More of the hackneying in fiction re: female stock characters
On Start Trek: The Next Generation, there were only two women characters. One of them is the resident medical doctor on the ship, so I guess that's good. The other one, the really gorgeous one, is supposed to be a psychologist or something. Feh. Well at least she is brunette, so Star Trek has that going for them.
There's another Star Trek that has a lady captain, Captain Janeway, which is pretty cool. There is a subtle touch that I don't know if everyone picked up on-- the captain's surname is originated from a woman's name, Jane, rather than most surnames that are derived from men's names, such as Thomas or Williamson. Nice nod to trivial white-people stuff. I believe this same Star Trek has a Klingon woman as the ship's chief engineer. I think it's neat that we finally have an important woman character who is of an alien race and not some boring middle-class white girl. That's pretty cool. I think the engineer has, like, anger management issues or something, which is not ideal, but it's good that she has an actual personality instead of being the popular-and-well-liked-by-everyone type.
...Aaand then they also stuck a sexy hot chick character in there. It's rather pathetic and telling that the producers decided to "compensate" for the intelligent, capable, strong female characters by putting a sex object there. It's like they thought, "we don't want people to think we respect women to too much of an extent, so let's also put something that will please sexist pig-dog males."
There is a character called "Neelix," a weird-looking little alien dude who is really nice and sweet and weird-looking. He has a crush on a normal-looking, very pretty human. Couldn't he have found a woman from an alien race like him, who is also sweet and kind and with whom he has much more in common? There is a character called "Worf," I think, who is a stern, gruff-looking dark-complexioned alien. At one point he marries a normal-looking, very pretty human. I don't buy that she is an alien. She has a couple of spots on her nose which could be attributed to simple birthmarks; nothing approaching any alien ancestry.
Similar, but perhaps not quite to that exaggerated extent, with K.A. Applegate's Animporphs books. I know they are marketed as children's books, but they are so much fun and they are really well-written. Except for the part wherein these books have only two main characters that are girls, yet four main characters that are boys. All the kids are about middle-school or young high-school age. The Animporh boy characters are complex, multi-layered, fascinating.
One of them is an alien from a supposedly benevolent alien race, but this race is revealed to be more and more meddling, misinformed, and having bad judgment as the series progresses. As you might have guessed, this boy is permanently separated from his family. One of the boys comes from a really shitty background of both parents deserting him, being ferreted from one relative's custody to another, then from foster home to foster home. This boy becomes permanently trapped in a hawk physical form. This boy is probably the most interesting as well as tragic of all the characters, and I am constantly blown away by how he and his experiences are written. One boy is Mexican something-or-other, lives in a bad neighborhood, and also comes from sort of a broken home. This guy gets to be more and more of an ahole as the series progresses.
There are tons of important supporting characters, the ones whose existences explain the whole entire massive back story of this Animorph universe and drive the plot forward. The vast, vast majority of them are male. These are benevolent aliens, evil aliens, evil aliens disguised as humans, good humans.
The girl characters still reflect that unfortunate typesetting talked about earlier, in which female characters depicted in pop culture are conveniently placed in an either/or dichotomy. One is an adequate blonde popular princess and the other girl is black. Shrug. The black girl, Cassie, is pretty awesome. She and her parents run an animal rescue center on their farm, and this farm has been in their family for several generations. Cassie gives the group of kids access to the animals so that they can acquire animal forms. No animals are harmed in the process of "acquiring." She is the most naturally talented of the kids to be able to morph into different animal forms. It is revealed that this is because she has a certain commune with nature. That is pretty neat. (Like I said, it is a fascinating series to read.)
The hawk boy, the one with the most heartbreaking story, of course has a crush on the popular blonde girl. Feh. The popular girl's tragic, heartbreaking back story is... that her parents are divorced. That's it. El fin. Feh.
Wait, hang on. I forgot there is one other female character who is fascinating. She is a Yeerk, one of the evil alien race that is hell-bent on universe domination. One book of the series was devoted to this character essentially arguing with Cassie (the black girl) about what is the true nature of species dominance, war, vegetarianism vs. carnivore-ianism, environmentalism, human progress, aliens taking over the world.
The discussion was shocking, mind-blowing, bitter, jaw-dropping to behold, and it made me realize certain things about myself. It made me realize that I am okay with one species dominating, and that saving a freaking spotted hummingbird is a waste of time compared to saving humans. This is the book in which it was threatened that Cassie would be trapped permanently as a butterfly. The lady Yeerk character brought up a wealth of complex, controversial topics on which to ponder, in this one book. And then we never heard from this character again.
I am pretty sure the author only made this character female because the readers kept haranguing her for more female characters. Which they have done, if you frequent any internet message boards devoted to this book series, you will witness numerous readers, boys and girls, who want this. Seriously, judging by the author's attitude towards female characters of any kind, let alone intelligent strong female characters, it is obvious she does not like having characters that are women.
