Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "strong-female-characters"

Sophia McDougall, writing over at the New Statesman writes a provocative piece, begins by her saying, "I hate strong female characters."

An interesting premise. She says that while she loves "all sorts of female characters who exhibit great resilience and courage." But that there's a certain trope that's developed.

I remember watching Shrek with my mother.

“The Princess knew kung-fu! That was nice,” I said. And yet I had a vague sense of unease, a sense that I was saying it because it was what I was supposed to say.

She rolled her eyes. “All the princesses know kung-fu now..."

The Strong Female Character has something to prove. She’s on the defensive before she even starts. She’s George from The Famous Five all grown up and still bleating with the same desperate lack of conviction that she’s “Every Bit As Good as a Boy”.

There's a good deal more in the column, some of which I'll agree with, some of which I think is stifling to creativity. For example, she demands a 1:1 male ratio of male to female characters. I don't think writers and creators can work on a quote system.

But I think she's right that the "strong female character" (SFC) has become a trope in a lot of movies, books, and TV shows are out only to show a female character is capable of beating someone down. That's what we get of the Black Widow and Maria Hill in the Avengers.

But that's really a one dimensional portrayal that's not interesting. One of my big problems with the fourth Season of Batman: The Animated Series was the amount of screen time given to Batgirl. It wasn't that Batgirl has to be a boring character, but it is that the writers made her that way. While her initial appearance was fun, she was a boring SFC in Batman: The New Animated Series and grew up to be a boring SFC authority figure in Batman Beyond. And when Batgirl and Supergirl team up? Same thing. It was two of the same characters.

The real interesting characters in Batman were Batman and the Robins. They were the ones with complex relationship issues and each had lost parents.

Of course, DC did get a little better over time. In the Justice League series, the character Shyera (Hawkgirl) after spending the first season as just a typical brawling SFC, really became an interesting character particularly among all the mayhem of one short characters in the later "Unlimited" series.

Similarly, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes developed a lot of female characters with a variety of personalities. While Hill remains just kind one note "Strong," the series featured great characters like Miss Marvel, the Wasp, and Jane Foster, all with distinct personalities and strengths that made them one.

Still, I think that there are places that many writers are willing to go with male characters that they just won't go there with female characters.

If you watch through a TV series like Justice League or The Avengers, the scenes showing the most compassion. In Justice League Unlimited, Batman is told to kill Ace from the Royal Flush gang by Amanda Waller, but instead turns in one of the most touching performances in the DC animated universe history as he pursuades her to change reality back and then sits with her until she dies. It's noteworthy that on this mission, he had three f superheroines with him it's hard to imagine any of them doing what Batman did.

It's as if there's a belief that compassion is somehow a weak or feminine trait and that it'd be sexist to show the female action hero using it, but it'd be good writing and against gender stereotypes to show a male character acting with compassion. Thus you end up with female characters that aren't as developed and just aren't as likable.

To me going against this type of writing is what made the Spider-girl comics so successful. My wife and I are both huge fans of the alternate universe story featuring the daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. The character isn't always strong or perfect. She's just a kid trying to do the right thing. She's got personality and character that makes her shine. She shows mercy and tries to do the right thing even if she doesn't always get it right. She's a complete well-developed character that doesn't always need to prove herself or punch someone in the face. The strength she showed while powerless and in the hands of the mad Normie Osborne in Spider-girl #27 was so amazingly powerful.

While the Golden Age was notorious for one dimensional damsels(I'm reading through the Golden Age Marvel Comics Omnibus, Vol. 1 and all the screaming females being rescued are interchangable.) they could also create some interesting characters when they weren't constantly worried about being called sexist for not adhering to the SFC model.

Candy Matson was a great 1948-50 radio series based in San Francisco that a character that could take care of herself. She shot someone, she had a mid-air fight in airplane, and lots of peril and action. But she also didn't take herself too seriously. She could show warmth, humor, and compassion. She was just a great character.

The same thing goes for Barbara Denning's Mrs. North in the TV series Mr. and Mrs. North from the early 1950s. Many of her zany antics may get an eye roll from feminists as she can seem ditzy or someone whose patronized. But she's also was the one who almost usually solved the case, showing pluck, courage, and cleverness that left many murderers wishing they hadn't encountered such a surprisingly dangerous foe. Mrs. North much like Columbo would let her foes underestimate her and then *bam* catch the murderer.

And perhaps, that best explains why the SFC continues to dominate in action stories. It's a safe type of character to create. No one's going to send a letter complaining about SFCs. Indeed, columns like this and Ms. McDougall's are rarely written and I would never have written this if a woman hadn't written the piece first.

Both male and female viewers feel like they are obligated to like these characters no matter how bland or boring they really are. Wandering too far from the SFC, making your female characters too nuanced, or using any characteristics that could be "stereotypical" could result in bad reviews and a torrent of emails. Much better to have a "strong character" no matter how underdeveloped they really are.

The challenge is to make all characters well-written and well-rounded regardless of gender and to give authors the freedom to do that.