dead. It is not a 'lesbian-safe' zone at all. However, most of the girls are either teenagers, or Youkai that are hundreds or years old and look about like teenagers.
But now we come to the OC. You see, most characters in Touhou are strong enough that they kill and eat humans, like Rumia and Mystia. The humans in Touhou are strong enough to hunt and kill Youkai for this, like Reimu and Sanae. If the OC WORKS for his power, and isn't beating any of the big name people right off the bat, it's understandable, being as in Touhou they fight using 'Spellcard Rules' which basically is a way that no one dies in these disputes, and no matter the power level, there's a slightly more leveled field.
Long story short, none of the characters have any set orientations in the games, the OC is ok as long as he's not blasting Reimu or Marisa or Yukari right off the bat, and it is NOT a 'lesbiant safe space' at all.
I was wondering, because if he was ignoring valid human male canon characters to pair the females with that would be kind of puzzling at best and offensive at worst, but clearly pairing off those guys would only appeal to a specific audience (which would probably include me if I had any idea who they were, because I'm weird that way). Thanks for that :)
I did in fact check out a feminist blog on their condescending recommendation. Found no articles on "oh noez, random stranger dares write fanfic about non-females", but it did lead me to the bands Gravy Train!!!! (their punctuation) and Voodoo Queens, which was worth checking out :)
I've tried to see these people's point of view, and I just can't. Before we even start on the feminist thing, trying to claim a total stranger's fandom with which you (general-you) admitted to being unfamiliar as your own "safe space" is sheer ... I don't even know. It pissed me off badly enough when someone condescendingly explained to me about a Redwall rant of mine that mice do not have an incest taboo, when it should have been blatantly clear from the rant that I was talking about mice which talk, wear clothes, and adopt infant ferrets as their own, so ... yeah. Or the time I talked about Mossflower's vermin and someone else assumed I was talking about something called the Skaven, which I'd never heard of.
I can understand being pissed off at the overall trend that interesting male heroes outnumber females in fiction, as I kind of am annoyed by that too and was even before this whole debacle. (Personally I think that's a sign there are too few interesting female characters, not too many male ones, but I get the point there.) But given that this is fanfic ... There is no limit on the amount of fanfic which can be written, or on the amount of space to put fanfic. This guy (I'm guessing it's a guy, though it may not be - didn't say and I don't want to blog-stalk) is not taking away a publisher's or producer's attention/time/money from worthy books/movies/TV/etc with female heroes, and nor is he taking money from an audience which they might otherwise spend on things with female heroes. He mentioned that he labelled it as containing a male character, so people who don't want to read it don't have to, so it's hardly "shifting focus" of the entire fandom, which is still focused mostly on female characters. Given the nature of fanfic archives, unless the fic is either very good or very bad it'll probably be all but forgotten in a week. I fail to see how this is worthy of the level of vitriol it spawned. Also, they argue that because well-written male heroes outnumber well-written female heroes in fiction overall, they're entitled to be angry. According to that argument, it would be possible to get offended at men for doing just about anything. Maybe this simile isn't great because fanfic isn't something that's actually important to everyday life (our opinions notwithstanding), but here goes: plenty of workplaces sadly still discriminate against women and minorities despite laws against doing so, does that mean it's offensive for straight white able-bodied cisgendered men to have or apply for jobs at all?
Also, I did not realise "I am not a member of a certain privileged group" meant "I can assume the worst of total strangers just because they may or may not be a member of said group and nobody is allowed to tell me this is rude".
They weren't being nice, but you aren't required to be nice when telling someone they're wrong.
I understand it's wrong that women are still excluded from many things men do, but surely trying to exclude men from something they've been involved in since it began, and which women have also been involved in since it began, and which was never labelled as being "only" for one gender, is not going to help the cause of equality?
Sounds ugly. They're not going to back down; you're not going to either (at least I hope you won't), so I would just try to get past it and move on to something else. Some battles you just won't win. . .
