The Real Reason Aisha Hated Guys (But Actually, She Didn’t)

Aisha had a grudge against guys in the early seasons of Winx Club. In fact, she almost banned them all from her life in season three! Have you ever wondered where this beef came from?

“Well, she’s a feminist,” you say.

Yes, because feminist equals man-hater. ?

I’m not saying she’s not a feminist, but can we please stop feeding that stereotype? Just because a female character is strong and believes women are capable and deserve equality doesn’t mean she should shun men. Some feminists have nothing against them and are even in happy relationships with them.

Let’s try again. Sometimes when someone hates an entire group because one trait, it’s a learned response. Someone (maybe a parent) taught them to fear people in the group, or the person had a negative experience with one or more members of it. If not, the person is just prejudiced.

Let’s assume Aisha isn’t just sexist for no reason. Is there a moment from her past that made her uncomfortable with men?

…Well, no. We can’t point to a specific moment from her backstory. As far as we know, she didn’t spend time with any guys her age until she left Andros. (Silvan doesn’t count, since he’s a comics-only character.) She didn’t date before then, either.

Maybe she had an unpleasant experience with a man from the royal court. I ran into a fan on Tumblr who made up such an experience for her backstory. Trigger warning: according to them, she must have been sexually assaulted. That’s also why she was scared of dark in Winx season two.

Sigh. ?

Look, no matter how much more “mature” you think Winx Club used to be, this is and has always been a show aimed at kids. The minimum target age for the first three seasons was eight years old (five in season three). There’s no way Rainbow would write something that horrific into this show. That impending disaster called Fate: The Winx Saga? Sure. I bet there will be lots of sick stuff like that in there just to amp up the edginess. But it doesn’t belong in Winx Club.

(Side note: I hate how both fanfic and professional writers think “for adults” equals dark. You can tell a mature story without making all the characters angsty or cramming every disturbing experience you can think of into their lives.)

A Better Explanation

Anyway, I think the truth is more obvious — and less traumatic. I said earlier we couldn’t blame a specific moment from Aisha’s backstory, but I may have fibbed. A little. It wasn’t a specific moment — it was her whole childhood!

She had no freedom, right? Whose fault was that? Her father, King Teredor.

For most of us, our fathers are the first and most influential men in our lives. Even not having one shapes who you become. Unlike friends and boyfriends, we don’t get to choose who our fathers are or how involved (or not) they’ll be with us.

So the first man Aisha knew confined her to her house, ignored her feelings, stifled her self-expression, and forced her to conform to traditional feminine norms. Off to a great start, guys!

She sang her frustrations to him in her character song, “Live My Life”:

I heard you say that I’m a rebel
That I don’t follow any rule
And you know it won’t get better
‘Cause I won’t change my attitude for no one

Daddy, please don’t be upset
Remember when you were my age
You were so restless, we’re the same
So won’t you set me free?
This is just me
Love me for who I really am
(Who I am)

[CHORUS]

You taught me all I know, that’s why
I will always be your girl
I wanna be out there in the world
I don’t wanna be in chains
No more

The Winx franchise is full of signs that King Teredor was the problem.

  • In her dream in “The Invisible Pixies” (Winx season 2, episode 13), one of her servants said her father called to make sure she attended her lessons. The sequence may have been a dream, but this probably happened a lot, which is why it was in her subconscious. If that’s true, it means King Teredor may not have been around much.
  • In “One Last Fluttering of Wings” (Winx season 3, episode 13), Aisha wanted to help protect Andros from Valtor’s possessed mermaids. But her father had already given up and wanted her to go back to the safety of Alfea. (Eventually, she convinced him to keep fighting.)
  • In comic #131, “La Prova di Nex” (Nex’s Test), her mother Queen Niobe trusted Nex right away, but Teredor didn’t. He doubted that the former Paladin could protect Aisha, to which she herself replied, “Nex is not my bodyguard!”

Two more examples. First, let’s talk about her ban on men again. I think the Winx fandom took it too seriously — and out of context. Remember: she was mad about the arranged marriage at the time. If she banned guys, the wedding would be off, right? ?

More importantly, notice who she included in the ban:

No father, no boyfriends, no guys at all!

No father, huh? What did that mean anyway? Banning boyfriends is easy — and again, it covered her unwanted fiancé — but how do you ban your dad? Was she gonna stop talking to him? Was she gonna disown him? I don’t think she’d thought it through.

