Mirror Mirror

from Saathee Raleigh July 2022

Classifieds

Strong Female Characters

Why Has This Become so Hard to Define?

Mirror, Mirror by Jennifer Allen

The “Strong Female Character” has become a big catchphrase in terms of entertainment over the past few years. While I think these creators have their hearts in the right place, these characters often come across as overpowered, underdeveloped, and for lack of a better word… boring.

Perhaps I should explain difference between a “Strong Female Character” versus a “Strong Character who is Female”.

The overarching definition in both cases is a girl or woman in a story who is presented as anything other than a typical damsel-in-distress or supporting love interest. She’s often a supporting character who is simply better than the lead or in some more recent cases, the lead character herself. Characteristics generally include being able to take care of themselves be it with physical strength, intelligence, strong will or some combination of the three.

While the increased representation of fully developed female characters in all forms of media is commendable and should enthusiastically be expanded upon, the way some are written as of late is something we need to reconsider.

Some of these characters are portrayed with a noticeable lack of flaws. They are morally sacrosanct and never seem to make bad choices. They are also never really challenged, while traversing through the story and accomplishing their goal without any real cost. Finally, they are usually inheritably better than most of the male characters they interact with… through birthright or some sort of supernatural/scientific means that’s never fully explained.

This level of “perfection” makes you wonder why we should even care about such a character, right?

What many of these contemporary creations seem to lack is a journey where said character must rise to meet the challenges of their environment. These stories should be about survival within a harsh world, galaxy