Women's Issues (No, Not Those Kind of Issues)
So there's this fan series (which shall remain nameless) that I think is really great. Well acted, great sets, humour, and amazing things done on a shoestring budget - especially considering it's set in a world that would be less than cheap to recreate. Pretty damn good job almost all round.
Of course, there's a 'but' coming.
There's one main female character. That's fine, because the group of main characters is a very small bunch. My problem is with the way she's written. She kicks ass. She's smart, mouthy, tough. Always there with a lightning quip or a withering put down. She beats the men at cards with barely any effort, and she's more than a little handy in a fight. All in all, as I said first, she kicks ass.
And that's it. She kicks ass. It could be her entire character profile. The male characters have problems. They're useless in certain situations, they can be complete assholes, and they fuck up. It's the same issue I see over and over again, including in - nay, especially in - big Hollywood films. A certain kind of (male) writer has no idea how to write strong women, so they just write sometime so ridiculously awesome and kick ass that it's completely unbelievable. They think they're writing a layered character, in fact sometimes I think they even believe they're pushing the boundaries by writing such a 'kick ass' girl, but the truth is that it's a stereotype every bit as one dimensional and lazy as the damsel in distress waiting for a man to rescue her.
Fellas, we're not that different to you. You want to know what women worry about? What problems we have? What we think about? 99% of it is the exact same crap you think about. Sex, money, whether or not to make dinner or go lazy and get takeaway. We worry about looking stupid in front of other people. We drift off and fuck things up because we weren't paying attention. We procrastinate, we do selfish things, we lie. Sometimes people insult us and we can't think of anything clever to say, then three hours later when we're in the shower we realise exactly the snappy awesome thing we should have said... just like you do. We want revenge on the people who do us wrong, sometimes we give up when it's just too damn hard, and we're afraid of the things that can hurt us. Most of us aren't as physically strong as you, and that's okay to acknowledge! There's plenty of other stuff we can do - we can certainly aim a gun as well as you. And while we might not be sucker punching anyone in the face any time soon, we're not above a well timed kick to the crotch when needs must. We get tired, we get angry, we get despondent. We're also all vastly different people with different practises, politics, priorities, preferences and other things beginning with 'P'. Some of us like Coke, some of us like Pepsi. And some of us like water, some of us like suspiciously green and terrifyingly healthy smoothies, and some of us like whiskey on the rocks. Lots of us like all of those things. Just like you do.
Also, FYI, also just like you we get sunburn in hot environments, so maybe putting on some damn clothes might be in order.