But it didn’t matter because three episodes later, she told her mother she wanted to choose her own guy. So I guess the ban was over.

Finally, you know how Aisha likes to tell guys, “I can take care of myself”? Well, her overprotective father didn’t think she could. What if because of him, she convinced herself that all men think women are helpless? So whenever a guy wanted to help her, it triggered her anxiety.

That’s another reason why I loved the dock scene with Nex in “Into the Depths of Andros” (Winx season 8, episode 8). When she tried her line on him, his response was: “I know that.” Nex has never doubted her competence. It’s what he loves about her! He knew she needed help this time, though (because of her state of mind), but he approached her as a teammate, not her guardian.

I love how these two aren’t afraid to challenge each other’s behavior and false beliefs, yet they still care for each other. Ugh, they’re such an underrated couple! ?

Final Thoughts

So Aisha never really hated guys. She just projected her anger with her father onto every male she met. (Of course, she doesn’t hate him, either — when he’s not being overprotective.) And as I’ll talk about (again) in a future post, her “strong, independent woman” act is also rooted in her past. Stay tuned.

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NerdyPrincesses2Mollz
NerdyPrincesses2Mollz
August 17, 2020 10:10 am

“Just because a female character is strong and believes women are capable and deserve equality doesn’t mean she should shun men.”

SAY IT LOUDER. I am so tired of this trope and it needs to die.

SirenixWinx
August 17, 2020 1:39 pm

This is maybe also the reason she attracts toxic people, like the toxic boyfriends she had in the comics.
Her father was a dominant and controlling person.
The boyfriends she dates later in the comics have some of the same traits,
the one was a misogynist, and told Aisha how she should be or how she should behave.
And the other was one was a player, which ignores Aisha’s feelings and walks over her.
All just like her father. But i could be wrong, this was just a thought.

knight7572
August 18, 2020 6:03 am

good post with very plausible and logical reason for your point
now i wouldn’t call fate the winx saga an impending disaster as it hasn’t fudging aired yet
-_- this is one of those things that really cheeses me off that people judge a show before they sit down and watch episode 1
i think Sirenixwinx did a post on why we shouldn’t judge Fate the winx saga yet but i’m probably wrong on that

knight7572
Reply to  Tori
August 18, 2020 7:24 am

i wouldn’t say the series is dying

SirenixWinx
Reply to  knight7572
August 19, 2020 9:23 am

Exactly. Yeah, i love the newer Seasons, but from that standpoint, i would’ve wanted Winx to end in Season 4 – which was a perfect ending. More than Season 3, which alot of people claim was the original ending, but that’s easily to debunk because WinxClubRus released information in 2019 about Season 3 AND Season 4 being in production AT THE SAME TIME.

knight7572
Reply to  SirenixWinx
August 19, 2020 1:17 pm

if you develop multiple seasons simultaneously then you risk a problem not being on the same page as the S3 producers don’t know what the S4 producers are planning and vice versa

knight7572
Reply to  Tori
August 19, 2020 1:44 am

i don’t think the writers had an idea of where they were going after season 4 wrapped
but there was the winx’s love lives but i doubt we’ll get a conclusion on that

SirenixWinx
Reply to  Tori
August 18, 2020 2:20 pm

In other words: There are no knots to tie for the seriesfinale.

SirenixWinx
Reply to  Tori
August 18, 2020 2:18 pm

Yeah, but how are you going to do that if Winx Club doesn’t have a goal to work towards to? What does the seriesfinale actually look like? What is needed to finally wrap-up the whole series? The old Seasons had one goal, developing the Winx into young woman and guardian fairies. But the new Seasons don’t have such an endgoal.
It’s so frustrating to see the overaching storyline dissapear from Season 4 onward.

knight7572
Reply to  Tori
August 18, 2020 9:39 am

how can fairies beat the popularity of cats

knight7572
Reply to  Tori
August 18, 2020 9:34 am

if its gonna end then it should have a satisfactory ending where they wrap everything up neatly

SirenixWinx
Reply to  Tori
August 18, 2020 7:57 am

I agree with Winx Club dying. What’s the show about now? It doesn’t have endgoal and a overarching plot anymore. Which the older Seasons had.

SirenixWinx
Reply to  Tori
August 18, 2020 7:35 am

Yeah, Season 8 still hasn’t aired in the Netherlands yet.

