Clickbait title. Also, I disagree with her premise. We have to ditch the strong female character because most mainstream writers seem to f*ck it up? No. We need to teach them what it means. But otherwise, the article is very good, and makes a lot of excellent points.
Growing up, I loved hearing the words strong female character (“SFC”). By the time I’d hit middle school I was boiling with anger. Not just because of awkward adolescence, but because I was sick and tired of seeing the same old damsels in distress and sexualized romantic interests in my favorite movies and series. I wanted more Mulans, but instead I got a truckload of Sleeping Beauties. And occasionally, an action movie or sci-fi book would deliver my semi-regular SFC.
Except they didn’t. As I grew older and better at writing stories myself, I began to notice a problem with the “strong female character.”
They weren’t characters at all.
Read the full article at Dragons, Zombies and Aliens: the Blog.
