Dragons, Zombies and Aliens
:
The Blog
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This post originally appeared on this blog in
2017
,
and again on the
Bitch Shelf column
in 2018.
From Reddit
Most of us have at least heard of the term "strong female character." Whenever the director of the latest action flick says their token girl is a "strong female character," or the author of a thriller swears up and down that his work isn't sexist because he's got a lot of "strong female characters" in it, it sets most of the audience at ease. We picture an attractive woman, probably in some sort of tight-fitted outfit, armed to the teeth with gadgets and weapons suitable to whatever setting she's in.
But there's a problem with the strong female character. Okay, a lot of problems. We're going to go into them in detail. The biggest issue is that they're a cookie-cutter token that's usually sexualized and designed for the cis male audience rather than the women she supposedly represents. What is the "Strong Female Character"?
Strong female characters--or SFCs--were originally designed to be the polar opposite of the
damsel in distress
archetype. By which I mean she's a female character who's very good at traditionally masculine skills: combat, computers, motor vehicles, etc.
Some stories do this very well. Google "strong female character" and the images that pop up are Princess Leia, Ellen Ripley, and Hermione Granger, all of them well-written, three-dimensional characters that are now culture icons. But most stories flop. The SFC has become a cinema cliche, a diversity item to cross off of a writer's list so they can claim their work is inclusive. But the SFC runs into a host of problems in most stories she appears in that undermines the writer's--often genuine--efforts to create an inspiring female character.
The Problems with the "Strong Female Character"
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At night, Las Mal Criadas own these streets.
Sixteen-year-old Nalah leads the fiercest all-girl crew in Mega City. That role brings with it violent throwdowns and access to the hottest boydega clubs, but Nalah quickly grows weary of her questionable lifestyle. Her dream is to get off the streets and make a home in the exclusive Mega Towers, in which only a chosen few get to live. To make it to the Mega Towers, Nalah must prove her loyalty to the city's benevolent founder and cross the border in a search of the mysterious gang the Ashé Ryders. Led by a reluctant guide, Nalah battles crews and her own doubts but the closer she gets to her goal the more she loses sight of everything--and everyone--she cares about. Nalah must choose whether or not she's willing to do the unspeakable to get what she wants. Can she discover that home is not where you live but whom you chose to protect before she loses the family she's created for good? |
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Book Review (no spoilers)
Dealing in Dreams
is a very unique, intimate dystopian/post-apocalyptic YA novel. Several tropes get turned on their head, and we get a good look at how beauty can be found in even the worst of circumstances.
Nalah--who usually goes by the name Chief Rocka--is born into the brutally violent matriarchal Mega City, where seven-year-old girls are recruited into military camps and teenagers being beaten to death is the norm. It's a TERF's* paradise, and Nalah has swallowed the lies fed to her hook, line and sinker.
We get a handful of very distinct, diverse characters. Each crew has a maximum of five members, and Nalah encounters maybe half a dozen more named characters in her journey. Several of these characters fall into the LGBTQ+ category, including a genderfluid singer who has several things to say about how Mega City is structured. Nalah interacts with all of them, getting more angry and confused as their lives directly contradict what she's been told by Mega City.
Everything is told through Nalah's points of first, in first person. This means she dominates the prose, and the whole novel is told in short, direct, punchy sentences. There's hardly any metaphors and no flowery prose because that's not how Nalah talks. She's direct and to the point.
Nalah herself is a contradictory character. She's a gang leader, which makes her violent and cut-throat. But she's also got a softer side as she tries to protect her crew and bring all of them to the Towers so they can all have a better life. She's shrewd and calculating, as she has to maneuver a couple of political situations on top of everything else, but her goals and dreams are plain for everyone to see.
Most dystopians have a problem in that they put their characters in only one or two types situations, thus limiting how many different sides of a character the reader gets to see. Rivera circumvents this problem by putting Nalah in several different situations: in a physical fight, negotiating a ransom, relaxing in a bathhouse/strip club, in the presence of her hero, in the presence of her blood relatives, winning, failing, everything.
Honestly, my only serious complaint about this novel is that the resolution was too long. After the climax, it needed only two chapters, max: immediate fall-out and recovery. But the story itself is a difficult one to end, so I'm not torn up about it. Rivera did not write a traditional dystopian novel where the spunky group of protagonists work to topple the evil overlord and put someone else in charge. That's not the central conflict, and it's not what we as readers are necessarily waiting to happen. The core of the story is entirely on Nalah: can she accept the reality of the world, and can she keep her crew safe?