Also, i heard Rainbow doesn’t have involvement in the production on the live action. And this is Netflix’d production only. But i could be wrong.

SirenixWinx
Reply to  Tori
August 18, 2020 7:24 am

It really doesn’t seem like they know what they are doing.
When Iginio was asked what we could expect from the Live-Action,
his response was: ”The series will be great, they did a great job. Having said that, I said everything”.

What a vague answer is that ?

D Ahsia
D Ahsia
August 19, 2020 6:10 am

Sincere opinion: Disowning a father is the best one can do at those lose end scenarios and should be the first option if you are legal-aged.

Unless the writters loves you and your
family problems magically disolves in
the infinite ocean.

And as far as I know one doesn’t project anger in ALL males for what one single parent made, only on the ones with the same kind of actitude or modes . [Thing that actually makes AishaxRoy ship imposible to sustain more than “x” months; just as the comic series love interest]

Stop talking to him? That sounds easy but it’s not as she might be haunted by her family and mistreated as an “ungreatfull brat” when near her patents.

Disowning your king and heritage? It’s easier than expected if and only if someone suports you and have a place to safetely stay away from them [5 friends and Alfea/Love&Pet in the Aisha’s place], else it will fail.

Staying away in independance and being the crowned princes guardian fairy? That’s a bomb for nerves and could fragment the peaple of Andros between tradicionalist and reformist…

So the Gary-Sue Nabu was the easiest response for not creating a mess out of her arrenged marriage situation and staying in children fairy demographic, so:

Adult demographic with no rated violence and gross **** happening in the story? That was season 4; a guide to start living up with responsabilities, taxes, “not treating your underaged friend as if you were her mother”, learning how to talk with costumers and defeating evil wizards . . . That’s what is called slice of live show.

So I really think that Fate is gonna be an ultimate
fanservice series for pre-Nick fans before cancelling
the show.

Side-Note: the parents who tend to complain about the obvious fantastic dresses that couldn’t be weared in real life [specially enchantix] of the first winx series are more likely to be the toxic ones obseced with gross things trying to preserve the children inocence and overprotecting them from the world than the healty ones dreaming on a better world with no stereotypes and sexualization of women.

Before somethimg else comes up: I am not suggesting that tearing apart yor family is good, in fact it’s horrible, but there are times that it can not be avoided and in Aisha’s place it all ended happily for her and her parents.

Secrets
Secrets
Reply to  D Ahsia
August 20, 2020 4:21 am

The parents are sometimes the ” reason ” WinX club started to toned down the maturity of the content. I mean, not sure what are your opinions, but I think that having some real- life issues make the show more interesting. This isn’t to say that gritty contents are better ( In fact, I don’t watch a lot of shows because of the too real content.) Just balance the maturity with some childlike happiness (like how Precure does it).

You know something, sometimes, I think the parents are ironic… I am not them but I am pretty sure they would want their daughters to be empowered ( I think). So, why focus on the WinX’s clothes so much? This show for god’s sake is about a group of young girls saving the world together. And if they say sexy clothes, what about the racy shows and music videos? ( Those are like almost everywhere.) So, u are gonna not let ur kids watch tv because of all this?? Why not just educate them on what the show’s premise is about rather than saying their clothes are sexy. Seriously, what century are we in?

knight7572
Reply to  Secrets
August 20, 2020 7:45 am

yeah this is the 21st century not the 19th or somethin

knight7572
Reply to  Tori
August 21, 2020 11:53 am

overcorrecting is never a good thing as it only makes things worse

Secrets
Secrets
Reply to  Tori
August 21, 2020 4:10 am

Those miserable moments and experiences of human life is not a good idea. How would someone who been through the ordeals of life would feel when they witnessed the same thing happening in the show? Wouldn’t that trigger them?

Also, adult lives are already miserable as it is. Do u seriously want to make them felt even worse through the ” dark content “? Anyhow, I am not against real life content or childlike happiness content. But, seriously. Don’t go on one extreme or another. Too much dark stuff make the show too depressing and you wouldn’t even want to watch it. Too much childlike stuff make it feel cringy.

Secrets
Secrets
Reply to  Secrets
August 25, 2020 7:44 am

Yeah, I heard that news and it’s pretty tragic for the Avatar fans. It’s almost like let’s say Fate the WinX saga didn’t have Ignio Staffi’s team. Did you know that the same thing happened for Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna? Apparently, the original writer for the show dropped out to because of “creative differences”.

