Reconnecting with my Feminine Side
Sep. 23rd, 2010 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kayqyI've had trouble writing female characters for a long time, and often prefer writing male MCs. I've dismissed it as a tendency for my female characters to feel too much like Mary Sues, but I think now that this is either inaccurate or lazy, or both. And it seems like I'm creating fewer and fewer female characters lately. (Not that I need an equal gender ratio, but when my reason for making a character male is because female feels too "flimsy"....) So I'm going to go back to the basics, list some of my favorite female characters and heroes, figure out what I love about them, and then..... match it up against my subconscious objections to writing female characters, I guess?
This may wind up with me on the couch, headshrinking myself, but hopefully I won't have to delve too far into the sociopolitical mire. We shall see. (Oh, and there be spoilers ahead, though I'll try to be careful.)
Women I Admire and/or Like to Read About, and Why
~Ekaterin from Bujold's Vorkosigan series: Ekaterin is a strong, mature woman, who's already been through a bad marriage, and is doing all she can for the sake of her son and herself. Even though she lives in a society that's still largely patriarchal, she neither submits to it nor randomly defies it for the sake of defiance; she decides what matters most to her, and then lets nothing get in the way of those things. And she has a strong sense of humor, beauty, honor, and just enough insanity to survive being married to Miles. :P
~Fawn Bluefield from Bujold's Sharing Knife series: Yeah, Bujold's got a lot of great female characters (and male, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms). Fawn is in many ways the opposite of Ekaterin: still young and inexperienced, which are greater barriers in her world than her sex. But not naive, at least not by the time we meet her, and she certainly has her share of pain and growing-up experiences. But when she comes up against something she can't do, she neither gives up nor insists that she can, but figures out a way that she can get it done. And she sees so much good and wonder in the world, even when she knows that there's much that is not good at all.
~Julia Child and Susan Boyle: These two are a couple of my real life heroes, mainly because they both achieved their dreams relatively later in life, which gives me hope for myself and the world. And they didn't have to be anyone but themselves to do it. Also, they both seem to have such a love of life. :)
~Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth is strong and independent, though she still needs and wants others, intelligent but not infallible, clever and humorous, but still sensitive to those she holds dear.
~Belldandy from Ah My Goddess: Yes, she's more or less designed to be "perfect", but I actually like how she is beautiful, yet her modest clothing doesn't come off as prudish— she doesn't need to prove how beautiful or desirable she is, she just is what she is. And she sees and loves the rest of the world the same way: exactly as it is. I feel like her naiveté is more a conscious choice than a lack of awareness: she sees the best in people, and so they become better than they think they are.
~Teru Kurebayashi from Dengeki Daisy: (Yeah, this is another manga, a bit lesser known.) Teru is probably one of the few high school girl characters I really love. She's physically strong and tougher than average, but isn't a stereotypical "tough girl". She's smart, but also foolish, and more than a little crazy and goofy. And while she's not "girly", she does want to look beautiful and be loved. And she's seen enough of the bad side of the world that when she chooses to trust someone who's wronged her, it's a conscious choice and not gullibility.
~Daisy Flattery from The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie: Crusie has a lot of wonderful strong female characters, but Daisy is possibly my favorite. She's artistic and loves telling stories, and wants desperately to grow into something more, but is afraid that in order to do so, she may have to become something she's not. .....If I had written her, she would definitely be my Mary Sue, because I identify with her So. Much. And I badly want the life she winds up with (though with a nice book deal instead of an art gallery). And then, as I wrote her down on my list, I wondered, "Why is it okay for me to love reading about this character that's so much like me, but not okay for me to write one?"
......I'm a little afraid that the real answer in the back of my head is, "Because you're lame!" Which may mean that my difficulty with female characters is less about their femininity and more about my own insecurities.
>.>
<.<
Epiphany aside, I think this exercise did help me identify some of the characteristics that I love best in female characters (probably in male characters, too, but anyway):
~Quirky and crazy
~A healthy dose of common sense
~With hidden depths, or an unexpected side
~Who fight for what/who is important to them
~Who are not blind to the world's faults, but choose to see the good as well
~Who don't find their identity in other people, but still depend on and are depended on by others
And most importantly:
~Who find strength not in what's expected of them, nor in rebellion of expectations, but in who they are.