I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys YA dystopians, but is tired of all the whitewashing (everyone here is Latino), the unrealistically sudden end to all-powerful authoritarian regimes (doesn't happen), and/or tiring romantic subplots that take up too many pages (there is none where Nalah is concerned).
Nalah--who usually goes by the name Chief Rocka--is born into the brutally violent matriarchal Mega City, where seven-year-old girls are recruited into military camps and teenagers being beaten to death is the norm. It's a TERF's* paradise, and Nalah has swallowed the lies fed to her hook, line and sinker.
We get a handful of very distinct, diverse characters. Each crew has a maximum of five members, and Nalah encounters maybe half a dozen more named characters in her journey. Several of these characters fall into the LGBTQ+ category, including a genderfluid singer who has several things to say about how Mega City is structured. Nalah interacts with all of them, getting more angry and confused as their lives directly contradict what she's been told by Mega City.
Everything is told through Nalah's points of first, in first person. This means she dominates the prose, and the whole novel is told in short, direct, punchy sentences. There's hardly any metaphors and no flowery prose because that's not how Nalah talks. She's direct and to the point.
Nalah herself is a contradictory character. She's a gang leader, which makes her violent and cut-throat. But she's also got a softer side as she tries to protect her crew and bring all of them to the Towers so they can all have a better life. She's shrewd and calculating, as she has to maneuver a couple of political situations on top of everything else, but her goals and dreams are plain for everyone to see.
Most dystopians have a problem in that they put their characters in only one or two types situations, thus limiting how many different sides of a character the reader gets to see. Rivera circumvents this problem by putting Nalah in several different situations: in a physical fight, negotiating a ransom, relaxing in a bathhouse/strip club, in the presence of her hero, in the presence of her blood relatives, winning, failing, everything.
Honestly, my only serious complaint about this novel is that the resolution was too long. After the climax, it needed only two chapters, max: immediate fall-out and recovery. But the story itself is a difficult one to end, so I'm not torn up about it. Rivera did not write a traditional dystopian novel where the spunky group of protagonists work to topple the evil overlord and put someone else in charge. That's not the central conflict, and it's not what we as readers are necessarily waiting to happen. The core of the story is entirely on Nalah: can she accept the reality of the world, and can she keep her crew safe?
I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys YA dystopians, but is tired of all the whitewashing (everyone here is Latino), the unrealistically sudden end to all-powerful authoritarian regimes (doesn't happen), and/or tiring romantic subplots that take up too many pages (there is none where Nalah is concerned).
*TERF: stands for "Transgender-Exclusive Radical Feminist." Basically, they're transphobes who pretend to be feminists.
Monday Movie! Deadpool 2
(No spoilers.)
While it has its flaws, Deadpool 2 is a good movie, and probably better than the first one. No, scratch that, it's definitely better than the first one, thanks to Domino and Cable.
Domino is a member of Deadpool's new team, the black woman with the pale birthmark whose power is supernatural good luck. She has some excellent fight scenes, is a total badass, and is actually helpful. She doesn't even need rescuing! Yet she still stinks of Strong Female Character syndrome, in that she's not a fully-fleshed character. We have no idea what her motivations are, how she got her powers, or what her goals in life are. Why did she sign up to join Deadpool's team? Why does she stick around when things turn sour? If it's just for money--we don't even know if Deadpool's paying her--then that needs to be said.
In fact, the writers missed a beautiful opportunity to give her a moment with Russell, a.k.a. Firefist, the fiery mutant Deadpool is trying to save from the time-traveling Winter Soldier knock-off Cable. She and Russell are from the same horrible orphanage that tortures young mutants because...I don't know. Jesus?
Anyway, Team Deadpool is trying to stop Russell from killing the headmaster of this orphanage, because if he does that Very Bad Things will happen, while also protecting him from Cable, who wants to put a bullet in his brain. It would then only seem natural that, once Deadpool finds out that Domino shares these origins with the boy he's trying to help, that he would at least ask her to help him talk Russell down.
No, of course not. That makes too much sense.
So the movie gets points for having Domino in the film. It loses points for underutilizing her.
Moving on to Cable. We all know Marvel has a bit of a villain problem, in that they're often extremely forgettable. Other than Thanos and Killmonger, no Marvel villain really sticks out.
