Viewing Characters Complexly: The Sexist Trap I'm Tired of Seeing
John Green, young adult novelist and one half of the internet phenomenon known as the VlogBrothers, has this thing about viewing people complexly. He argues, basically, that we have to view the people around us as complete human beings with thoughts and motivations and flaws every bit as real as our own.
It strikes me more and more often these days that we ought to be applying the same ideals in the writing that we do. The fact is that it's not easy to do this. For most of our young lives, we're pretty ego-driven. It takes us a good number of years to realize that the people around us are actually... you know, people, separate entities from us with their own thoughts and feelings which are different from our own. It's the reason, actually, that you spend so much time explaining to preschoolers that hitting hurts other people and pointing out that their actions caused a reaction in their friends.
It's also true that this viewpoint takes a lot of energy. It's easy to say, "Oh, he's just a racist bigot." Or "Oh, Shirley? She's just a crackwhore." It's easy to throw labels on people and dismiss their probably-complex motivations as easily-discernible.
Where this causes a problem in fiction is when we consider the other women.
You know who I'm talking about. The girl who isn't supposed to get The Guy.
She's Martha and Gwen (DW & Torchwood). She's Leslie (From BBT) and Rebecca and Cam (from Bones). She's the slut who can't keep her grubby hands off our man. Or Ianto's man. Whatever the case may be.
Here we go, ladies. It's time to put on the big girl panties and deal.
Why do these women get treated so harshly in fandom? Everyone of them is a complex character, without having to look too deeply at them, you can see the reasons why they do the things they do. The Doctor is an extremely attractive man offering an extremely attractive lifestyle; Rebecca is in an extremely difficult situation regarding the custody of her child and her own right to privacy; Cam walked into a difficult situation at the lab; Leslie changed her mind about what she wanted and: Gwen? Well, who hasn't taken the easy way out of a difficult moral situation? Who hasn't messed up?
We owe it to these women to view them complexly. To treat them as individuals with valid viewpoints, because to do anything less is sexist.
I just dropped the "s" word, oh yes I did.
Because how often does Jack get blamed for mooning after Gwen? It's unacceptable for her to do it while in a committed relationship, but Jack gets a free pass because he's Jack, of course. That's just how he is, the lovable rogue. Couldn't keep his pants zipped if he tried.
How much of Rebecca's situation is Booth's fault? He's in the position to check out her boyfriends and does so -- does she have the opportunity to do that with his girlfriends? (besides, I hesitate to see any need to villainize her; all of Brennan's interactions with her have been positive).
Martha mooned after the Doctor, it's true, but he certainly led her on. I'd argue he was even half-aware that he was doing so.
And if you don't like Rose because she never thinks about her family or whatever... how much of that was the Doctor enabling her? The true moral of that relationship is that you can't ignore the universe and tromp through other people's lives in order to feed your own happiness.
Life is about awareness. So is writing. It's about bringing real, 3-D characters to life on the page. Everyone should breathe. Everyone should have motivations that are interesting and complex, and I should not be able to See You, Author. Keep behind the Fourth Wall. Don't let me guess what you really think of the characters.
I promise you, you'll be a better author for it.
It strikes me more and more often these days that we ought to be applying the same ideals in the writing that we do. The fact is that it's not easy to do this. For most of our young lives, we're pretty ego-driven. It takes us a good number of years to realize that the people around us are actually... you know, people, separate entities from us with their own thoughts and feelings which are different from our own. It's the reason, actually, that you spend so much time explaining to preschoolers that hitting hurts other people and pointing out that their actions caused a reaction in their friends.
It's also true that this viewpoint takes a lot of energy. It's easy to say, "Oh, he's just a racist bigot." Or "Oh, Shirley? She's just a crackwhore." It's easy to throw labels on people and dismiss their probably-complex motivations as easily-discernible.
Where this causes a problem in fiction is when we consider the other women.
You know who I'm talking about. The girl who isn't supposed to get The Guy.
She's Martha and Gwen (DW & Torchwood). She's Leslie (From BBT) and Rebecca and Cam (from Bones). She's the slut who can't keep her grubby hands off our man. Or Ianto's man. Whatever the case may be.
Here we go, ladies. It's time to put on the big girl panties and deal.
Why do these women get treated so harshly in fandom? Everyone of them is a complex character, without having to look too deeply at them, you can see the reasons why they do the things they do. The Doctor is an extremely attractive man offering an extremely attractive lifestyle; Rebecca is in an extremely difficult situation regarding the custody of her child and her own right to privacy; Cam walked into a difficult situation at the lab; Leslie changed her mind about what she wanted and: Gwen? Well, who hasn't taken the easy way out of a difficult moral situation? Who hasn't messed up?
We owe it to these women to view them complexly. To treat them as individuals with valid viewpoints, because to do anything less is sexist.
I just dropped the "s" word, oh yes I did.
Because how often does Jack get blamed for mooning after Gwen? It's unacceptable for her to do it while in a committed relationship, but Jack gets a free pass because he's Jack, of course. That's just how he is, the lovable rogue. Couldn't keep his pants zipped if he tried.
How much of Rebecca's situation is Booth's fault? He's in the position to check out her boyfriends and does so -- does she have the opportunity to do that with his girlfriends? (besides, I hesitate to see any need to villainize her; all of Brennan's interactions with her have been positive).
Martha mooned after the Doctor, it's true, but he certainly led her on. I'd argue he was even half-aware that he was doing so.
And if you don't like Rose because she never thinks about her family or whatever... how much of that was the Doctor enabling her? The true moral of that relationship is that you can't ignore the universe and tromp through other people's lives in order to feed your own happiness.
Life is about awareness. So is writing. It's about bringing real, 3-D characters to life on the page. Everyone should breathe. Everyone should have motivations that are interesting and complex, and I should not be able to See You, Author. Keep behind the Fourth Wall. Don't let me guess what you really think of the characters.
I promise you, you'll be a better author for it.