If it helps, I do not think you are in the wrong here. Strong females are more like Athena and less like Amazons, if you get my loosely made analogy.
On the Fanmix community, someone just posted a mix about angels. I didn't see the poster's gender, but they said they'd always been fascinated by angels and "always hated seeing them portrayed as females". That I do find offensive. For one thing, aren't angels supposed to be sexless in most official depictions, and for another, why would it matter if they were portrayed as one or the other?
A) It matters
B) They're wrong; cherubim are male, and so are the main angels' names: Gabriel, Michael, etc.
C) Many are androgynous
I some time thinking about this one. I'm definitely not a scholar on the subject, but the only named angels I think I remember were Gabriel and Michael. They might not have had any gender actually attached to them originally, but those names have always been associated with males, so I suppose that a person could think that angels should be male. And all the figurines I've ever seen look female to me in the facial features.
I had never thought about it before, but I suppose some people could have a male gender idea of angels, and feel left out by all the female looking figurines? Personally I prefer hand-painted cherubs that are not glazed a solid white. Maybe it all just boils down to personal preference. (Of course there is a difference in stating their personal preference and being rude about it. The person still could have been being rude.)
Only angels named in the Bible are Gabriel and Michael. All other ninja turtle angel names come from various extrabiblical sources. As for a biblical description of what (some, at least) angels look like, read Ezekiel. We're talking four mix-and-match heads, flaming wheels and whatnot here. Most definitely not just female in any case.
Elcalion
I agree, feminism =/= no men involved. And just 'cos there's a lot of femslash in the fandom doesn't mean everything has to be femslash.
Starting from the point that they accuse someone of being misogynist just for adding a male OC (it's not a matter if it's a Stu or not for this) to the point of "lesbian safe place" (I can't still catch the meaning of that, was ffcrant done just to have femslash?)
Anyway, from what I've read on the flamewar, it seems to me that people were discussing different points: adding a male character, trying to have no critics, and then I lost track. But I think dicussing it on the web is a bit useless, and as on the web you don't have to show your face, many people is ruder than in their normal lives.
Hope I hadn't taken out another point to discuss about :D
I like feminism... but yeah, I thought the point of it was for men and women to be equal.
More whining about "fauxpology". Since that's exactly what they'd say whatever I said, I'm tempted to make another post saying "You know what? Yes. I lied. I don't care what any of you think." Won't help, but God do I want to ...
http://community.livejournal.com/ffrantsrants
I gave up, blocked comments from it, and took the comm off my friends page because I was sick of the whining. According to them I "want others to educate me" and it's "not their job". Because so many feminist blogs would bother to put up articles about "male character put in fandom which already has male characters ONOEZ" and it's totally unreasonable to expect people to explain why they personally are offended when you asked them, gasp, why they personally are offended.
Frankly, I'd say back out. I know I said something down the thread about ethics of apologies, but might as well ignore it now. It's too big a mess to clean up with some well-phrased words. I read some of the comments on that post, and they make me want to tear my hair out, and I'm not even involved! Charming. FFrants can certainly be fun, but I imagine it's a community best left with as few comments as possible on such topics.
...of course, as has just occured to me, it is a rant community and therefore not all that likely to be populated (en masse; I'm certainly not aiming to offend you or the majority of your friends/peers/other sensible people here) by those who are all that open to calm, collected discussion. Certainly not when their feelings are hurt. Bleh. What a mess. I feel so bad for you, tangled up in there. And the amount of comments! You must've been typing all day :(
Possibly it's related to having experienced some gender identity issues myself (I eventually settled on my bio gender, but for a while I wondered because I'm an extremely un-girly girl) but for whatever reason I react just as badly to misandry as misogyny. I'd like to think my theoretical real-life boy self wouldn't have often been assumed misogynist until proven otherwise just by virtue of inconveniently existing at women.
Also, I want to take the apology back and say to them "Show me the feminist blog which devotes a single damn word to 'Oh no! Competent male fictional fanfic character put in fandom which already has competent male canon characters interacting with a majority of female characters! THE INJUSTICE!' and I will show you a bunch of petty women with too much time on their hands and no priorities." Funny, I thought feminist blogs deal with things that are actually important to the cause of feminism.
