Problems with Writing Female Characters
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Published 2022-10-23
Personal bonus examples include Legend of the Seeker / Terry Goodkind's "The Sword of Truth", Eragon, as well as Abbie Emmons's "100 Days of Sunlight"
My "L-Model of Life and Love" makes a comeback!
(Introduction Video:) • The L-Model of Life and Love
This time, I'm employing it to try and answer several questions surrounding movies, books, and storytelling at large:
What are the specific challenges with writing "strong" female characters?
Why can't you just take a male hero and then "happen" to make them female?
Why do so many female characters either turn out to be helpless victims, or flawless Mary Sues, who hardly face any challenges?
Why are so many heroic characters, and also their mentors by extension, male to begin with?
In this video, we're going to discuss the hypoagency or passivity of the damsel in the beauty-and-the-beast trope, and why it's one form of female power fantasy. We're going to contrast this against the male power fantasy of becoming said beast, and which attributes of "beast"-like men we might want to emphasise more than others.
Next, we're going to discuss the (mythological) origins of another form of female power fantasy - the infamous Mary Sue - as well as how this trope relates to Paragons and Self-Inserts.
At the end, I also discuss two prominent modern male archetypes - and which character in particular I consider an example of the optimal synthesis of the various masculine values.
Sources:
Gal Gadot on her training for Wonder Woman: comicbook.com/dc/news/gal-gadot-military-training-…
Jordan Peterson on the archetypal hero being male: • Jordan Peterson - Female Hero Archetypes
Abbie Emmons on writing a female character ("who isn't totally annoying") who learns something from a man: • How To Craft a STRONG FEMALE CHARACTE...
Part II (case study Captain Marvel vs. Black Widow): • How to Write a Strong Female Characte...
Overly Sarcastic Productions on the Mary Sue acting like a singularity that warps the universe around herself: • Trope Talk: Mary Sue
The Critical Drinker's take on Whiplash (with which I strongly disagree): • The Drinker Recommends... Whiplash
Previous videos:
We Don't Need Gods; We Do Need Myths: • We Don't Need Gods; We Do Need Myths
Storytelling Today: Origins of THE MESSAGE: • Storytelling Today: Origins of THE ME...
All Comments (7)
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Timestamps for the chapters: What makes us care about a character?: 1:14 Overview of fan-approved and fan-disapproved characters: 4:13 The L-Model of Life and Love - A Quick Recap: 7:24 Female & Male Power Fantasy: 9:11 Everyman & Underdog: 10:16 Everyman: Chad Version (Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth"): 14:04 From Everyman to Everywoman ("Plain Jane"): 17:25 Hypoagency & Passive Protagonists: 18:21 Damsel in Distress vs. Mary Sue - Two Power Fantasies: 23:09 Origins of the Mary Sue - Goethe's "Iphigenia": 23:30 The Paragon: 27:35 The Self-Insert: 29:57 The Know-It-All: 33:25 Child Protagonists: 35:51 Character Growth - The Big Picture: 41:43 Confident Male Characters - Stoics vs. Narcissists: 45:55 Summary & Conclusion: 51:17
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I agree that female characters should be complex just like male characters which they all go through struggles in their life. The female character I like is Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games Franchise because she is adventurous, compassionate, courageous, persistent, and tough.
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I sent an email regarding you singing on something. This time the style is progressive rock
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Interesting. My personal hero has been tintin from the comic book, and the hero from "pi". Not life of pi.
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This is me from cosmic slam/nefarious rockers. We had some plans about collabing a while back, but it didn't happen. Should we try again and collab on some antinatalism songs, you can sing, do drums and play bass. There were some troubles with tempo changes I couldn't figure out the last time. I sent an email to you about this.
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4 Annoying Main Female Stereotypical Characters That Entertainment Companies Should Seriously Stop Showing: 1. The Helpless Damsel In Distress 2. The Hypersexual Seductress 3. The Rude Spoiled Diva 4. The Whiny Misandrist Man-Hater 4 Amazing Main Female Characters That Entertainment Companies Should Definitely Show: 1. The Adventurer 2. The Clever Scientist 3. The Successful Entrepreneur 4. The Warrior Helper
