(no subject)

I get frustrated with me sometimes because I'll think I want more female characters
criticise shows for having not enough female characters
watch shows for having many excellent female characters
and go back to thinking about men.

I mean, what even is with my brain?

It's not like men are uniquely fascinating.

I mean I can't think of a Giles/Ethan, Professor X/Magneto, or Eobard Thawne and his obsession equivalent among women
Or even a Captain Cold and Heatwave, and there's got to be partners out there somewhere.
So is it that I have a fictional type and they aren't well represented on the lady side?

Or is it just me?
I have favourites, I just spend way more brain space on the guys.

Some of it is lightning in a bottle, weird spark difficult to capture, cannot predict it.
But some of it is that even female characters who I've been thinking about for twenty years get proportionately less of my thought space than men from the same shows.

Which is frustrating
because they're what I want
hence the being memorable for half my life so far
and yet.

When I try and think of characters to bring together for a mix and match new 'verse
I will think of men.

And then remind myself to also think of women.

And then get annoyed with me.



Of course when I'm writing and polishing the serial numbers off it gets easy - write Merlin cast Morgana, boom, original.



I can think of a bazillionty things to complain about in the way women are portrayed
like the way Highlander Raven stopped being about the Raven one pretty quickly
and the one who got a character arc was the nearest guy.

But... what if I do the same thing?
Have I trained my brain to look for protagonists in only a specific set of demographics?
I mean culture goes there a lot, but does my brain have to stick there?


It gets frustrating also because so many female characters I can think of have a story arc that is all about romance and being allowed to have power.
I mean when a guy has power you watch five seasons of what they do with it.
When a girl has power you watch endless seasons of her right to have it being questioned, as people, mostly but not exclusively men, try and stuff her in a tidy predetermined box.

Even River Song has a story about trying to be something other than what she was told to be
standing alongside the Doctor, who has a story about saving the universe a lot.

I mean, companions dont all have the same story, which is why I'm still watching a whole lifetime later, and the Doctor has had some very encouraging changes just recently
but it's the example that sprang to mind
not the only example.

And then there's all the women who exist only to be so good the guy who exceeds them looks great.
Women who train some dumb lump and suddenly he's the Chosen and Best.
Ugh.

Or books I've read where her cool seems to be there to set a baseline for his. Like, this is the best you can be... but wow, look at the boyfriend.


Recast and flip all of that. Super boring.


So is my brain not full of awesome women because there's such constraints on women's awesome?

But I can think of examples of so many great aspects.

I can fill a room with cat burglars. I've got rebellions and revolutionaries all over the place. If I want women who kick arse I can find them.

But my brain is full of Ethan Rayne, Lindsey McDonald, Leonard Snart and Mick Rory, Eobard Thawne, and of late fanfic Draco Malfoy.
... *big sigh, not the happy sort*


I feel like I need a better brain.
Or to retrain this one.


Or to just write a story and flip the pronouns and descriptions and get on with the interesting bits.