Why People Hate Female Characters

It would be interesting to analyze that, and see how many points matched up, then compare the writing and acting between the two. The more similarity, the more the reaction would indicate sexism on the part of the audience. But it's also conceivable that Sookie's story arc got shortchanged because she was female, a common problem with female characters; less so with female leads but it can still happen even there.

It makes a huge difference when you have a diverse cast, because then nobody is the only representation of their group, and their traits don't necessarily apply to the whole group. So Buffy can be strong and martyrish, Willow can be smart and magic-obsessed, Anya can be forthright and sex-crazed, Dawn can be loyal and annoying, etc. without implying those as more than individual characteristics.

Joss writes all kinds of different women. I love that about him. He did it on Firefly too. The cast is about half-and-half male and female.

>>I've never seen anything like the depth of dislike for any male character* on the show that I see heaped on Tara and Dawn all the time.<<

I think that people are more inclined to hate female characters, because some people just don't like women.

Also consider that Tara is a lesbian, a category that many people hate per se. Dawn's role is primarily "Buffy's annoying little sister" and siblings = annoying is something that many people have experienced, so it's easy to absorb. That can push up the level of dislike.

I don't see anything wrong with disliking a particular character type. I don't like "the man trap" as a female character type, for instance. But I don't think it's a good idea to hold a hate-fest over that, and it's definitely not acceptable to rag on actors about their characters.

>> The first was when I was disappointed that the one female Avenger's superpower was... having people underestimate her. <<

I can see how that would be disappointing. However, she is also excellent in combat: enough to make it onto a team with super-strength heroes. And being underestimated really does work as a superpower, speaking from personal experience. Having a more gender-diverse team would've been nice, but I still loved Black Widow in that movie.

>>Then I realized that in two separate series of novels I was reading, the lead female character was a mechanic. Why can't we have a lead female character who is a heroine AND doesn't have to do so by taking on stereotypically male attributes? Why can't the woman like crossstitch and cats and still kick butt?<<

That's part of an evolving arc of gender expression in literature. Early female characters usually were feminine, just dropped into male-dominated plots, and gradually moving up to more prominent positions. Then people started saying, "Hey, why can't women do X?" and putting female characters into the most masculine roles they could think of. It's a way of blurring gender lines. When it piles up, though, it can look awkward. So then the pendulum swings back, and people start re-adding feminine characteristics because they feel that some female characters are written like "men with boobs."

If you want feminine characters who can still kick butt, or female superheroes with formidable powers, I recommend the Crowdfunding Creative Jam (July 21-22) on "Women in Sensible Armor." The August 7 Poetry Fishbowl on "Modern Myths" might also suit. Ask for what you want.

>> Black Widow is really the only character without a cool thing that sets her apart though. <<

I didn't see a special gimmick for her. Other than being a brilliant earwig, and Loki has that too.

>> I just finished reading a series written by a man that made me think about how females are written. He writes about both feminine females and hyper-masculine females. (Commander series by Randall Farmer) That made me start thinking about whether females in other series I liked were being written as more typically masculine. <<

That's really cool.

My characters cover a gender ... manifold. "Spectrum" is just so woefully inadequate it's like trying to draw a 2D tesseract. So I have some female characters who are classically feminine, like Auduna in Hart's Farm; some who are mostly feminine but just a bit mannish, like Fiorenza; plenty in the middle; some who are fairly butch but a little feminine, like Kay in Schrodinger's Heroes; and some who are strongly masculine, like Maryam in The Steamsmith. Interestingly, Fiorenza has a profession, wisewoman, that traditionally belongs to women; but it conveys more authority than women usually have in that context, so it blurs the lines a bit. And Kay has one masculine (soldier) and one feminine (nurse) profession, blended together. I probably do that a lot in the middle of the range.