Day 6 of the Women Appreciation Challenge
The challenge for day six is to "find a redeeming quality in a female character you dislike." This is another tough one as I can think of plenty of characters I'm neutral to or who could be better, but I'm having a heck of a time thinking of any I dislike. Well, other than villains, who I dislike for the reasons people usually dislike villains - they're, well, villains. Sure, even villains have redeeming qualities, but I don't think that's quite the point of the challenge. I think the challenge is intended to get us to think about why we dislike the female characters we dislike and whether it reflects unconscious biases.
I tend to be rather neutral toward female characters partly because I really don't expect that much from them and partly because I rarely identify with female characters - even well writen ones. Now, some of the ones on my list from day one I actually do identify with, so that's not a never, but female characters tend to have traits or concerns I just don't really relate to. Female characters tend to be written more serious and more affected by baggage than male characters, and that's just not as much fun. They also tend to spend more time focused on being female than male characters do on being men, and their story-lines, too, tend to reflect this. Stories about women's issues, concerns about rape, concerns about beauty, certain kinds of relationship concerns...you can probably fill in the rest of the lengthy list. Mind you, I'm not saying any of these are bad things, but too much and I feel preached to, distanced, or just too overwhelmed with "real life issues" to enjoy the stories.
Of course all of the female characters I feel neutral to have good qualities - they're often strong, compassionate, determined, caring characters. Even disappointing characters like the princess from the animated Swan Princess series, who goes inexplicably from tomboy to typical woman when she hit puberty, have positive characteristics. The Swan Princess stays intelligent and courageous, she just becomes oddly limited in her ability to act. That's a writing issue more than a character issue, really; the writers probably couldn't figure out how to effectively imprison a grown princess who was as capable as the child version they'd created.
Hmm...that was rambling. I really hope I made some degree of sense. ^_^;