Cable, on the other hand, is a lot more memorable than the likes of Vanko or Ronan. (I'll save you the trouble of googling those two: they're from Iron Man 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy , respectively.) Maybe it's because he's played by the same actor who nailed Thanos. Maybe it's because he's actually not really a bad guy, filled with nuance and layers. Either way, he's excellent.
My only issue with him is his stereotypical backstory. We've got a serious case of Women in the Refrigerator trope.
For a full analysis of what this trope is, how it originated, and why it's a problem, check out this YouTube video by Feminist Frequency. But for the quick and dirty definition, the Woman in the Fridge trope is when a female character is brutalized, raped, and/or murdered as a way to enhance the man's story arc. Usually it's the kick-off to a revenge story.
Perfect example: Cable.
Cable's wife and daughter are killed by an adult, supervillain Russell. It's the whole reason he goes back in time to kill Russell, thus setting our story into motion.
This trope is used not just once, but twice in this movie! For a franchise that loves to make fun of itself, even cracking a joke about lazy writing when Deadpool points out the limitations of Cable's time-travel abilities, this double-whammy fridge trope is left unchecked.
"But Christina!" you may wail, "If we don't kill off the women, how could we possibly motivate the men into being heroes and villains?"
Here's an idea: Cable points out that the future is a horrible, grim place, and we see a glimpse of this through the ruins of his home. What if instead of sacrificing his wife and daughter, the writers had Cable go back to try to save the future as a whole? You could then also replace the tragedy of the other woman's death with, say, a breakup, and voila! No more fridges.
As I said, despite its shortcomings, this was a good movie. It was funny, action-packed, and even managed a minor grapple of the issue of right-and-wrong. It's a worthy sequel, and a hopeful kick-off for another Deadpool or X-Force movie.
But if you're going to use already dried up tropes like SFCs and Women in the Fridge, at least make fun of yourself for that like you do for everything else.
While it has its flaws, Deadpool 2 is a good movie, and probably better than the first one. No, scratch that, it's definitely better than the first one, thanks to Domino and Cable.
Domino is a member of Deadpool's new team, the black woman with the pale birthmark whose power is supernatural good luck. She has some excellent fight scenes, is a total badass, and is actually helpful. She doesn't even need rescuing! Yet she still stinks of Strong Female Character syndrome, in that she's not a fully-fleshed character. We have no idea what her motivations are, how she got her powers, or what her goals in life are. Why did she sign up to join Deadpool's team? Why does she stick around when things turn sour? If it's just for money--we don't even know if Deadpool's paying her--then that needs to be said.
In fact, the writers missed a beautiful opportunity to give her a moment with Russell, a.k.a. Firefist, the fiery mutant Deadpool is trying to save from the time-traveling Winter Soldier knock-off Cable. She and Russell are from the same horrible orphanage that tortures young mutants because...I don't know. Jesus?
Anyway, Team Deadpool is trying to stop Russell from killing the headmaster of this orphanage, because if he does that Very Bad Things will happen, while also protecting him from Cable, who wants to put a bullet in his brain. It would then only seem natural that, once Deadpool finds out that Domino shares these origins with the boy he's trying to help, that he would at least ask her to help him talk Russell down.
No, of course not. That makes too much sense.
So the movie gets points for having Domino in the film. It loses points for underutilizing her.
Moving on to Cable. We all know Marvel has a bit of a villain problem, in that they're often extremely forgettable. Other than Thanos and Killmonger, no Marvel villain really sticks out.
Cable, on the other hand, is a lot more memorable than the likes of Vanko or Ronan. (I'll save you the trouble of googling those two: they're from Iron Man 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy , respectively.) Maybe it's because he's played by the same actor who nailed Thanos. Maybe it's because he's actually not really a bad guy, filled with nuance and layers. Either way, he's excellent.
My only issue with him is his stereotypical backstory. We've got a serious case of Women in the Refrigerator trope.
For a full analysis of what this trope is, how it originated, and why it's a problem, check out this YouTube video by Feminist Frequency. But for the quick and dirty definition, the Woman in the Fridge trope is when a female character is brutalized, raped, and/or murdered as a way to enhance the man's story arc. Usually it's the kick-off to a revenge story.
Perfect example: Cable.
Cable's wife and daughter are killed by an adult, supervillain Russell. It's the whole reason he goes back in time to kill Russell, thus setting our story into motion.
