it's like no matter how a character is written, she's not good enough. if she's cute and feminine, the author is playing into a stereotype; if she's "strong" and masculine, the author is revealing their sexism by avoiding femininity. ahhh YES this is so good, because yes I remember that article too and ultimately the problem is absolutely that we always, always define female characters first and foremost by their femaleness. You can write a (white) male character pretty much any way you want and few will comment on whether it's "correct" or stereotypical or whatever, but with girls it's just so delicate. Like a month ago I stayed at a friend's house and I guess we were being loud at 2am because her downstairs neighbor came up to chat with us for awhile and apparently he was writing some scifi novel and the second-in-command on the ship was female? And he asked us, as females, how one might write a strong female character, because he just couldn't figure out her motivation. AND THAT'S IT RIGHT THERE, the female xo and the male captain are ultimately both just characters. If you can figure out his motivation, you should be able to figure out hers. What is cultural the brain block there?
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Date: 2011-07-02 09:53 pm (UTC)ahhh YES this is so good, because yes I remember that article too and ultimately the problem is absolutely that we always, always define female characters first and foremost by their femaleness. You can write a (white) male character pretty much any way you want and few will comment on whether it's "correct" or stereotypical or whatever, but with girls it's just so delicate. Like a month ago I stayed at a friend's house and I guess we were being loud at 2am because her downstairs neighbor came up to chat with us for awhile and apparently he was writing some scifi novel and the second-in-command on the ship was female? And he asked us, as females, how one might write a strong female character, because he just couldn't figure out her motivation. AND THAT'S IT RIGHT THERE, the female xo and the male captain are ultimately both just characters. If you can figure out his motivation, you should be able to figure out hers. What is cultural the brain block there?