This is not an ode to bedazzled vampire loving codependents, fictional damsels in distress or fifty shades of Mary Sue. This is a hate letter—the only love these fictional stereotypes will be getting is from lonely middle-aged soccer moms and anxious teen-aged girls.
As the ever eloquent expression goes—may they all go take a long walk off a short bridge. Not to lay any blame, but their existence has subsequently allowed further characters to be molded and mass produced in the name of money.
Remember back in 2008 when Twilight was released and every girl on the planet thought Bella Swan was the ultimate role model? What? You don’t remember that? Good—because it did not happen. That is not an actual thing and nor should it ever be.
However, Hollywood then decided that it was going to adapt every YA novel, video game or board game that bothered to have a coherent plot to make a profit. A good 25 to 30 percent of those adaptions were helmed by female protagonists. That brought them to life in such a way that movie goers were left with three archetypes to choose from: Female Bruce Willis, Milquetoast Mary Jane and Julia Roberts—that is to say the queen of Rom-Coms.
Besides that of Bella Swan, one other series that struggles with defining an unconventional motive for its female protaganist is The Mortal Instruments. Never heard of it—shocker. Not only does it glorify incest, but one of the major criticisms is that the book’s “heroine” disregards the safety, well being and authority of her mother and peers in order to save a boyfriend that is more than capable of taking himself and who, apparently, the whole universe revolves around.
Recently, some of the best YA series that are being adapted to movies have done fairly well to mirror each other in some way. Two great examples of this are Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games and Veronica Roth’s Divergent. Both heroines are leaders if not in the very center of progressing revolutions and very few, if any of their decisions have to do with their love interests.
Despite not wanting to include J.K Rowling in the second wave of YA books, it would be a crime not to mention the diverse assembly of women in Harry Potter—Molly Weasley, Hermoine, Professor McGonagall. All of these women are decidedly strong, independent wizards who don’t need no man.
Let me give you an example of the female Bruce Willis mold. Zach Snyder’s Sucker Punch is filled to the brim with explosions, short skirts and samurai swords. Sexy women doing “dude stuff” does not a strong female lead make.
Did pop-culture think it could replace Sylvester Stallone with a skirt and no one would notice? Strength—true strength—in this context, is not just the ability to look cool while walking away from an explosion but being able to carry a movie both emotionally and reasonably with gravitas. Is that so much to ask?
One way to assess whether you might just have potential strong female roles in a movie is with the cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s The Bechdel Test. It consists of these three questions: Are there at least 2 women present, do they talk to each other, and is it about something other than a man?
Well, it looks like that blockbuster hit The Avengers failed miserably. Director Joss Whedon recently complained about the lack of dynamic female leads. His movie has a total of three useful women and the lot of them don’t even converse with one another. To Joss Whedon we say—get over yourself.
This brings me to my final point. If Hollywood is so keen on trying to find the ultimate strong female lead, why hasn’t a Wonder Woman movie come into the works? Thor happened, so can’t be a problem with bringing the mythology to life. So is the problem that they are having trouble creating a multi-dimensional female character? Here is Diana, fighting the patriarchy, a leader among a race of highly-skilled warriors who pride themselves on being independent of men and they say the material has not lent itself to a desirable story line.
As of last Friday it was rumored that Wonder Woman might be making a small cameo in the Man of Steel sequel. If anything, it would give execs a chance to see how audiences respond to her. Like Marvel’s Avengers, Batman vs. Superman is going to be a meat show. So, if we could not have women parading around in skin tight butt suits for the sake of gender diversity that would be great.
Zhana Johnson
Features Correspondent