I'm also tempted to link them to Pokegirls. See, that has lots of female characters! Surely that must be a feminist safe space? (Hint: no it's not, and it's not worksafe either, so don't Google. TVTropes is safer.)
It'd be rather hypocritical - I've done it myself. And it's human. Good thing about the internet is that you can just fade out of existence in one community and (likely) never encounter those people again.
Otherwise I'd have expected a lot more "but you HAVE to agree with me, you're a woman!" I don't know whether to be flattered or not by that. I have XX chromosomes and corresponding biology, and identify as female, but I quite like the idea of being able to "be" male as well some of the time (hence what Laburnum and Hemlock do in my PPC stuff). And I'm honestly becoming far more keen on the idea because of this. I'm ashamed of having to share my gender with people who see nothing hypocritical in claiming that they're being mistreated because of their gender because a person wrote a fanfic with a male character in it in a fandom of which the complainers haven't even heard but decide "must" be for feminists because it has more women than men in it (so do brothels, womens' prisons, womens' clothing stores, and maternity wards, are they automatically lesbian and/or feminist havens?) and men have never been excluded from it and were in fact its target audience, then scream that I'm "giving the straight male the benefit of the doubt". Uh, yes, because from what I have seen this writer may not in fact be either straight or male and even if he is that does not mean he is necessarily wrong and/or trying to harm women?
I'm not leaving ffrants, though. I have as much right to be there as they do, and I'm not leaving because I think some people there are being irritating. It's ffrants, if I had to do that I'd never have joined it.
I honestly don't know why I bothered to argue. Maybe I'm under-sensitive, but I find it hard to get genuinely offended by fanfic. Whining at fanficcers isn't going to make them stop doing what they want to do, or else we'd send our missions directly to them, and a fanficcer doing something isn't going to make sane people suddenly subscribe to that fanficcer's views. Even "For Your Eyes Only", no matter how much my agent characters screamed and swore and puked about it, just made real-me go "Sheesh. Oh well, he's a moron, whaddyagonnado?" A man who expressed views like that to me in real life would be either rapidly arrested or looking for his teeth, but since I can't do anything about it from here, I find it hard to care.
Bear in mind that you're also sharing your gender with a large number of PPCers, not to mention most of the goodfic writers out there (judging by sheer statistics).
I think there are different levels of sensitivity and no one can be labelled "over-" or "under-" just because they're not the same as everyone else. That's not trying to force equality, but uniformity, and that's even worse.
I know I shouldn't worry about it, but I keep coming up with new holes to poke in the argument and it's really frustrating that I can't go say them. Like, their argument was, as far as I can tell, that it's offensive to write about men because male characters doing interesting things outnumber females in popular fiction and stories about women doing interesting things are more difficult to get published. By that logic, since men have sadly done their best to exclude women from so many fields over the centuries, isn't it basically offensive for any man to do just about anything?
I'm gonna go affirm my feminine side in the way I like to do it - by reading slashy fanfic. Hey, I'm female, therefore theoretically anything that makes me feel empowered counts as female empowerment.
The stupidity, it burns.
I really wish people weren't so sensitive about sexuality-related issues that they feel they have to fly off the handle at things like these. I don't particularly feel like joining in this argument on lj (I'm not 18 so I can't yet anyway, and discussions with people like this give me a massive headache), but ever since 9th grade Ethnic Studies class, I've been hearing these horrifically skewed versions of feminist ideas, and I'm getting sick of it.
I believe you're in the right, if only because I agree with you that the presence of male characters does not at all detract from the quality or competence of the female characters, and I strongly disagree with the points someone said about how "most of the time when an oppressed group says that a privileged person is ...ing up, the oppressed group is correct", and "men have no place in a woman-dominated space." Clearly this person has never met a male cheerleader.
