Yeah, my old fandom had several rival ships with the same woman in common, so there was a lot of bashing of the menfolk (Everyone's a rapist except for this one guy, because a lady's only relationship criteria is "not a rapist." Never mind that some of the males receiving that treatment were rapists in canon, so the writers were essentially turning rapists into non-rapists and then making all the non-rapists rapists in order to sell their ship ...).
I don't read a ton of f/f, so maybe it's different there, but I don't think I've run into tons of manbashing. I mean, it's hard to find a story in which all of the men are portrayed as evil, and the men who are bashed are bashed on very different criteria than women who are bashed (slut-shaming is less common, for example). So male bashing is more often a case of character bashing (Sam doesn't really love Dean!), while lady bashing can be character bashing (Jo was so ungrateful and horrible to Ellen!) or it can be bashing based on the fact that a character is a lady (Jo is a slut and she's so slutty she doesn't even notice how Dean is so grossed out by her diseased lady parts!).
If Cas were on a power trip, I wouldn't consider it bashing. If putting him on that power trip required stripping him of all the layers he has in canon and/or insisting that Dean has always hated him, it's bashing. I've also run into Cas just written so horribly that I back-clicked, because Cas doesn't use California surfer slang and if you don't care enough to avoid that then why are you writing him at all? But I'm not sure that's bashing so much as the author not giving a shit.
I'm with you on hating any and all character bashing. It's really my least favorite thing. :/
Re: Questions about character bashing
Yeah, my old fandom had several rival ships with the same woman in common, so there was a lot of bashing of the menfolk (Everyone's a rapist except for this one guy, because a lady's only relationship criteria is "not a rapist." Never mind that some of the males receiving that treatment were rapists in canon, so the writers were essentially turning rapists into non-rapists and then making all the non-rapists rapists in order to sell their ship ...).
I don't read a ton of f/f, so maybe it's different there, but I don't think I've run into tons of manbashing. I mean, it's hard to find a story in which all of the men are portrayed as evil, and the men who are bashed are bashed on very different criteria than women who are bashed (slut-shaming is less common, for example). So male bashing is more often a case of character bashing (Sam doesn't really love Dean!), while lady bashing can be character bashing (Jo was so ungrateful and horrible to Ellen!) or it can be bashing based on the fact that a character is a lady (Jo is a slut and she's so slutty she doesn't even notice how Dean is so grossed out by her diseased lady parts!).
If Cas were on a power trip, I wouldn't consider it bashing. If putting him on that power trip required stripping him of all the layers he has in canon and/or insisting that Dean has always hated him, it's bashing. I've also run into Cas just written so horribly that I back-clicked, because Cas doesn't use California surfer slang and if you don't care enough to avoid that then why are you writing him at all? But I'm not sure that's bashing so much as the author not giving a shit.
I'm with you on hating any and all character bashing. It's really my least favorite thing. :/