Women constitute more than fifty percent of our country’s population, but in 2013’s top-grossing films females only appeared in thirty percent of all speaking roles. And only half of those roles were clearly protagonists.I myself experienced a phase in which I believed that to be taken seriously as a writer, I must write primarily about male characters. I thought it was a challenge to write about men instead of women. I thought it was admirable to disregard my own gender. I believed this because I saw the bulk of characters in books and movies to be men, men, and more men.
Sure, it’s a challenge to write anything that stretches beyond your own identity—but I’ve discovered recently that it’s a different kind of challenge to write a strong female character in our male-dominated culture.
Many people agree that the media tends to objectify women. Yet do we fully realize how that affects us on a daily basis?
Well, let me fill you in: human beings have stories worth telling, but most objects do not. Thus, when women are treated as objects, their stories are stripped away. People forget that women can and should be strong characters too. When I say “strong characters,” though, I don’t necessarily mean to suggest physical strength. I’m referring, instead, to female characters who possess full personalities. Characters who resemble actual people rather than oversimplified archetypes and caricatures.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a story about a woman who falls in love with a man who makes her melt in his arms, but there is something wrong with that being the only available story to women and girls. Stories teach us truth about ourselves and our potential. If the only story we read involves women with a heavy dependence on men or—worse yet—if that story doesn’t even involve women at all, what does that say about female potential? Female importance?
A lack of diverse stories leads to a narrow world-view and a failure to recognize one’s own potential and worth. We cannot risk such dangerous results in a society that already forces women to fight for their place.
Support authors, filmmakers, and other artists who produce stories about strong female characters. If you yourself are an artist of any kind, try to find ways to represent more women in more diverse roles. If women make up fifty percent of America’s population, women should play fifty percent (or at least something close to that) of speaking roles in films.
ADSENSE HERE