This trope is used not just once, but twice in this movie! For a franchise that loves to make fun of itself, even cracking a joke about lazy writing when Deadpool points out the limitations of Cable's time-travel abilities, this double-whammy fridge trope is left unchecked.
"But Christina!" you may wail, "If we don't kill off the women, how could we possibly motivate the men into being heroes and villains?"
Here's an idea: Cable points out that the future is a horrible, grim place, and we see a glimpse of this through the ruins of his home. What if instead of sacrificing his wife and daughter, the writers had Cable go back to try to save the future as a whole? You could then also replace the tragedy of the other woman's death with, say, a breakup, and voila! No more fridges.
As I said, despite its shortcomings, this was a good movie. It was funny, action-packed, and even managed a minor grapple of the issue of right-and-wrong. It's a worthy sequel, and a hopeful kick-off for another Deadpool or X-Force movie.
But if you're going to use already dried up tropes like SFCs and Women in the Fridge, at least make fun of yourself for that like you do for everything else.
Science fiction and fantasy will probably always be my favorite genres. They’re just...awesome. And I’m assuming that if you’re reading this, you agree with me at least on some level.
But like all amazing things, it has its flaws. The books and movies of these genres have been dominated by men for ages. Though we are getting there, slowly but surely, women authors (who don’t write romance) are often brushed aside and ignored. And that, well, that pisses me off.
So here is a list of my personal top five women authors of the sci-fi and fantasy genres.
Note: I am not putting J.K. Rowling on this list. Even though she’s incredible and awesome and our queen, everyone already knows about her.
But like all amazing things, it has its flaws. The books and movies of these genres have been dominated by men for ages. Though we are getting there, slowly but surely, women authors (who don’t write romance) are often brushed aside and ignored. And that, well, that pisses me off.
So here is a list of my personal top five women authors of the sci-fi and fantasy genres.
Note: I am not putting J.K. Rowling on this list. Even though she’s incredible and awesome and our queen, everyone already knows about her.
Nnedi Okorafor
I’ve only read and
reviewed
one of Okorafor’s novels,
Lagoon
, and I need more. She is an incredibly insightful and gifted novelist. Her work tackles complicated social issues and explores the deepest corners of humanity.
April Daniels
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Writer of the
Nemesis
series
,
Daniels writes young adult novels that are hilarious and sobering. Her story centers around a young transgender superhero named Danny, who has to deal with all the joys of transphobia, misogyny, and domestic abuse on top of saving the world. Twice!
Margaret Fortune
I have reviewed both of Fortune’s novels of her
Spectre War
series on this site:
Nova
and
Archangel
. Both are gripping sci-fi mysteries that had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. It’s supposed to be a five-book series, and I
cannot wait
for the next installment!
Tiana Warner
LGBTQ+
Romeo and Juliet
with killer mermaids! Warner’s
Ice Massacre
is probably the bloodiest YA novel I’ve ever read. (Granted, I haven’t read
Hunter Games
, and I hear that’s pushing the limit of how much gore parents will let their teenagers deal with.)
Ice Massacre
is intense, sad, but also kind of hopeful. You can also check out my interview with Warner
here
.
Robyn Bennis
Bennis’
The Guns Above
is in my top five all-time favorite sci-fi novels for a variety of reasons. It tackles sexism in the military with humor and wit. Being a military sci-fi book, it also has plenty of action and explosions to go with the tense plot. Like Warner, Bennis has also been interviewed on this site. You can check it out
here
.
You can get access to exclusive content such as sneak peaks, inside looks, and videos on my Patreon webpage! Click
here
to join this special community of super-fans.
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Book description for Nemesis Book One:
Dreadnought
:
Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero. Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she’s transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny’s body into what she’s always thought it should be. Now there’s no hiding that she’s a girl.
It should be the happiest time of her life, but Danny’s first weeks finally living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined. Between her father’s dangerous obsession with “curing” her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he’s entitled to date her, and her fellow superheroes arguing over her place in their ranks, Danny feels like she’s in over her head.
She doesn’t have time to adjust. Dreadnought’s murderer―a cyborg named Utopia―still haunts the streets of New Port City, threatening destruction. If Danny can’t sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction.
--
Before I get into this review, I should get into how I came across this series. You know those sitcoms where a bunch of people who barely know each other move into an apartment together, and there’s usually that token gay guy or lesbian? Maybe even someone who’s transgender who lives down the hall?