I'm a woman and I'm comfortable enough with that fact that I don't feel threatened when I work alongside men. The notion that others do, in this day and age, whether or not males are often privileged, is simply sad. I'm against this whole "men are pigs" notion that a lot of feminists nowadays entertain, and I'm annoyed that something as silly as putting a male OC in a fandom full of women would have the same effect on these commenters as throwing a bucket of ice water on a cat. These people are insisting that putting a female in a male-dominated place is alright while putting a male in a female-dominated place is demeaning and disrespectful, and in doing so they support the double standards that cause the very sexism that they all have a problem with.
According to OP, there are in fact male characters who canonically have the same abilities the male OC does and are just as competent with them. They don't get in relationships with the girls because nobody gets in a relationship with anyone in this canon, not because the girls are all gay. As I said, I'm pretty sure the game was actually marketed at men, and the angry commenter admitted they're not familiar with the game.
Rhetorical question, of course. You know, I once tried to explain pairing wars to my mother. By the time I was done I had realized exactly how stupid and senseless they are. God bless the internet and all that.
... but A) I don't want to flounce and B) I want to keep using it.
Users refuse to accept attempt at apology for causing offence. I have no idea what they expect, maybe they want me to magically read their brainwaves for the exact phrasing of the apology they want.
These are not the same things. They don't even have anything to do with one another. I know everybody here knows this. But it really, REALLY made me facepalm when I heard this came from a PARINGS discussion.
NO. NO. NO.
Sure. A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. But how many fish do you know even care if a bicycle is in their water or not? The idea is that sure, you don't NEED men to be yourself. But Feminism and lesbianism have nothing to do with each other. If anything, These posters caring that there WAS a guy is more neurotic and against feminist principles than just being cool with it.
It makes me think they are insecure about this character. And insecurity is fear. And people really only fear things that have power over them. You know. Doubt and uncertainty about life, like bills... employment... whether or not a tiger is going to leap out and eat them. That stuff has power over the direction of a person's life. It's powerful and people fear it because not fearing it usually gets you dead.
And these so-called feminists flip out at a /man/ of all things?
By freaking out that there is a man in their little haven, they are displaying the amount of power a male has over them. They are defeating their own argument.
A het relationship is not always an oppressive androcentric dynamic. Lesbian relationships can get abusive and oppressive just as much as het ones. If neither character oppresses the other in the pairing... why the FEMINIST outcry?
What /small/ words.
Having read the thread and your post, at first glance this sounds like someone who isn't particularly self-secure with their sexuality and feels the need to lash out, honestly.
That said, all perceptions of the poster aside, I definitely do not agree that feminisim requires no men to be around. That's just... well, you already covered it, really. I agree with you. So now, I don't think you're at all in the wrong.
I think the briefest argument to support you is to do a genderflip: There are lots of fandoms mostly or entirely populated by men in which female characters are welcomed, even asked for, in a romantic sense. They aren't considered inherently evil, so why should it be so the other way around? I completely do not understand why it is that there can be a whole movement for feminisim without respecting that the other side needs to be supported too, or at least not buried under all the propoganda, because the moment "feminism" becomes synonymous with "women in charge and men subsurvient", they're undercutting their own ideals - the ideals which started cries for women's equality in the first place.
...And, now seeing the thread, I see you've already covered that. In detail. With graphs and illustrations, so to speak. And she still doesn't get it. Huh. Honestly, Laburnum, I'd say your best bet is to back out of the conversation and let her be an idiot in her own circles, because she's not going to listen. Anyone reading that thread can see perfectly well that you're being calm and rational while she's throwing a tantrum. You're in the right, even if you can't win the argument.
... I did kind of see the point. Women are, sadly, not yet equal to men, and I can understand why some of us would feel it was an intrusion. But the canon isn't women-only, it already has male canon characters even if the focus is on women, and since it's a shooter game I'm willing to bet the game in question was designed by, was mostly marketed at, and is mostly played by males even if a lot of the ficcers are female. So, as far as I can see, it's not a "female safe space", it's a game which happens to contain a lot of female characters and have fic written about it by women.
