I also wish we were ready to broach insecurity and motherhood and sexual confusion and fear of growing up and body image and all all the weird little things that make us flawed.
I agree with this so hard. I don't know if it's because there was a dearth of female characters at some point (I grew up reading the BSC and Little House on the Prairie and watching shows like Full House and Buffy and I never felt like I was wanting for relatable characters until I was older, because I think the media has actively tried to make stuff that's accessible to younger girls for a while now) but the backlash against that seems to be the whole "strong female character" answer, where you get people like Kara Thrace and Buffy Summers and Sydney Bristow. And don't get me wrong: I love all those characters, it's just they are all variations of the same idea, which is: girls can kick ass, too! And maybe it's because one of those shows was successful so now there are hundreds of them, just like once we had one CSI we got 40. But after a point it gets lazy and less fulfilling and I wish we could have the important people in Hollywood recognize that what most people (I think? I hope) want is a "complex female character." Which was basically your thesis statement, so... yes, is what I'm saying.
The good thing is it's happening, I think -- Parks and Rec, The Good Wife, FNL, Pam Beesly before the writing got lazy, I'm sure other shows I can't remember/don't watch/etc -- but it'll probably be slow, and for some reason I think they're harder to find in movies than on TV, which is why Bridesmaids was such a ~cultural phenomenon ~ or whatever they're calling it. But now that it's happened I'm sure there'll be a tidal wave of "girl movies" where everyone's a mess, but if one in every ten is well-written and hits home the way Bridesmaids did for me, then A++.
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I also wish we were ready to broach insecurity and motherhood and sexual confusion and fear of growing up and body image and all all the weird little things that make us flawed.
I agree with this so hard. I don't know if it's because there was a dearth of female characters at some point (I grew up reading the BSC and Little House on the Prairie and watching shows like Full House and Buffy and I never felt like I was wanting for relatable characters until I was older, because I think the media has actively tried to make stuff that's accessible to younger girls for a while now) but the backlash against that seems to be the whole "strong female character" answer, where you get people like Kara Thrace and Buffy Summers and Sydney Bristow. And don't get me wrong: I love all those characters, it's just they are all variations of the same idea, which is: girls can kick ass, too! And maybe it's because one of those shows was successful so now there are hundreds of them, just like once we had one CSI we got 40. But after a point it gets lazy and less fulfilling and I wish we could have the important people in Hollywood recognize that what most people (I think? I hope) want is a "complex female character." Which was basically your thesis statement, so... yes, is what I'm saying.
The good thing is it's happening, I think -- Parks and Rec, The Good Wife, FNL, Pam Beesly before the writing got lazy, I'm sure other shows I can't remember/don't watch/etc -- but it'll probably be slow, and for some reason I think they're harder to find in movies than on TV, which is why Bridesmaids was such a ~cultural phenomenon ~ or whatever they're calling it. But now that it's happened I'm sure there'll be a tidal wave of "girl movies" where everyone's a mess, but if one in every ten is well-written and hits home the way Bridesmaids did for me, then A++.