“Strong female character” doesn’t mean physical strength

One of my pet peeves in this world is Hollywood’s idea of what “a strong female character” means. They tend to take a male role and replace the actor with a woman. What the phrase means is not about physical strength,  it means a strong characterisation of a female; strong, good writing about a woman’s experience in this world so that the female characters are not just accessories in the movie but actual people with feelings and opinions to state. A goal. Wishes, needs, demands, even.

What I loathe is little girls attacking giant men and winning “because they have such a strong character.” Please! No! Write little girls that matter even if they don’t act like super heroes.

Stop giving children a stupid idea what it means to be a woman “equal to a man.” We are different, and there’s nothing wrong with that. We have different strengths and physical strength is men’s strength. We don’t have to “take more pain” to prove equal to men, or have skills that “only women can do” or… prove we can take period cramps like a champ.

Stop erasing womanhood while calling yourselves feminists. Woman’s life matters. Even if you choose to live it like you were a 50’s housewife. We don’t ALL have to do it but also, we don’t need to agree that none of us can. We don’t need to all be the same, neither do men. That said, a female experience, whether a soldier or a spouse, is different to that of a man’s. And that’s interesting. Movie-worthy.

Being a woman is not a weakness or a punishment or a reason to constantly complain and act like a victim. Being a heterosexual woman is not a form of oppression. Not being allowed to be 100% heterosexual woman is a form of oppression however. (Straight is a thing, even if most women are bi.)

Also, don’t forget women oppress other women, too, constantly. Oppression comes very often from our own gender. Not everything is a man’s fault.

Subscribe to get a Daily Message