Well, in my apartment of three, I’m the token cis straight girl.
One of my roommates doesn’t read much. The other, whom I went to college with and then somehow managed to convince her to move in with me (this being before I knew how much her cat would hate my furniture), is a bigger bookworm than I am. So she’s the one who loaned me Dreadnought .
After reading it, I then proceeded to steal book two from her bookshelf before she could read it.
I regret nothing!
Anyway, going to the review itself, this series is amazing. April Daniels takes a very realistic approach to how supers would operate in the real world, and how they would react to the most powerful, iconic superhero coming out as transgender. All of the characters, even the villains, are intriguing and complicated, making me thirst for more.
In fact, that is the only criticism I have of this series. Danny meets a lot of cool characters and fellow superheroes, like Kinetiq, Calamity, Calamity’s ex-supervillain mother, and a handful of others. But we don’t really get into their characters. Which is especially weird for Calamity, who’s Danny’s new best friend and eventual love interest. The cowgirl supersoldier is from a family of supers, and while she mentions the family dynamic a couple of times, we don’t really get a clear picture of it. Like, why exactly are they letting their teenage daughter run around the city and illegally fight crime? Her mother used to be a supervillain: what impact does that have on her? Come to think of it, why does Calamity want to be a superhero so much, anyway?
And Kinetiq? We know next to nothing about them, except that they’re Israeli-American and gender non-binary. That’s it. We don’t even get a clear description of their powers!
There will be a third book in this series (yay!), so hopefully Daniels will address some of these questions, and show us more of the supporting cast.
Of course, the reason Daniels doesn’t spend much time on the other characters is because all of it is centered on the main character, Danny, who is fascinating . There are a lot of reasons to like and sympathize with this character, but her best moments are when she’s either being a sassy sarcastic bitch (like myself), or when she’s having a fangirl moment. Because she is a fangirl, through and through. Imagine a hardcore DC comic book geek who is sucked into the DC Universe and is granted Superman-esque powers. That’s Danny. It’s adorable.
All in all, this is a fantastic story with some unique viewpoints on American society regarding gender, sexuality, race, economic class, politics, and pretty much everything else, all mixed together into a delicious smoothie digestible for young adult readers. It’s my favorite kind of book, in that it has amazing characters, an engaging narrative arc, and I was able to learn more about a real group of people different from myself. That is young adult literature at its best.
--
I am now on Patreon !
Patreon is similar to crowdfunding, in that multiple people support a cause they love and get free goodies as a result. You can donate as little as one dollar a month, or you can give more and gets loads of cool stuff like sneak peaks and free books. Every penny goes toward giving you more good content.
So if you like what you're reading, click here and help me continue to write for you!
Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero. Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she’s transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny’s body into what she’s always thought it should be. Now there’s no hiding that she’s a girl.
It should be the happiest time of her life, but Danny’s first weeks finally living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined. Between her father’s dangerous obsession with “curing” her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he’s entitled to date her, and her fellow superheroes arguing over her place in their ranks, Danny feels like she’s in over her head.
She doesn’t have time to adjust. Dreadnought’s murderer―a cyborg named Utopia―still haunts the streets of New Port City, threatening destruction. If Danny can’t sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction.
--
Before I get into this review, I should get into how I came across this series. You know those sitcoms where a bunch of people who barely know each other move into an apartment together, and there’s usually that token gay guy or lesbian? Maybe even someone who’s transgender who lives down the hall?
Well, in my apartment of three, I’m the token cis straight girl.
One of my roommates doesn’t read much. The other, whom I went to college with and then somehow managed to convince her to move in with me (this being before I knew how much her cat would hate my furniture), is a bigger bookworm than I am. So she’s the one who loaned me Dreadnought .
After reading it, I then proceeded to steal book two from her bookshelf before she could read it.
I regret nothing!
Anyway, going to the review itself, this series is amazing. April Daniels takes a very realistic approach to how supers would operate in the real world, and how they would react to the most powerful, iconic superhero coming out as transgender. All of the characters, even the villains, are intriguing and complicated, making me thirst for more.
