What does it mean to be a "strong female character"? I'm sure you've heard the phrase, and I'm sure you have some opinion on seeing one or more of them in the movies you watch. So really think about it for a second. I'm not just calling on the misogynists of the world to reexamine the way they define the modern movie woman. I'm posing this question to everyone. Those of us who ask insistently for more strong women in film, those of us who complain there are too many, literally anyone, answer this one if you can. What does that word imply? "Strong"?
Do you mean physically strong? A Wonder Woman type perhaps. A woman capable of feats of strength impressive enough to rival those of the muscle-bound men of the film? A woman who refuses to be made the damsel in distress of the story?
What about emotionally? A woman who doesn't break down crying at the first sign of trouble. A woman who doesn't scream like a mad person or faint when her host reveals that the main course of the night will be monkey brain. Top marks if you feel me on that reference.
Or do we just mean strong in terms of quality? Think about what it means to say someone is a strong writer, or a strong actor. Strong, in many contexts, can just mean good, or of a high caliber. Maybe we just want our female characters to be better CHARACTERS.
Believe me, I'm not doing that thing where I ask you a question with the intention of seeming all cool and knowledgeable when it turns out I knew the answer all along. I'm asking this question because I really do want an answer, and I suspect there may be multiple correct ones.
I could get into a whole thing about representation in movies, whether it be increasing the number of races, gender identities, sexual orientations, religious beliefs, etc., that we see on screen. Trust me, I really want to get into all that here, and in future pieces I probably will, but for now, let's stick with women. Specifically, female movie characters.
I was pretty fortunate growing up. That is to say, the people I surrounded myself with as far as friends and family go were generally, how you say, not total dick licks. There was an understanding among us that girls and women were our equals, and when that wasn't reflected in the movies or shows we watched, that was addressed by the adults in our lives. All that considered, feminism wasn't something I concerned myself with until I started high school, and it just so happened that the majority of my beliefs aligned pretty closely with the feminist codex, which states quite clearly on its first pages:
"Be not a prick, for women are human, no matter how strange having babies may seem, or how many seasons of Blue Mountain State you have watched."
It's all in there. You know, in the feminist codex.
Until that point in my life, the term "feminism" was never really something I heard spoken, but once I became more involved in the good fight for a less shitty world, I naturally started to look at how perhaps film (which, in case you couldn't tell by now, is totally my jam) may be failing in the realm of promoting equal treatment. And over the years I've formulated this theory/opinion when it comes to this particular issue.
yeah "STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS" is a bullshit phrase.
Let me explain.
Let's say you're writing a movie, your first to be exact, and you have a whole cast of characters all outlined. The vanilla male teen hero, the goofy comic relief sidekick, also male, the stoic villain, bent on world domination (yes your movie is filled with cliches but this is a hypothetical so calm yourself), and of course the strong female. She'll probably fight something at some point, maybe tell off our main hero to let the audience know she don't take nobody's shit. I mean that's equality, right? An attitude, a callousness, a disrespect for most property and any person with a penis, and a penchant for blowing shit up. No, that is not just a stereotypical male action hero sex-swapped in the hopes of subverting old cinema tropes, it is equal treatment.
right?
Right?
RIGHT???
AM I A FEMINIST YET????
Listen, the problem is in the pudding on this one. The second you singled out the female character as the one to make strong, you demonstrated a fundamental issue with the way filmmakers view women in film. Keep something in mind, I'm not saying we shouldn't take special care to make sure women are represented properly. There is an argument made, and it's the same argument you'll see against affirmative action; that argument being that the best path to equality is pretending that women are treated no differently, and that there are no past misgivings to undo. "Just treat em like one of the boys! Like there's no difference!" But...I mean...no. You know?
You MUST keep in mind that for hundreds and thousands of years, women have been treated like second class citizens, and for that reason, special care must be taken to ensure that we fix that shit. Yes that may entail sometimes treating women better than men if that's how you feel like thinking about it, but if any man tries to tell you it's sexist for women to get the right to congregate in clubs when males aren't allowed to do the same, tell them to check their privilege at the fucking door, because that's a crock of shit. Men have SO MANY "NO GIRLS ALLOWED CLUBS" AND STILL HAVE THE GALL TO CLAIM THEY NEED MORE??? GODDAMN IT THIS KIND OF SHIT IS SO ANNOYIKJEKFBOWAJRNBJAEBF
Ok I've made that point.
ALL that being said, to single out your female character (who is more than likely the ONLY character you intend to make "strong"...or female) and to decide you will use her as your strong woman is inherently lazy and a little sexist. Listen, anyone can take the classic male action hero archetype and slap a different skin on it, that's not a challenge and that isn't actual progress. That is a fighting game style palette swap disguised as making waves in the fight for promoting feminist ideals. And that shit is as lazy as a wandering eye.
