Great article! I have numerous "Strong Female Characters" in my novels, novellas, and short stories—everything from spies and assassins to starfighter pilots and sorceresses, good and evil. Making them "complex" and "interesting" is far more important--that's why "The Acolyte" and so many other recent productions from Disney have failed. Just because a female is strong, it doesn't disqualify her from being likable--or at least having something resembling a personality.
Thank you for both writing this and reposting it for posterity! I applaud all of your points and appreciate the depth of your analysis. I've chewed on similar topics until I was tired of them.
The SFC trope/expectation is a weird one. It imposes some vague expectations which when followed lead to poor writing. Generically I think it boils down to them being independent actors, who aren't simply being coerced down the plot without choice in the matter. Or that's what it should be. Just like John Carter or Mitch Rapp, they should get to choose what they do.
The temptation is to make them overpowered, or inhuman. Or too much like men, and strip all femininity from them. Which takes away the reasons to have a female character at all. Men and women are different, and in stories that should be reflected on how their strengths and characters manifest.
I can think of a range of war heroes, statesmen, significant figures, man and woman, who were all strong... in their own way. Marget Thatcher might never have taken a hundred men captive in the Argonne, but that doesn't mean she's the inferior to Sergeant York. The Limping Lady never stormed major gun positions like Leonard Lomell, but her service as spy cleverly utilized her talents that would have been wasted on the beaches of France.
I would like some good examples of rugged women--I think that's less loaded of a term--of an adventurer bend, for the type of fantasy I like to write. I'd like to get an idea of the range of plausible characters, who aren't merely simpering background chars. I can think of some. But more would make for a better heuristic.
I feel like you're doing yourself a disservice by not discussing the idea of a target audience, which the idea of "representation" must necessarily overlook in order to justify itself (without overt bigotry towards the target audience of a particular work).
I just write characters! Some female and some male. All with different strengths and weaknesses.
My main beef with the "strong female character" trope is the implication that male characters are allowed to be written normally with a wide range of creative freedom, while female characters must be straitjacketed into being Role Models (TM).
On Black Widow, there were people whining that in a later Avenger's Movie, she didn't "beat up" the villain who was a very large robot.
Of course, in the Comic World Black Widow is a "street hero" not a "world-breaking hero".
It would be extremely stupid of her to attempt to fight robot much stronger than a human by herself.
But the idiot apparently thought that if she was Truly A Strong Female Character, then she'd "take the Robot apart" all by her self.
Idiots.
Sigh.
Because when Thor has problems with Ultron, surely Black Widow would have no problem? Yikes. They just want Mary Sues all day long.
Great article! I have numerous "Strong Female Characters" in my novels, novellas, and short stories—everything from spies and assassins to starfighter pilots and sorceresses, good and evil. Making them "complex" and "interesting" is far more important--that's why "The Acolyte" and so many other recent productions from Disney have failed. Just because a female is strong, it doesn't disqualify her from being likable--or at least having something resembling a personality.
>Strong
>Never seen one of these that wasn’t neurotic, insecure, and ultimately more dangerous than any honest enemy
Thank you for both writing this and reposting it for posterity! I applaud all of your points and appreciate the depth of your analysis. I've chewed on similar topics until I was tired of them.
The SFC trope/expectation is a weird one. It imposes some vague expectations which when followed lead to poor writing. Generically I think it boils down to them being independent actors, who aren't simply being coerced down the plot without choice in the matter. Or that's what it should be. Just like John Carter or Mitch Rapp, they should get to choose what they do.
The temptation is to make them overpowered, or inhuman. Or too much like men, and strip all femininity from them. Which takes away the reasons to have a female character at all. Men and women are different, and in stories that should be reflected on how their strengths and characters manifest.
I can think of a range of war heroes, statesmen, significant figures, man and woman, who were all strong... in their own way. Marget Thatcher might never have taken a hundred men captive in the Argonne, but that doesn't mean she's the inferior to Sergeant York. The Limping Lady never stormed major gun positions like Leonard Lomell, but her service as spy cleverly utilized her talents that would have been wasted on the beaches of France.
I would like some good examples of rugged women--I think that's less loaded of a term--of an adventurer bend, for the type of fantasy I like to write. I'd like to get an idea of the range of plausible characters, who aren't merely simpering background chars. I can think of some. But more would make for a better heuristic.
I feel like you're doing yourself a disservice by not discussing the idea of a target audience, which the idea of "representation" must necessarily overlook in order to justify itself (without overt bigotry towards the target audience of a particular work).
I just write characters! Some female and some male. All with different strengths and weaknesses.
My main beef with the "strong female character" trope is the implication that male characters are allowed to be written normally with a wide range of creative freedom, while female characters must be straitjacketed into being Role Models (TM).