I suppose it's hard for me to accept anyone saying that women aren't ("yet") equal to men, because in my entire life, I have never seen anything to indicate that. I've never seen any woman lose out to a man for a job, nor be treated in any way that I'd define as gender-base unfair by them. I've certainly never felt the least but un-equal myself. Maybe I'm lucky, but I'm bloody happy being lucky, and this is the way the world should be, shouldn't it?
Anyway, the essential point is still the same. You're not in the wrong.
... because, while I've had the good fortune not to experience it myself, I know women do get mistreated a lot. But I'm pretty sure that if we were 100% equal to men worldwide in all areas, all that would happen is that men would be mistreated an equal amount of the time by both women and other men. Women are just currently easier targets. While I'd like to remove gender, biological sex, sexual orientation, race, age, and disabilities or lack thereof as a reason for it, the fact is people are going to act like asshats to each other whatever we do to try to stop it. All that would happen if prejudice was removed would be that people acted that way because they thought that specific person was an easy target.
Too much politics and too many personal encounters involved. You're probably quite right; it certainly happens in schools, for instance, that children will find someone to tease regardless. I guess I just prefer my fairly simple approach of act-like-all's-equal-instead-of-whine-and-maybe-you'll-make-it-turn-out-that-way. But I'm sure a lot of people disagree, and that isn't the point of this thread anyway.
I've never understood the mentality that having competant men present immediately stops a story from being feminist. To be honest, that attitude strikes me as anti-feminist. Sort of "Women can only be badass when there are no men, and if men are there then the women should return to the kitchen where they belong".
The idea that to show a strong woman as having a romantic side makes her no longer strong is also rather obnoxious. If I'm reading your post correctly, that's all the OP had done in his/her fic: have a love story involving a male OC and a female canon character. Having a woman fall in love doesn't immediately take away everything that makes her, well, her.
(To be honest, it seems to me that you can't breathe on fanficrants without someone throwing a hissyfit)
I should probably read the thread in question before responding, but it's not like this sort of thing is uncommon, so:
No, you're not wrong. I don't doubt that the situation is exactly what you say it is, and that people are overreacting. I agree with you 100% that gender equality is the goal of true feminism, not female superiority to the point of erasing men from existence. That's just stupid. These people sound like misandrists to me.
And this is more or less tangential (i.e., don't quote me), but seriously, suppose someone made a similar argument about a "hetero safe space" in some other canon? Good lord, can you imagine the outcry? >.>
~Neshomeh, who also believes in treating everyone equally.
What I'm getting from them is that women and GLBTQ folks not being equal with straight men now means that women/GLBTQ can have "safe spaces" in fandom with no male OCs but can also insert characters from their own genders and orientations into canons without them while everywhere with straight men has to allow women/GLBTQ into it. I might be missing a point but this smacks of having your cake and eating it to me, and also like making a fuss over something of no real consequence.
I did apologise because I can sort of see their point, but surely even if men and women aren't equal the way to get them so is to interact with both men and women as if they are equal while doing things of actual consequence to ensure they become so rather than arguing on the internet? For example, by not assuming that specific men are misogynist until proven otherwise?
I wasn't meaning to insinuate that female and GLBTQ characters shouldn't be included in fandoms populated by straight men. Just that the reverse could also be true. Turning a canonically gay character straight is offensive, yeah, but surely a character who has no canon orientation is up for grabs to the het writers as well.
Equality means that it works the same both ways, no fuss, no bother.
~Neshomeh
I have to say that I don't know if it's my Aspergers' or just me, but I do still have a tendency to assume that everyone is equal and everyone will act as if everyone is so. I've never face-to-face encountered genuine, malicious sexism, racism, ableism, or homophobia (I've seen people throw terms which are so around as insults, but they were just picking whatever would be offensive, not actually hating those groups, and I've seen people do and occasionally accidentally myself done offensive things because of thoughtlessness - just see my sporkings), so it's sometimes hard for me to remember to keep an eye out for thoughtless assumptions on my own part.
