Favorite quote from the article:
I think the major problem here is that women were clamoring for “strong female characters,” and male writers misunderstood. They thought the feminists meant [Strong Female] Characters. The feminists meant [Strong Characters], Female.
I was recently babysitting, putting a little xy down for bed, and we read a fairy tale [I wish I could remember the name] were the main character outwits a giant. She was strong and smart in outwitting the giant in a number of ways. Great! A character to look up to, or in this case with the little boy I was reading to, helping to make dynamic female characters part of even the simplest fairytale,, but I held my breath because she was still doing everything in a pettycoat . . .Reading on. . . there was a reward involved for the young woman, each time she outwitted the giant one of her sisters could pick any man in the countryside to be her husband -- TA DA! All problems solved. Go risk your life against a giant that almost ate you, and you or your family will "provided for."
Uhg. But then in last two pages or so, the brave xx finally finishes off the giant, and gets to marry the prince... of course. Then in an unexpected twist, she tells the prince to wait, she is going to go off and explore the world.... So she does. And the Prince waits at home for her.
Wow now that was a surprise ending! Completely unpredictable, this riding off on a horse in her petticoat to explore the world. Strong character, woman.
But just because a fairytale bucks the trend, doesn't mean that movies (often modern fairytale-ish) are. What bothers me, even more so than the fact that women are typically not strong characters, is that they are so predictable. Don't get me wrong, I'm the first one out there to see a romantic comedy, but I'm always crossing my fingers that it won't be bad. I enjoy a movie if halfway through I don't whisper to my roommate a prediction of what the next twenty minutes will entail. [This happens a lot. She doesn't like it.] Just by coincidence if you add dimensions to characters the story gets interesting! What a concept.
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before i got to this statement: "This happens a lot. She doesn't like it." it was going to be my comment -- hahaha!
Mollie Whuppie and the Giant. I looked it up and learned that it's based on a Scottish folk tale of the same name. Looks like the 'unexpected twist' was actually a modern add-on (big surprise). You'd probably like the Paper Bag Princess ... her fiance (a prince, of course) gets captured by a dragon, she goes through quite a lot to outwit the dragon and save the prince. When he sees her his first comment is about what a mess she is (she's wearing a paper bag because her clothing was singed in the dragon's firey breath!!) So she dumps him and moves on to other adventures. Now in the Island of the Skogg the true leader (a female mouse) seems to always accede to the more blustery leadership of Bouncer, the alpha male. When she finally saves the day (even though they wouldn't have gotten into trouble if they'd listened to her in the first place)Bouncer still claims the leadership. I don't get it at all, because he clearly broaches the issues of the different styles (stereotypical, at least) of men and women, but the resolution is the less competent of the two (the male) wins. It bugs me enough that I've actually wanted to write him and ask about it. But Bouncer did give me some concrete examples to explain to AJ what I don't like about Bush (which we've been discussing of late).
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