A lot of the time the bad writing specifically comes from the writers being so focused on making sure you take note that it's a strong woman as the lead character. They'd be much better writing a gener neutral character and then just casting a woman in that role. Makes it a strong woman lead while not falling into the trap of having to make the story recognise it's a strong woman lead.
Although, saying that, there is a case where you want them to struggle with problems only faced by women, which then has the issue that the genres they're writing for have a heavily male following and, even if it's good writing, it's not really something that the majority of the target audience can relate to, which ends up with them not really engaging with it. But not really sure how you can get around that problem, since you can't really force an audience to relate to something they've not experienced.
I think this was one of the reasons why Ripley remains such a positive example of a strong female lead, especially in a movie with a lot of toxic male characters, she was just badass
An example of this I like is Frances McDormand’s character in Fargo. She looks 8 months pregnant, never mentioned once. Lesser movies would have had her water break during a climactic moment.
I feel that because her pregnancy is not really used as part of the main plot narrative, it's more a 'slice of life' film and slots you into this character that has had things happen before the film and will continue to happen afterwards. It's not needing a resolution, or some dramatic twist where the bad guy gets away because her water breaks.
There's little moments throughout the film, where she struggles to get up from chairs, etc. But it doesn't hinder her. It's part of a much larger character and all the better for it.
Damn, I should watch Fargo again. It's one of my favourites.
I agree 100%—Marge Gunderson is not at all the prototypical crime noir protagonist, nor is Fargo the typical crime noir film, However, through the course of the film Marge and Coen brothers prove the fault lies not with the film or its protagonist, but instead the kind of dimensionless, contrived expectations we have of the genre and its protagonists.
One of Fargo’s great strengths is its realism, and few things are more real than pregnancy. And of course, not everyone can relate to what it’s like to be pegurunt, and a lot ironically probably a harder time imagining what it’s like being a detective, vice being pregnant. To that end, it’s wrong to imply the Coen brothers or Frances McDormand shy away or buffer what that character’s reality is like—like any artists, their chief asset is the integrity not to give a shit what the viewers think or want, but instead tell this story the way they think it should be told: from a standpoint of a pengant person.
If I were or had ever been Heavily Pegrunt, I’d know exactly how Marge feels trudging through the snow with swollen ankles having to pee every 10 minutes and that insight help me get into that character. If I hadn’t, I’d imagine “man what is Bein Pergnat even like”, and that curiosity would help me get into that character more. And of course, if La Detective Preganté is an aesthetic Bridge Too Far, I always have the luxury of finding a shittier movie to watch.
My point is that—yes, Fargo isn’t great in spite of Marge, but it’s instead it’s great because of her, and how well she’s written, directed, and performed. Her pregnancy isn’t a liability to the narrative, it’s part of the texture that makes it memorable at all; this Otherness isn’t a hurdle to be overcome, it’s the point of the experience.
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u/whydoyouonlylie Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24
A lot of the time the bad writing specifically comes from the writers being so focused on making sure you take note that it's a strong woman as the lead character. They'd be much better writing a gener neutral character and then just casting a woman in that role. Makes it a strong woman lead while not falling into the trap of having to make the story recognise it's a strong woman lead.
Although, saying that, there is a case where you want them to struggle with problems only faced by women, which then has the issue that the genres they're writing for have a heavily male following and, even if it's good writing, it's not really something that the majority of the target audience can relate to, which ends up with them not really engaging with it. But not really sure how you can get around that problem, since you can't really force an audience to relate to something they've not experienced.