In this day and age, where we are bogged down by SO many negative stereotypes regarding women, writing a decent female character, with complexity and layers and a real motivation that doesn't involve making sweet sweet love to your male lead, takes a lot of time and care, and that time and effort is not being put in when you attempt to silence the activists of the world with female characters that occasionally hit things.
A strong woman doesn't have to be a physical match for every man in your story, and she doesn't have to be a rebellious asshole either (not that all rebels are assholes, that's not what I'm saying, don't turn this on me, I'm a black feminist, I'm literally infallible). I don't demand that every woman I see onscreen be a fucking commando. In life there are weak women, scared women, mean women, brave women, damaged women, just like there are men who fall into all of those categories as well. I demand to see REAL women, and the way you provide that is by stepping outside of your own potential biases and recognizing that if you are a man trying to construct a convincing female character, you are writing from a place of significant privilege.
George Miller took the world by surprise in May of 2015 when he introduced the character of Furiosa to audiences in what might be the first perfect movie we've seen in decades, Mad Max: Fury Road. And although Miller deserves A LOT of credit for taking the time to develop such a complex woman for his movie, he did feel the need to bring in a woman and writer who specialized in feminist literature and history in order to read his script and make sure he had realized Furiosa the way he wanted men and women alike to see her. I MEAN THE FUCKING HUMILITY AND UNDERSTANDING IT MUST TAKE FOR A DIRECTOR TO DO THAT IS JUST STRAIGHT ADMIRABLE, MANE. I salute that kind of shit.
Writing women is hard, harder than writing men. Why? Because your audience is composed of members of what is ultimately and unfortunately a patriarchy, and to get them to not only sympathize, but empathize with a REAL woman is so goddamn difficult. Especially when you, a human person, are writing that movie, and that's because you are a part of the same patriarchy.
I am not saying that a strong woman can't exits in a movie, I AM saying that by labelling your female character strong and doing nothing to flesh out her character beyond that trope you are taking the coward's way out of doing actual writing.
Y'all know Ripley, right? Like, the one with them aliens and shit. Yeahhhhh her.
She's great.
Because SHE'S GOT MORE THAN ONE DIMENSION TO HER PERSONALITY, AND SHE ACTUALLY GROWS OVER THE COURSE OF THE ALIENS FRANCHISE.
Sure her arc comes to a weird end in the third film, and beyond that I don't even want to discuss what her character becomes, but in the first two films she is fascinating to watch because she is scared, and she is out of her element. She is fighting alien creatures on a space ship, alone. Of course she's not going to kick down the door with a shotgun in each hand, chomping on a cigar all like "IT'S XENOMORPH SEASON", because real people would never react to a situation like that in that way. When she's scared, you're scared because you're not certain she'll survive, BECAUSE SHE'S NOT CERTAIN SHE'LL SURVIVE AND THAT IS GOOD WRITING LOOK I'M A MAN AND I'M EMPATHIZING WITH A WOMAN SOMEONE DID THEIR JOB WOOT.
I probably come across like a pretentious douche when I write these.
Look I don't think I know better than anybody.
Unless you're bigoted in any way, or prejudiced towards any number of people. In that case yes I think I know better than you, and I know a lot of people that do too.
I'm just trying to be an ally to a cause, and I am trying to illustrate my frustration with a certain phenomenon. That's all.
I don't want you to feel bad for liking any characters that may fall into the category of "strong for the sake of being strong", I just hope that from now on you can look at those characters through a different lens. Here's a list of a few movies you should watch if you haven't already if you want to see the kind of female characterization work we need more of:
Kill Bill (both volumes)
Inglorious Basterds (look out for Shoshana)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (look out for Rey and also all of the other cool shit in this movie)
Ex Machina (like she's an android but still counts)
Frances Ha (see my Ben-Ha piece, which you can find on the blog that you're currently reading)
Her (masterpiece)
500 Days of Summer (look out for my analysis of this work of art, coming soon)
Tangled (better than Frozen, dude)
Toy Story 2 (Jessie! You know, like the toy but also the meth dealer)
Mad Max: Fury Road
Guardians of the Galaxy
Pulp Fiction
The One I Love
OH ALSO SOME TV SHOWS:
Luther
Community
Game of Thrones
Psych
Parks and Recreation
30 Rock
True Detective
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Justice League
Justice League: Unlimited
I hope I've made my point clear, and I hope I didn't scribble this shit so incompetently that no one can follow it. My apologies if I did. I just want you guys to know that I love movies, and like anyone who loves anything, I think there are ways to improve upon what's already there. Although I also love chocolate chip cookies, and those are pretty perfect. Bake em for like two minutes under the recommended time so they're still doughy when they come out. Damn. That's a good cookie...
Mmmmmm
Ok goodnight thanks for reading.
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