Women in fantasy: the illusion of self-empowerment

Dear producers, filmmakers, screenwriters and costume designers,

In honor of this march 8th (which happens to be the International Women’s Day) I would like to ask a little change: stop inflicting on the world the tough-independent-don’t need a man-I dress way too sexy-brooding female hero stereotype. This has especially been relevant in the fantasy universes.

Characters like Xena (Warrior Princess), any female character in the Conan series, Sif (Thor), the new Maleficent or, the newcomer, Katniss Everdeen fit into this description. These are generally one-dimensional characters whose main definition is that they are female and “warriors/fighters”. They are usually dressed with way too little clothing (prompting one to wonder what good is an armor for if it barely covers your modesty) and are angry with the world and reject the male gender (a movie like Barb Wire did take this far too literally for its own good). And they are all terribly blend. They are just an idea of a female role model. They are one-dimensional and paper-thin. The problem is that the general consensus is that this is somehow empowering to women.

I do understand the female fantasy of fighting wars just like men (especially because that’s a role that has been traditionally denied to women), but do we need to do it in a tiny, tiny body armor that will show every inch of skin?

Lady Sif from the Thor movies

Xena: Warrior Princess

A character like Eowyn doesn’t need to do it. She fights, kicks ass and is NOT one-dimensional and, most important, does it with a full armor (thanks for that Peter Jackson). Brienne doesn’t need it. Arya doesn’t need it. But sadly these are just exceptions. Most of female fantasy characters are still either the princess or the sexy kick-ass of the story (and whatever the case they will have to look pretty at all times).

It seems like the idea of “girl power” has somehow been translated to: angry and sexy. So, according to the mass media (movies, literature, comics, TV shows…) if you want to be an independent-empowered woman, you have to look sexy and hate the world. And to me, this is just another way of exploitation (movies attempts to gain success by “exploiting” a current trend or a genre or any element that differs from the norm: Blaxploitation, sexploitation…). 

Apparently the image of self-empowerment in the media is still filtered through a basically male conception of “empowerment”: “yes, she’ll be a super kick-ass character. She’ll slaughter trolls in a miniskirt and stilettos!” (this is basically the thought process of 90% of the producers in the industry).

It’s so shameful that in the year 2015 most of the female characters on screen are so one-dimensional. If they are the protagonists then they never develop a personality of their own, sticking to the angry and sexy, and if they are not protagonist, then they are relegated to being the token girl for the hero.

And this is a generalized problem. It happens in all genres. A director like Christopher Nolan (whom I’ll admit is pretty darn good at directing) is still incapable of writing good female characters. Most of the times they turn out to be just a token for the perfectly well-rounded male protagonist. And so, his movies conform a very masculine universe. This is not bad in and on itself. The problem is that the industry seems dominated by this masculine universe, which gives way to a very frustrating phenomenon: if the movie protagonist is a male, then he’ll be a well-rounded character (or at least they will try) and the movie’s target will be both for men and for women. But it the protagonist is female, then she’ll be poorly written and the movie will be entirely targeted at women (yes, I’m looking at you Mamma mia).

I think that this is the core problem. Somehow, female characters never get as polished and well-rounded as male characters. I’m not sure whether this is because in an industry dominated by men most screenwriters can’t write women well or because they think that it’s not necessary.

What feminism (more like women in general) needs is for movies to give us good female characters: multi-layered, complex and well-rounded characters that are more than an illusion of self-empowerment. What’s really self-empowering is seeing female-characters treated as humans. Female characters, just as the male ones, have distinct personalities, strengths and flaws because they are humans as well.

What female characters demand is equality. Equality of treatment. The right to be as flawed and petty as male characters are allowed (for some reason women in movies are not generally pathetic the just have two set-points: either they are demons or angels)

That is what sets apart a writer like George R.R Martin; he is capable of writing female characters that are psychologically complex, interesting and human: Cersei, Brienne, Sansa…. are all very different women and all are treated as unique human beings, both results of their environment and victims of it at the same time.

Brienne of Tarth. A real female warrior

“It’s about treating men and women the same, I regard men and women as all human - yes there are differences, but many of those differences are created by the culture that we live in, whether it's the medieval culture of Westeros, or 21st century western culture.”
[….]
“All of the characters should be flawed; they should all have good and bad, because that's what I see. Yes, it’s fantasy, but the characters still need to be real.”
--George R.R Martin

Unfortunately, characters like Princess Leia, Eowyn, Cersei or Brienne walk the lonely path of the good fantasy female character (made a little less lonely by Mister Martin).

So, today, in this very special day, I ask you (producers, filmmakers, screenwriters and costume designers) to please reconsider this worrying trend in media. Stop thinking about giving us female role models and start empowering female characters the only way you can: by making real human characters.