Contra Mozilla

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Quick Links: On Strong Female Protagonists

NPR does a nice job of explaining why I can't really get into the whole Hunger Games series: the strong female lead is made at the price of any real men. I have nothing against strong female characters--a well-written one can be the best part of a story. Unfortunately, it seems to me that Hollywood (and others, really, anyone under the thrall of feminist theory) can't create a strong female character without surrounding her by comparatively weak male characters. To be fair, there are plenty of older movies (and stories) which focus on a single strong male character with weak (or insignificant) female characters. But this seems like a self-conscious attempt to "make up" for those types of stories.

Elsewhere, John C Wright has been writing down his thoughts on strong female characters. He (and his wife, for that matter) has written stories which incorporate these without somehow making the men look weak, small, stupid, or useless. It can be done with a some effort and a little talent.

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