idle thought #219
Feb. 3rd, 2021 09:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerwhy the last jedi and a ton of other stuff like miraculous, etc aren't feminist: female characters aren't feminist. "strong" female characters aren't feminist. you have to have good representation! with actual characters that feel like people. not caricatures. if you're confused as to why "strong" female characters aren't feminist, think about male characters. do any of them have to be described as "strong" to be interesting in any way? no way. write a strong female character, write a genderbend of an existing character you like, and I guarantee you'll find a difference.
edit because the thought just occurred to me: also women have had the pressure to be "perfect" for years and years and it's a problem. perfect beauty. perfect mom. perfect example of femininity. "strong" female characters like rey never struggle (except for maybe a tearjerker backstory). they don't have character arcs. they don't struggle at anything they do. so women and young girls might look at these "strong" (perfect) female characters and go "well, i can't do everything effortlessly. everyone who meets me doesn't love me on sight. there must be something wrong with me." so in that way, "strong" female characters might actually be doing harm to the people they're trying to represent. so, in conclusion: write female characters that struggle! write ones with flaws! write ones with character arcs (i know hollywood in general doesn't like character arcs in general these days, given that they tend to reset all characters to their defaults movie after movie, but this is a terrible idea and you should not emulate them, write them anyway)! just like men like their perfect self-inserts, maybe some women do as well, but that need not be every character. write a variety of character types! write 'em more interesting and less boring. write more realistic women all people of all genders, etc might be able to relate to.
edit because the thought just occurred to me: also women have had the pressure to be "perfect" for years and years and it's a problem. perfect beauty. perfect mom. perfect example of femininity. "strong" female characters like rey never struggle (except for maybe a tearjerker backstory). they don't have character arcs. they don't struggle at anything they do. so women and young girls might look at these "strong" (perfect) female characters and go "well, i can't do everything effortlessly. everyone who meets me doesn't love me on sight. there must be something wrong with me." so in that way, "strong" female characters might actually be doing harm to the people they're trying to represent. so, in conclusion: write female characters that struggle! write ones with flaws! write ones with character arcs (i know hollywood in general doesn't like character arcs in general these days, given that they tend to reset all characters to their defaults movie after movie, but this is a terrible idea and you should not emulate them, write them anyway)! just like men like their perfect self-inserts, maybe some women do as well, but that need not be every character. write a variety of character types! write 'em more interesting and less boring. write more realistic women all people of all genders, etc might be able to relate to.