In fact, that is the only criticism I have of this series. Danny meets a lot of cool characters and fellow superheroes, like Kinetiq, Calamity, Calamity’s ex-supervillain mother, and a handful of others. But we don’t really get into their characters. Which is especially weird for Calamity, who’s Danny’s new best friend and eventual love interest. The cowgirl supersoldier is from a family of supers, and while she mentions the family dynamic a couple of times, we don’t really get a clear picture of it. Like, why exactly are they letting their teenage daughter run around the city and illegally fight crime? Her mother used to be a supervillain: what impact does that have on her? Come to think of it, why does Calamity want to be a superhero so much, anyway?
And Kinetiq? We know next to nothing about them, except that they’re Israeli-American and gender non-binary. That’s it. We don’t even get a clear description of their powers!
There will be a third book in this series (yay!), so hopefully Daniels will address some of these questions, and show us more of the supporting cast.
Of course, the reason Daniels doesn’t spend much time on the other characters is because all of it is centered on the main character, Danny, who is fascinating . There are a lot of reasons to like and sympathize with this character, but her best moments are when she’s either being a sassy sarcastic bitch (like myself), or when she’s having a fangirl moment. Because she is a fangirl, through and through. Imagine a hardcore DC comic book geek who is sucked into the DC Universe and is granted Superman-esque powers. That’s Danny. It’s adorable.
All in all, this is a fantastic story with some unique viewpoints on American society regarding gender, sexuality, race, economic class, politics, and pretty much everything else, all mixed together into a delicious smoothie digestible for young adult readers. It’s my favorite kind of book, in that it has amazing characters, an engaging narrative arc, and I was able to learn more about a real group of people different from myself. That is young adult literature at its best.
--
I am now on Patreon !
Patreon is similar to crowdfunding, in that multiple people support a cause they love and get free goodies as a result. You can donate as little as one dollar a month, or you can give more and gets loads of cool stuff like sneak peaks and free books. Every penny goes toward giving you more good content.
So if you like what you're reading, click here and help me continue to write for you!
Writing Women in Your Stories
Female characters have a bit of a bad rep. For most of Western literature in the last two thousand years or so, we’ve been cast as either vicious villains or virginal damsels. Recently we’ve gotten a third option: the “Strong Female Character” (SFC). But as I’ve explained in a
previous blog post
, the SFC tends to be two-dimensional, sexualized, and ends up as the damsel in distress more often than not.
Let’s be honest here: most women authors don’t have this problem. It must be said. For some reason, male authors throughout the centuries seem to think that our lives revolve around their dicks, and it shows through their poor storytelling.
Let’s be honest here: most women authors don’t have this problem. It must be said. For some reason, male authors throughout the centuries seem to think that our lives revolve around their dicks, and it shows through their poor storytelling.
The Two-Step Process
Generally speaking, this problem can be solved by a simple two-step process. Many of you have already heard this bit of advice when it comes to writing women:
Four out of five times, it really is as simple as that. Is there any reason Iron Man can’t be Iron Woman, or Harry Potter Harriet? Why not make the president in your novel a woman? Why not make the main character a woman?
This is great for those writing contemporary novels, sci-fi flicks, or any setting where gender is not an issue. But what about historical or history-inspired pieces?
- Make a character.
- Make him a woman.
Four out of five times, it really is as simple as that. Is there any reason Iron Man can’t be Iron Woman, or Harry Potter Harriet? Why not make the president in your novel a woman? Why not make the main character a woman?
This is great for those writing contemporary novels, sci-fi flicks, or any setting where gender is not an issue. But what about historical or history-inspired pieces?
Steps Three and Four
While it’s never explicitly stated, Middle Earth in
Lord of the Rings
is a very clear patriarchy. Eowyn’s gender--or rather, her people’s attitude toward her gender--is a major hurdle between her and her dream of fighting for her country. So if Aragorn was genderbent into a woman, how many people would take her claim to Gondor’s throne seriously? How would she get the soldiers to follow her orders? How did she learn how to use a sword in the first place?
Then there’s the flip side: say you’re writing about a matriarchal society, like the Amazons of Themyscira. Diana’s gender in Wonder Woman had never been an issue or seen as a negative while she was on the island, so she grew up used to female authority being unchallenged and respected. This made for some tense and awkward situations when she went to Europe to fight in World War One.
With writing women characters in patriarchal societies, you still end up following the two-step process above. You just have to ask yourself some extra questions to fully flesh out her personality. The biggest questions are these:
3) Assuming the setting is patriarchal, how did she (or how will she) overcome the systemic hurdles designed to destroy her?
4) How does her upbringing (patriarchal, matriarchal, gender-neutral, whatever) influence her relationship with the other characters?
