To Stephen Amell and the Arrow Writers and Eps.

Subject: To Stephen Amell and the Arrow Writers and Eps.
From: An Arrow Fan.
Date: 23 Nov 2016

Dear Arrow,

There's been a lot of tension and passive aggressive discussions on social media lately. I’m not saying one is wrong and one is right. It is not black and white. As a female viewer, it has been really difficult lately.

When we make criticism of an aspect on the show, it is not to attack somebody personally. We want to make a point across that could be up for discussion or reflection. Nobody wants the show to fail, nobody wants to hurt anyone, what we want is our criticism to be seen as a valid one. We want people to understand that it is an issue that we really care about, that even if female viewers are not the main target market for comic book shows, we want to feel that our opinion, our voice and our concerns matter.

It is such a tense climate right now and people are rightfully emotional about the treatment and representation of minorities. It has come to our attention and heart that the female viewers or the ones who enjoy the more emotionally driven parts of the show are treated and seen as lesser since season 5 has started. All the attention and promoting as been targeted towards the comic book viewers who are often heartbreakingly crowdsourcing their hate towards the female characters on the show for being multi-dimensional characters and expressing any type of feelings. How do you think that makes us feel? As women, it send us the message that we are less important, that our voice doesn’t matter, that we shouldn’t be represented as a vital independent human not tied to a man. The saddest thing is that the part of the audience keeps getting approval from the controlling, powerful forces behind Arrow.

I am tired of being labeled as an “Olicity Shippers” which puts me in a box of overgeneralization that assume that all I want from Arrow is Oliver and Felicity to proclaim their love for each other every five minutes and make out. On the contrary, all I want from Arrow is a good treatment of female characters, a balance of action and emotion and the portrayal of a healthy relationship that they had been selling for years. I want justice for the characters who have been there since the beginning; the reason why I sit in front of my television every week. All I want is for the cast, crew and Stephen Amell to try to understand our point of view without thinking that we are attacking him personally. I don’t want to be silenced, I want to be heard, I want my opinion to matter and not pass as an “attack” because I have concerns that are close to my heart.

Thank you,

An Arrow fan.

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