I admired you for your courage to stay true to yourself. I also stray away from shows with “dark” contents.

Secrets
Secrets
Reply to  Secrets
August 25, 2020 1:25 am

I admired your stepdad for being cool. To be able to enjoy something that was being considered as “childish” even when you are at your 60’s isn’t something everyone can do. I, myself too fall into the same mentality eschewing anything related to children ( although sometimes it’s really cheesy for my standard) in favor of watching something that was more grown up ( I am in my 20’s). But, when someone here brought up the gritty content and how shows have to be dark to appeal to young adults, it suddenly really gets me thinking. We watched WinX club and stick with it till Season 8 ( although for me, I don’t like Season 5 till Season 8) because of how the show really made you daydream and made you feel that you are living in a different environment.

Whereas shows like 13 reasons why can be triggering for some of us. When you watched shows like this, all it will ever did is reminding you of the things you went through ( That’s my perception. Then again, putting these real life things can sometimes be relatable for some audiences.).

You actually made an interesting point about how maturity isn’t whether you are watching shows that are ” dark”. Something I also have to remember.. I sometimes felt kind of ” immature” for liking things targeted to kids. Another thing is sometimes, it’s those who made fun of people liking childish things are the one who are the least mature. It’s like they are pretending to be mature but their EQ and mentality can be seriously childish. ( In this case, watching a show that is dark made them feel mature but to be honest, they can still be so immature in other aspects).

D. Ahsia
D. Ahsia
Reply to  Tori
August 29, 2020 5:50 am

First: I’m late as ussual to reply…
…aand second: WOW!! It’s pretty impresive how this post comments devepolved, almost like reading another article, and talking about easy way out; that was a terrible way out, how a kid would actually accept not to fight for her rights even if the arrenged person is desirable? At least both parents backed out from trying to force it over, but the what if’s are quite a bad deal, something that remembers me another show where a couple in same situation ends living hapilly ever after (almost) but in a more natural way (mo dao zu shi second season) in wich said couple acted as divorced before even be together aaaand the bride’s parents that where engaged and didn’t get along **only mentioning ’cause the similarities** so why would Aisha end up with someone the same as her father?? No right answer,that only would have worked if she had no self-steam or something that made her need some big guy protecting her as a child but as that not being the case it’s just a plain no.

Actually the mature shows can’t be the Netflix shows at all; Mature doesn’t equal live-action series roleplaying darkness, if that was the case, almost all television would be laveled for mature audiences..
In my opinion mature content means down to earth content and personal growth within characters, something most of young shows lack (like why alcohol always ends wrong if one can actually drink and not ending the bad way or the troope everyone must watch out exces?) so, after certain game of thrones camed up, the new shows have been trying to re-loop the formula all over again even if settled in other time-era just because that sells.

Fun fact; I had seen much more mature kidz cartoons with ploteholes and magical stuff happening with no reason than said netflix OG series. The reason is simply that: Netflix kind off series roleplays darkness without knowing it, so one can’t just write a story of “I almost burn my mom by accident and I’m traumatized or scared from my powers so now I’ll be in camp fairy school to control them” without actually knowing how shock/low self control/depresion and self-sacrificing family life for their better good works in real-live (Trully wish that filtered casting dialog from fate is fake; sounds like a mess but an improvement from season 5 Bloom at the same time).. so I’m not saying “No” for a live-action winx series, I’m just saying that it must have a message within and well written characters; if not it will end up being another depresed teen novel *cought* adult show on the list.

Side Note: Chilling adventures of Sabrina netflix original series ain’t bad at being darker or edgier, where the series got wrong was at reflecting sectarian neopaganism or whatever that was suposed to be since they mixed wicca with masonery and traditional witchcraft with some thelema elements so as it was good at being feminist and acurrate with some real life ritual practices but occultism society is moving forwards in terms of equalty and the only men rules actitude are often related to christian “satanist” sects and the now called masons (who are usurpers from the first masons) – had a bad time studying theology at school.

By the way: Congrats for your birthday!!

knight7572
Reply to  Tori
August 19, 2020 1:19 pm

over-saturated market perhaps

trackback
August 22, 2020 5:28 pm

[…] care of myself.” That’s the motto of the Avoidant. (Aisha says that a lot, doesn’t she? Especially to men.) They want the world to see them as strong and independent, but it’s just the mask they wear to […]

serena
serena

;/the heck