On Start Trek: The Next Generation, there were only two women characters. One of them is the resident medical doctor on the ship, so I guess that's good. The other one, the really gorgeous one, is supposed to be a psychologist or something. Feh. Well at least she is brunette, so Star Trek has that going for them.
There's another Star Trek that has a lady captain, Captain Janeway, which is pretty cool. There is a subtle touch that I don't know if everyone picked up on-- the captain's surname is originated from a woman's name, Jane, rather than most surnames that are derived from men's names, such as Thomas or Williamson. Nice nod to trivial white-people stuff. I believe this same Star Trek has a Klingon woman as the ship's chief engineer. I think it's neat that we finally have an important woman character who is of an alien race and not some boring middle-class white girl. That's pretty cool. I think the engineer has, like, anger management issues or something, which is not ideal, but it's good that she has an actual personality instead of being the popular-and-well-liked-by-everyone type.
...Aaand then they also stuck a sexy hot chick character in there. It's rather pathetic and telling that the producers decided to "compensate" for the intelligent, capable, strong female characters by putting a sex object there. It's like they thought, "we don't want people to think we respect women to too much of an extent, so let's also put something that will please sexist pig-dog males."
There is a character called "Neelix," a weird-looking little alien dude who is really nice and sweet and weird-looking. He has a crush on a normal-looking, very pretty human. Couldn't he have found a woman from an alien race like him, who is also sweet and kind and with whom he has much more in common? There is a character called "Worf," I think, who is a stern, gruff-looking dark-complexioned alien. At one point he marries a normal-looking, very pretty human. I don't buy that she is an alien. She has a couple of spots on her nose which could be attributed to simple birthmarks; nothing approaching any alien ancestry.
Similar, but perhaps not quite to that exaggerated extent, with K.A. Applegate's Animporphs books. I know they are marketed as children's books, but they are so much fun and they are really well-written. Except for the part wherein these books have only two main characters that are girls, yet four main characters that are boys. All the kids are about middle-school or young high-school age. The Animporh boy characters are complex, multi-layered, fascinating.
One of them is an alien from a supposedly benevolent alien race, but this race is revealed to be more and more meddling, misinformed, and having bad judgment as the series progresses. As you might have guessed, this boy is permanently separated from his family. One of the boys comes from a really shitty background of both parents deserting him, being ferreted from one relative's custody to another, then from foster home to foster home. This boy becomes permanently trapped in a hawk physical form. This boy is probably the most interesting as well as tragic of all the characters, and I am constantly blown away by how he and his experiences are written. One boy is Mexican something-or-other, lives in a bad neighborhood, and also comes from sort of a broken home. This guy gets to be more and more of an ahole as the series progresses.
There are tons of important supporting characters, the ones whose existences explain the whole entire massive back story of this Animorph universe and drive the plot forward. The vast, vast majority of them are male. These are benevolent aliens, evil aliens, evil aliens disguised as humans, good humans.
The girl characters still reflect that unfortunate typesetting talked about earlier, in which female characters depicted in pop culture are conveniently placed in an either/or dichotomy. One is an adequate blonde popular princess and the other girl is black. Shrug. The black girl, Cassie, is pretty awesome. She and her parents run an animal rescue center on their farm, and this farm has been in their family for several generations. Cassie gives the group of kids access to the animals so that they can acquire animal forms. No animals are harmed in the process of "acquiring." She is the most naturally talented of the kids to be able to morph into different animal forms. It is revealed that this is because she has a certain commune with nature. That is pretty neat. (Like I said, it is a fascinating series to read.)
The hawk boy, the one with the most heartbreaking story, of course has a crush on the popular blonde girl. Feh. The popular girl's tragic, heartbreaking back story is... that her parents are divorced. That's it. El fin. Feh.
Wait, hang on. I forgot there is one other female character who is fascinating. She is a Yeerk, one of the evil alien race that is hell-bent on universe domination. One book of the series was devoted to this character essentially arguing with Cassie (the black girl) about what is the true nature of species dominance, war, vegetarianism vs. carnivore-ianism, environmentalism, human progress, aliens taking over the world.
The discussion was shocking, mind-blowing, bitter, jaw-dropping to behold, and it made me realize certain things about myself. It made me realize that I am okay with one species dominating, and that saving a freaking spotted hummingbird is a waste of time compared to saving humans. This is the book in which it was threatened that Cassie would be trapped permanently as a butterfly. The lady Yeerk character brought up a wealth of complex, controversial topics on which to ponder, in this one book. And then we never heard from this character again.
I am pretty sure the author only made this character female because the readers kept haranguing her for more female characters. Which they have done, if you frequent any internet message boards devoted to this book series, you will witness numerous readers, boys and girls, who want this. Seriously, judging by the author's attitude towards female characters of any kind, let alone intelligent strong female characters, it is obvious she does not like having characters that are women.
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