A Girl Worth Fighting For
Last night, in a fit of insomnia, I rewatched most of Nostalgia Chick‘s videos, which probably isn’t the most helpful in getting the brain to shut off, because I spent more time thinking about the questions she brings up than trying to get back to sleep.
If you aren’t familiar with Nostalgia Chick, I suggest you all remedy this immediately, especially if you were born between the years of 1980 and 1990. She is the Distaff Counterpart to the Nostalgia Critic, who examines the media of our formative years (e.g. Transformers, Animaniacs, etc.) without the rosy-colored nostalgia glasses.
Of course, I’m fonder of the Nostalgia Chick (who doesn’t update often enough, grrr!) because she tends to analyse and ask questions from a feminist perspective. In the video I posted, the Nostalgia Chick looks at several cartoons from the late 80s and early 90s and ends with a very, very important question: why is it that we believe that everyone can relate to a male protagonist, but only females can relate to female protagonists?
To that end, why is it that when a girl is awesome, she’s labeled a “strong female character” and not a “strong character” period? Or worse, why is it that the notion of a “strong female character” necessarily requires that she be “kickass” or “strong in a typical masculine fashion”?
I don’t have answers, of course. But society has problematic views of women, and those problematic views come out in literature. Not only do they come out in literature, they can be “fixed” by equally problematic kludges in said books. Just because a girl is “kickass” doesn’t necessarily mean she’s a “strong” character. Sarah Rees Brennan writes about this in her first Ladies, Please essay.
According to this female character flowchart (thanks, Dawn!), it’s pretty easy to write a strong female character. If you answer yes to the following criteria:
- Can she carry her own story?
- Is she three-dimensional?
- Is she her own person and not an Idea or a shallow Archetype?
- Does she have believable and realistic flaws?
- Does she survive to the end of the story?
Then congratulations! You have written a strong female character! Hell, you’ve written a strong character full stop, female or no.
I’ve talked abut race in fiction and wanting to see characters (specifically protagonists) who were incidentally not-white. I’d like to see a protagonist who is incidentally not-male. You know, an awesome protagonist who is incidentally female. A protagonist who is informed by her sex and/or gender, but not defined by it. And I would like to see this protagonist in a story that isn’t a romance.
You all know I have issues with love stories. Big ones. I think a lot of my issues stem from the fact that I’m expected to like it. “You have been socially conditioned to expect and desire the perfect relationship! Why don’t you? You fail at being a girl if you don’t like romance or books with FEEEEEEEEEEEELINGS!”
Argh.
This is my issue with a lot of current YA and why I have been suffering a little bit of a slump in my reading lately. My problem with romance in YA is the same reason I object to My Little Pony and other blatantly girl-centric media. Let’s face it, YA is blatantly girl-centric these days. As Nostalgia Chick says, “And it’s PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINK”. And I feel it panders to a “general” notion of “what girls want”.
I have no inherent problems with girl-centricity. I think we ought to celebrate awesome girls. Lyra Silvertongue. Phèdre nò Delaunay. Hermione Granger. Katniss Everdeen. But I have problems with blatant girl-centricity. I feel that it’s too insular and narrow. How are you going to convince boys of the awesomeness of girls if the packaging makes their eyes glaze over? (Hell, a lot of current YA packaging makes my eyes glaze over and I’m not ashamed of being a girly-girl!)
But the problem with “what girls want” is precisely that: it’s concerned with what girls want and not want people want. It’s the same issue I have with books which are blatantly marketed to Asians. It’s “what Asians want”. Um, look, I appreciate the good intentions, but I dislike the shorthand. This is rather similar.
I really wish we’d stop thinking of females (and people of color) as this inherently “different” thing. Nostalgia Chick defines it as “default” and “deviation from default”. Default = white, male, straight. Deviation from default = anything else. THIS IS A PROBLEM. The default ought to be “human”. I consider myself part of the “default” by virtue of the fact that I am a person, despite the fact that I have three strikes against me. I’m a girl, I’m queer, and I’m biracial. This is how I identify myself. I am apparently two and a half degrees removed from the default. But yet I still find the default “default” more relatable. Why is this?
I don’t know. I don’t have any answers–just a lot of questions. And a lot of frustration. I just want to read a really great story with really great characters who aren’t saddled by the burden of being Female or A Person of Color. I want these really great characters to be female and persons of color in the same way they might also be tall or short. Being the Token anything is pretty tough.
Brilliant post. Enjoyed reading and more importantly thinking. It’s wonderful to know that there are other people who feel the same way I do regarding characters in books who happen to be female. My slump with YA hasn’t really ended-I just moved onto adult fiction and never looked back. I hope one day the default does equal human. Here’s hoping!
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I don’t think adult fiction and YA fiction are mutually exclusive; in fact, adult fiction is plagued by many of the same problems as YA. I do read a lot of adult fiction, but my first love was, is, and ever will be children’s literature. Unfortunately, children’s literature and I are in the midst of an argument, it seems.
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I agree with that, it’s just I find adult golden age crime novels quickly becoming my go to genre. Some of them (the ones I read) don’t place such a heavy influence on differentiating between strong women and men and instead focus on the external mystery that needs to be solved. Whether the solver of the mystery is a man or woman it’s usually not all that important and while I have tried YA mysteries written in the same vein I find that romance is more important.
But type of books, adult and YA, I don’t even attempt any more. Which book in particular started your argument with Ya/Children’s fiction?
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There is indeed a YA Book That Broke Me, but I will not name names. :) I have, however, gotten back into this imaginative genre I so love, but with less romance-centric stories, like Scott Westerfeld’s BEHEMOTH and Patrick Ness’s MONSTERS OF MEN.
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I love this post! Lyra and Phedre are two of my favorite characters too.
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Okay, now you have me watching all of her videos! I completely forgot about Nostalgia Chick and am having a BLAST going through the archive. Loving her analysis/take on things!
(I must admit, I was relieved she was relatively kind to “Titanic”, haha. ROSE DEWITT BUKATER = original lady hero to twelve-year-old me.)
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I just HAD to come over here after your fantastic comments on Natalie Whipple’s blog.
And now I see – a fellow yellow, insomniac, and bookish person. AND you got to intern at Writers House. Sigh, you definitely lived the life I once wanted! I am jealous my dear!
I myself was up all night storyboarding my YA fantasy and wondering if I had to make my female MC fight or have magic, then I wake up to this discussion going on. I’m so glad for this thread!! And to meet you!
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