I could ramble on about stereotypes, and fallacies and expectations, and books I read as a child, but I'm really tired, and I semi-promised not to get into sociopolitical carp. And I'm really tired.
This may wind up with me on the couch, headshrinking myself, but hopefully I won't have to delve too far into the sociopolitical mire. We shall see. (Oh, and there be spoilers ahead, though I'll try to be careful.)
Women I Admire and/or Like to Read About, and Why
~Ekaterin from Bujold's Vorkosigan series: Ekaterin is a strong, mature woman, who's already been through a bad marriage, and is doing all she can for the sake of her son and herself. Even though she lives in a society that's still largely patriarchal, she neither submits to it nor randomly defies it for the sake of defiance; she decides what matters most to her, and then lets nothing get in the way of those things. And she has a strong sense of humor, beauty, honor, and just enough insanity to survive being married to Miles. :P
~Fawn Bluefield from Bujold's Sharing Knife series: Yeah, Bujold's got a lot of great female characters (and male, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms). Fawn is in many ways the opposite of Ekaterin: still young and inexperienced, which are greater barriers in her world than her sex. But not naive, at least not by the time we meet her, and she certainly has her share of pain and growing-up experiences. But when she comes up against something she can't do, she neither gives up nor insists that she can, but figures out a way that she can get it done. And she sees so much good and wonder in the world, even when she knows that there's much that is not good at all.
~Julia Child and Susan Boyle: These two are a couple of my real life heroes, mainly because they both achieved their dreams relatively later in life, which gives me hope for myself and the world. And they didn't have to be anyone but themselves to do it. Also, they both seem to have such a love of life. :)
~Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth is strong and independent, though she still needs and wants others, intelligent but not infallible, clever and humorous, but still sensitive to those she holds dear.
~Belldandy from Ah My Goddess: Yes, she's more or less designed to be "perfect", but I actually like how she is beautiful, yet her modest clothing doesn't come off as prudish— she doesn't need to prove how beautiful or desirable she is, she just is what she is. And she sees and loves the rest of the world the same way: exactly as it is. I feel like her naiveté is more a conscious choice than a lack of awareness: she sees the best in people, and so they become better than they think they are.
~Teru Kurebayashi from Dengeki Daisy: (Yeah, this is another manga, a bit lesser known.) Teru is probably one of the few high school girl characters I really love. She's physically strong and tougher than average, but isn't a stereotypical "tough girl". She's smart, but also foolish, and more than a little crazy and goofy. And while she's not "girly", she does want to look beautiful and be loved. And she's seen enough of the bad side of the world that when she chooses to trust someone who's wronged her, it's a conscious choice and not gullibility.
~Daisy Flattery from The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie: Crusie has a lot of wonderful strong female characters, but Daisy is possibly my favorite. She's artistic and loves telling stories, and wants desperately to grow into something more, but is afraid that in order to do so, she may have to become something she's not. .....If I had written her, she would definitely be my Mary Sue, because I identify with her So. Much. And I badly want the life she winds up with (though with a nice book deal instead of an art gallery). And then, as I wrote her down on my list, I wondered, "Why is it okay for me to love reading about this character that's so much like me, but not okay for me to write one?"
......I'm a little afraid that the real answer in the back of my head is, "Because you're lame!" Which may mean that my difficulty with female characters is less about their femininity and more about my own insecurities.
>.>
<.<
Epiphany aside, I think this exercise did help me identify some of the characteristics that I love best in female characters (probably in male characters, too, but anyway):
~Quirky and crazy
~A healthy dose of common sense
~With hidden depths, or an unexpected side
~Who fight for what/who is important to them
~Who are not blind to the world's faults, but choose to see the good as well
~Who don't find their identity in other people, but still depend on and are depended on by others
And most importantly:
~Who find strength not in what's expected of them, nor in rebellion of expectations, but in who they are.
I could ramble on about stereotypes, and fallacies and expectations, and books I read as a child, but I'm really tired, and I semi-promised not to get into sociopolitical carp. And I'm really tired.