Then there’s the flip side: say you’re writing about a matriarchal society, like the Amazons of Themyscira. Diana’s gender in Wonder Woman had never been an issue or seen as a negative while she was on the island, so she grew up used to female authority being unchallenged and respected. This made for some tense and awkward situations when she went to Europe to fight in World War One.
With writing women characters in patriarchal societies, you still end up following the two-step process above. You just have to ask yourself some extra questions to fully flesh out her personality. The biggest questions are these:
3) Assuming the setting is patriarchal, how did she (or how will she) overcome the systemic hurdles designed to destroy her?
4) How does her upbringing (patriarchal, matriarchal, gender-neutral, whatever) influence her relationship with the other characters?
Something that failed to do this was
The Hobbit
movies. As we said earlier, Middle Earth is a male-dominated society. And yet Tauriel managed to become one of the finest warriors in the elven ranks. Not only is she a woman, but it’s also implied that she comes from a lower class of elves, which is the main reason King Thranduil doesn’t want Legolas marrying her. That doesn’t stop her from giving orders and challenging authority. She’s confident, she breaks rules, and she’s a hell of a shot.
So how did she get there?
We don’t know. The Hobbit never goes into her backstory, instead focusing on the romance between her and Kili. This is one of the biggest mistakes authors make when writing women characters. Tauriel is a token. Take her out, and the story is virtually unchanged. Worse, her narrative revolves around a man. She’s not her own person. She’s defined as “Legolas and Kili’s crush.”
So how did she get there?
We don’t know. The Hobbit never goes into her backstory, instead focusing on the romance between her and Kili. This is one of the biggest mistakes authors make when writing women characters. Tauriel is a token. Take her out, and the story is virtually unchanged. Worse, her narrative revolves around a man. She’s not her own person. She’s defined as “Legolas and Kili’s crush.”
A successful case study would be
Avatar: The Last Airbender
. Yes, it’s a kids’ show. That doesn’t make it any less of a masterpiece. For the most part, gender is not an issue in the world of the Avatar. There’s a wide variety of girls in this show, but the only one who is treated harshly specifically because of her gender is Katara.
This happens at the end of season one, when the main characters reach the North Pole. Katara has always wanted to learn how to fight with waterbending (re: water magic), which is half of the reason she made this perilous journey in the first place. But the waterbending master, Pakku, refuses to teach her because she’s a girl. Only boys are taught how to fight. Girls with the gift of waterbending are forced to become healers. Katara balks at this, because her home, the South Pole, has no such rules.
This leads to an intense battle between her and Pakku, who is convinced to teach her not because of her fighting ability or passion, but because she’s the granddaughter of the woman he loved and lost. Katara’s grandmother fled to the South Pole because she rejected the North Pole’s gender rules, which makes Pakku realize the horrendous cost of a strict patriarchy. He ends up teaching Katara, and she becomes the greatest waterbender in the world.
This happens at the end of season one, when the main characters reach the North Pole. Katara has always wanted to learn how to fight with waterbending (re: water magic), which is half of the reason she made this perilous journey in the first place. But the waterbending master, Pakku, refuses to teach her because she’s a girl. Only boys are taught how to fight. Girls with the gift of waterbending are forced to become healers. Katara balks at this, because her home, the South Pole, has no such rules.
This leads to an intense battle between her and Pakku, who is convinced to teach her not because of her fighting ability or passion, but because she’s the granddaughter of the woman he loved and lost. Katara’s grandmother fled to the South Pole because she rejected the North Pole’s gender rules, which makes Pakku realize the horrendous cost of a strict patriarchy. He ends up teaching Katara, and she becomes the greatest waterbender in the world.
Failsafe
If all else fails, try this:
Get yourself some women beta readers.
Get yourself some women beta readers.
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Patreon is similar to crowdfunding, in that multiple people support a cause they love and get free goodies as a result. You can donate as little as one dollar a month, or you can give more and gets loads of cool stuff like sneak peaks and free books. Every penny goes toward giving you more good content.
So if you like what you're reading, click here and help me continue to write for you!
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What's This?
The first Dragons, Zombies and Aliens blog was started in 2015. Somewhere between college coursework, paying rent with door-to-door sales, and keeping up with my sorority sisters, I wrote reviews, rants and commentaries on books, TV shows, and movies. Now, this blog has moved, improved, and the sky's the limit!
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