Coming from an extremely diverse area where a good portion of people I know are openly homosexual, coming out of the closet doesn't mean social crucifixion, and no one cares one way or the other if you're male, female, talking chipmunk, or whatever, I know exactly what that's like.
Maybe the fact that I was raised in an all-girls school is skewing my view, I don't know. I don't remember any lesbians at my school, but presumably there were some whom I just didn't meet. I've met plenty of different groups of people since leaving school, and they've all just been people as far as I can tell. I've made offensive comments before without realising they were offensive, but usually people accept that I am trying to apologise, and the ffranters won't and probably wouldn't whatever I say, so I'm sorely tempted to make another post taking my apology back. Wouldn't help anyone if I did, but it's tempting. Why should I apologise to people determined not to accept it?
Not if it's a world issue rather than tending to someone's wounded feelings over a misunderstanding. And as you say, it'd probably be pointless.
That said, let me second OA's suggestion of the term "Equalist". It seems a lot more straightforward.
I should also point out that the girl throwing the biggest fit told me a couple of days ago that I could no longer use the word "stupid" because it's "ableism" and I should start saying "illogical" or "ignorant". My God this woman needs to sort out her priorities ... Then again so do I, because I bothered to argue.
I never liked the term "Feminist", it seems... too gender specific. (Anyone know if the term "equalist" has been coined yet?)
Speaking another person with Asperger's, I'm put in the unusual position where I care about the rights of people...while being utterly baffled by people's behavior at the same time.
Anyway, I'm all for equal rights... but from what I can tell from the original post, that's not the way to do it. If anything, it sounds like the people complaining are somewhat close-minded.
People like that are why I'd rather bury myself in fiction than deal with real life.
Commenter clearly is only familiar with straw feminism, and needs to do some actual research before they try and make rants.
Just out of curiosity, which game is it?
Rant in question is here, my username there is "chelonianmobile": http://community.livejournal.com/fanficrants/10140435.html#cutid1
I genuinely want to know; why is what I'm saying so horribly offensive? "Men exist and it's not offensive to women to write about them" and "OP did not say they were male" don't strike me as worth that much fuss.
I know Touhou! It's 99.99999% fan service! Hell, the reason why few-to-none canon pairings exist is so the fandom can ship whomever they want. Also, calling the characters of Touhou "women" is stretching it
Even without that bit, it's no more a "lesbian-safe place" than, say, Love Hina, or Panty and Stocking, or any other anime/manga/game designed for male-oriented fan service.
I tried to make a (much longer, slightly ranty) post to that effect, but apparently you have to be a member of FFrants to post comments, and I can't be arsed to join.
I'd never heard of the game, but the fact that it's a shooter game made me pretty sure it was marketed at men. So by these girls' own arguments, aren't they "invading a male safe space"? Because a game like that sounds like as much of a feminist safe space as the Playboy mansion. (Not saying women can't either enjoy playing the game or enjoy working at or otherwise being in the Playboy mansion. Just that people shouldn't be surprised that neither are geared specifically at feminists.) Arguing Commenter admitted she'd never heard of the game, so I honestly don't know why she ignored me when I pointed out that I doubted it was specifically aimed at women and therefore it was unreasonable not to expect men to want to be involved.
Nevermind. Didn't see the other comment.
As you said, had this canon been geared towards a pro-feminist agenda, then having a male OC successfully flirt with one of the canonical females would have been problematic. The way you've described both the universe and the story, however, makes your argument acceptable.
One last question from me: was this about Touhou?
I've now been accused of trolling for saying that I thought feminism was about treating men and women equally and therefore both men and women should be able to do everything the other gender can do (allowing for individual and biological variation eg XY people can't give birth except in mpreg) and therefore both men and women can write OCs of their own gender if they wish. I remain baffled as to why this is so offensive. I don't think I treat men and women any differently, and apparently I'm being misogynist by not immediately leaping on this person and demanding they prove they're not misogynist.