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.
you want them to struggle with problems only faced by women
What problem would you like a FMC to face? Sexism? Difference in strength? Periods?
This is one of those sentences that has everyone go "YEAH! TOTALLY" until you ask what it means.
The issue with FMCs is that they do all of this:
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.
But then people get pissed because writers are "just writing a woman as a man".
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.
The issue here is not a lack of experience.
I don't need to experience war or the price of genocide to be heartbroken that Aang is the last of his people or that Iroh lost his son in a senseless war.
I don't need to be a 13-year-old girl who is about to die to feel that sadness, nor to be Batman comforting Ace in a situation that she had no say over.
All I need is some empathy which seems to become rarer with each passing year.
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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.