I believe that we need more strong female characters in the media. Growing up, many female characters were simply love interests with little to no personality. Seeing these characters in my books, T.V., and movies always felt boring. It also made me feel like I wasn’t feminine enough. As a kid, I always tried to follow these guidelines- fancy dresses, high heels, make up- but I realized that I don’t like dressing like that. It’s not just this, though; in the media, female characters are always interested in fashion, ballet, makeup, boys, sparkles, and the color pink. This made me believe that my passion for karate made me less feminine. My experiences made me yearn for female characters with more diverse interests.
Brit Marling, an actress, wrote an article talking about her experience in Hollywood. She described her auditions: “These are character descriptions of roles I have read for: ‘thin, attractive, Dave’s wife’; ‘robot girl, a remarkable feat of engineering’; ‘her breasts are large and she’s wearing a red sweater.’” These “character” descriptions are lacking in any character and mostly just describe the physical aspect of the character. It’s just another example of objectifying women.
Every child grows up watching Disney princess movies. Whether it’s the newer ones, like Frozen and Moana, or the classics, like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, most children look to these princesses to learn what a girl is “supposed” to be. Though some of the older princesses often aren’t the best examples, even they have good qualities. Sofia Weng brings attention to this when she says, “Snow White is compassionate and caring, which draws others to help her,” and that “despite her step-family’s abuse, Cinderella maintains her kindness to those around her.“ These skills are often underappreciated, thus making people believe they are not “strong” qualities. However, as Weng states, “It is easy to be angry in the face of adversity. It is difficult to be kind.” In other words, there are many different kinds of strength; one is not more valuable than another.
Some people believe that strong female characters are just girls doing what guys do. However, this idea only exists because there aren’t enough examples of women in these positions. There’s no rule that battling space aliens is a masculine activity, just like there’s no rule that being emotionally vulnerable is a feminine activity. These actions aren’t limited to a specific gender; in real life, everyone has moments where they’re strong and weak, regardless of gender, and I feel that we should have characters to reflect this. So let’s stop limiting our characters with the stereotypes of gender. After all, the beauty of fiction is that anything can happen.
