We, as a generation, are religious consumers of media and faithful watchers of that ‘one last episode.’ We are one nation under film and Netflix is our temple. According to New York Daily News, in fact, on any given day your run-of-the-mill American will plop onto his couch and watch more than five hours of television.
Television inundates every facet of the American life, offering the average Joe a safe haven from life’s troubles or an avenue which procrastination can use to run its course. They know they can always find an average Joe like them on television, but what about the average Jane?
‘Strong’ female characters are becoming increasingly prominent- though they come in different forms. Some are idyllic, more object than woman-they are the ones with whitened smiles and equally as bleached personalities. They are intentionally made to be vanilla so as to render them as inoffensive as possible, yet it is that humdrum personality that I find offensive.
The rest of the time, ‘strong’ female characters are the ones standing in the background of movie posters, wearing a black, curve-hugging body-suit. Somehow they always end up needing some lewd disguise, or removing everything entirely for the alleged greater good. And oftentimes they need the protagonist, the male protagonist, to save them from some force too great for them to overcome alone. ‘Strong’ female heroines are modern society’s interpretation of the traditional damsel in distress, nothing more.
Point being, if I am going to expose my mind to that much information in a single sitting, I would much prefer it didn’t impair my thought process/pollute my mind. But current media is doing just that to all who give it their attention (aka: everyone). One example of this regression is the ever-popular ‘strong’ female character.
Then again, I’ll admit I, as writer, understand that not every character that slips into the story can be fully developed. Sometimes you need to write in a character who is really nothing more than a device, like Travis in A Raisin in the Sun, someone who is only necessary to motivate another character, or needed to clarify setting and circumstance. The issue in our society is that, more often than not, female characters are the ones being neglected.
Although thankful Hollywood has been making an effort to better represent women, I can’t help but feel the new strong, kick-butt woman of our modern film industry is just as detrimental as the idyllic, 1950s woman with her perpetual smile and impeccable glaze of lipstick. These character types are not people I could, or would want to live up to.
When asked how he shaped such compelling female characters, Game of Thrones screenwriter George R.R. Martin stated in an interview with The Telegraph that he, “just write[s] human characters.” I don’t necessarily love Martin’s writing or his characters, but I agree with is philosophy.
To the worlds’ screenwriters; I’m not entirely sure I care whether or not you portray us as stay-at-home mothers, powerhouse CEOs or anything far and in-between, as long as you give us strengths and imperfections.
Girls don’t need unblemished female characters looking over their shoulders for the remainder of their lives, but neither do they need to be dragged down by the oftentimes amoral damsels in distress of today. What they need are real women who have ambitions, deep vices, women who mess up.
Make us treacherous, loyal, or revolting. Make us awe-inspiring, pathetic, or audacious. Make us devious, make us self-righteous, make us volatile.
Spare us the ‘strong,’ and make us human instead.