On Strong Female Characters
Aug. 1st, 2015 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grimrose_eilwynnThis fucking article:
http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/08/i-hate-strong-female-characters
I should have it on constant reblog status. Every time I read this article, I think, "Yes, yes, YES! PREACH IT, SISTER!" And every time I read it, I am reminded of just how far I have to go as a writer.
Let me explain to you what I mean. The gist of this article is that the Strong Female Character isn't good enough. Why not? you may be asking. How much more could you reasonably ask for?
It's because the Strong Female Character is not a human being. She's a throwaway character. She is the token woman -- kinda like how there's always a token Black person. It's like, "Gee, thanks. Most women are weak and worthless, but yours is STRONG. I get it."
As the author also points out, many of our best and most complex male characters are not strong. They're weak, but they're also more than that. They're vain, or self centered, or addicts -- and yet they are still the heroes. Because there are so many men in films, they are allowed to be themselves. They don't have to represent their gender. They're allowed to be interesting individuals.
I don't want my main female characters strong. I want them interesting. And I want there to be several of them. And I want them to talk to each other. About stuff that's not men. You know. LIKE HOW THERE IS USUALLY MORE THAN ONE MAN AND HE TALKS TO OTHER MEN ABOUT STUFF THAT IS NOT A WOMAN.
I WANT THAT.
But we never get that. Either a woman is weak, or she is strong. Either she is like a woman, or she is like a man, is the implication. And she never has interesting relationships with other women, and she's always the love interest.
I want to see women who are stuck-up, and are not necessarily taken down a peg by the more "human and easygoing" man. I want to see women who are free spirited. I want to see women who are cruel. I want to see women who are kind. I want to see lots of different kinds of women -- the same way you see it in real life.
And I have in fact been so inundated by this culture of "strong women" and "weak women" that I have trouble going outside those lines with my female characters myself. I try to write good female characters, and sometimes I succeed, but other times I get the vague feeling that something's not right. That they're being overshadowed by the men, and there's nothing I can do about it.
Let me make this even plainer to you: I CANNOT EVEN WRITE INTERESTING WOMEN AND I AM ONE.
Women aren't allowed to be interesting. Not in the same way men are. People try so hard to "write female characters." It shouldn't be this hard. Women are a lot like men. They have flaws and foibles and quirks, just like men do. Women should be allowed to flourish in their own right within fiction.
I don't want strong female characters. I want interesting, three-dimensional, flawed, goddamn human female characters.
Rant over.
http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/08/i-hate-strong-female-characters
I should have it on constant reblog status. Every time I read this article, I think, "Yes, yes, YES! PREACH IT, SISTER!" And every time I read it, I am reminded of just how far I have to go as a writer.
Let me explain to you what I mean. The gist of this article is that the Strong Female Character isn't good enough. Why not? you may be asking. How much more could you reasonably ask for?
It's because the Strong Female Character is not a human being. She's a throwaway character. She is the token woman -- kinda like how there's always a token Black person. It's like, "Gee, thanks. Most women are weak and worthless, but yours is STRONG. I get it."
As the author also points out, many of our best and most complex male characters are not strong. They're weak, but they're also more than that. They're vain, or self centered, or addicts -- and yet they are still the heroes. Because there are so many men in films, they are allowed to be themselves. They don't have to represent their gender. They're allowed to be interesting individuals.
I don't want my main female characters strong. I want them interesting. And I want there to be several of them. And I want them to talk to each other. About stuff that's not men. You know. LIKE HOW THERE IS USUALLY MORE THAN ONE MAN AND HE TALKS TO OTHER MEN ABOUT STUFF THAT IS NOT A WOMAN.
I WANT THAT.
But we never get that. Either a woman is weak, or she is strong. Either she is like a woman, or she is like a man, is the implication. And she never has interesting relationships with other women, and she's always the love interest.
I want to see women who are stuck-up, and are not necessarily taken down a peg by the more "human and easygoing" man. I want to see women who are free spirited. I want to see women who are cruel. I want to see women who are kind. I want to see lots of different kinds of women -- the same way you see it in real life.
And I have in fact been so inundated by this culture of "strong women" and "weak women" that I have trouble going outside those lines with my female characters myself. I try to write good female characters, and sometimes I succeed, but other times I get the vague feeling that something's not right. That they're being overshadowed by the men, and there's nothing I can do about it.
Let me make this even plainer to you: I CANNOT EVEN WRITE INTERESTING WOMEN AND I AM ONE.
Women aren't allowed to be interesting. Not in the same way men are. People try so hard to "write female characters." It shouldn't be this hard. Women are a lot like men. They have flaws and foibles and quirks, just like men do. Women should be allowed to flourish in their own right within fiction.
I don't want strong female characters. I want interesting, three-dimensional, flawed, goddamn human female characters.
Rant over.
