Writing female characters
Dec. 20th, 2008 07:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI just posted a really fairly critical summing up of a book with a central female character, and then on metafandom there's a ranty but entirely recogniseable complaint about the difficulties of writing a female character. Basically, when writing a female character, the writer can do no right.
Yes.
But.
I think the central problem there is a. It's on my list of things I just complained about the burgundy shiny chick in the book I just put down. I could make quite an extensive list of books where it's the same thing over and over. Even if she's the central character, there's A female character, and bazillions of blokes.
We structure meaning through difference. If the male characters react one way and the female character reacts a different way then we'll line up those differences and leap to 'because she's the girl'. And then she represents "she represents the WHOLE OF WOMANKIND rather than just herself" because, in some books and TV series and films, she *is* the whole of womankind, or at least the only named representative thereof. How many stories fail the test where one named woman talks to another named woman and it's not about blokes? Too many. Many of them because there's only one named woman.
So have a woman that's weak and a woman that's tearful and a woman that's a kick arse ninja and a woman that's butch and a woman that's femme and a woman that's, well, everything else you can think of. Even if you've just portioned all that out between two women, neither of them can be All Women Everywhere.
Sometimes they turn into Good and Bad women. Lots of greek tragedy seems to do that. There's the woman who turns up basically to say 'stop complaining and do like the guys say and it'll All Be Okay' and then the other woman doesn't do that and everything goes horribly wrong. So then whichever traits the good one has are good and whichever traits the other one has are bad. And it gets boring and judgemental. So, solution, have more than one woman be right. I know, radical, but swap it around a bit, have them take turns, give them different situations to shine in.
Combine all techniques and you end up with stories that are not only new and different to a depressing degree, but you also have varied characters who all get something interesting to do, making it much less likely that any actress landed with such a part would want to quit after one season from the sheer mind numbing tedium. And hopefully much more likely that grumpy critical readers will keep going all the way to the last page.
I keep thinking, how often, in a team of 4 characters, is it three women and a bloke?
There's some difficulties inherent to the Doctor+Companion structure, cause the Doctor is always going to be the one saving the companion, but at least the gender balance is 50/50.
Except for when there's Jack. Or Mickey. Or Adam.
Come to think even when the companion's mum turns up they've always got another bloke around in the same episode. Jackie and Mickey, or something.
Never girls outnumbering guys?
Okay, now I just want to write a story with just the brilliant female characters we've got to play with.
So, anyway, my thought is: Complaint entirely valid, we is much with the complaining about the female character, but I think making with the plurals be the way to fix it.
... now I have yet another reason to go back and rewrite the last fic I did and haven't posted yet. Except I also had reasons for not making those characters women. Botheration.
Okay, so, it's more complicated than I just said.
*drawing board*
Yes.
But.
I think the central problem there is a. It's on my list of things I just complained about the burgundy shiny chick in the book I just put down. I could make quite an extensive list of books where it's the same thing over and over. Even if she's the central character, there's A female character, and bazillions of blokes.
We structure meaning through difference. If the male characters react one way and the female character reacts a different way then we'll line up those differences and leap to 'because she's the girl'. And then she represents "she represents the WHOLE OF WOMANKIND rather than just herself" because, in some books and TV series and films, she *is* the whole of womankind, or at least the only named representative thereof. How many stories fail the test where one named woman talks to another named woman and it's not about blokes? Too many. Many of them because there's only one named woman.
So have a woman that's weak and a woman that's tearful and a woman that's a kick arse ninja and a woman that's butch and a woman that's femme and a woman that's, well, everything else you can think of. Even if you've just portioned all that out between two women, neither of them can be All Women Everywhere.
Sometimes they turn into Good and Bad women. Lots of greek tragedy seems to do that. There's the woman who turns up basically to say 'stop complaining and do like the guys say and it'll All Be Okay' and then the other woman doesn't do that and everything goes horribly wrong. So then whichever traits the good one has are good and whichever traits the other one has are bad. And it gets boring and judgemental. So, solution, have more than one woman be right. I know, radical, but swap it around a bit, have them take turns, give them different situations to shine in.
Combine all techniques and you end up with stories that are not only new and different to a depressing degree, but you also have varied characters who all get something interesting to do, making it much less likely that any actress landed with such a part would want to quit after one season from the sheer mind numbing tedium. And hopefully much more likely that grumpy critical readers will keep going all the way to the last page.
I keep thinking, how often, in a team of 4 characters, is it three women and a bloke?
There's some difficulties inherent to the Doctor+Companion structure, cause the Doctor is always going to be the one saving the companion, but at least the gender balance is 50/50.
Except for when there's Jack. Or Mickey. Or Adam.
Come to think even when the companion's mum turns up they've always got another bloke around in the same episode. Jackie and Mickey, or something.
Never girls outnumbering guys?
Okay, now I just want to write a story with just the brilliant female characters we've got to play with.
So, anyway, my thought is: Complaint entirely valid, we is much with the complaining about the female character, but I think making with the plurals be the way to fix it.
... now I have yet another reason to go back and rewrite the last fic I did and haven't posted yet. Except I also had reasons for not making those characters women. Botheration.
Okay, so, it's more complicated than I just said.
*drawing board*