It was ironic that I had to keep dodging around an ad with a buxom young thing displaying cartoon cleavage in a halter top in order to read this article! I do very much agree with her assessment of female characters in fiction and movies. It drives me crazy. Particularly the lack of female characters. Why are women always the +1 for the male characters? Why do they so rarely have relationships with other women? I saw a survey the other day that asked people to name their favourite fictional friendships. The list was filled with Holmes and Watson sorts. No one mentioned a single female friendship.
I think that was what I loved about Buffy--she's an imperfect heroine (reluctant, not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, inclined to feel sorry for herself), she's the main character, and her relationships with women are far more lasting and central to the story than her relationships with men. Buffy and Willow are a pair and remain so throughout the series. Angel and Spike and other assorted men come and go, but the relationship between Buffy and Willow, while not without its rocky moments, remains central.
That's why I prefer TV shows like Buffy and Bones and Leverage where the ratio of men to women is closer to that ideal 1:1 ratio, where the relationships between the women involve friendship, not rivalry, where the women's stories are as central to the plot as the men's stories. Where the women don't just exist to be in relationships with the men.
I was thinking the other day that I wish there were more movies in which I could have a "girl crush" on the female characters and where the "bromance" is between women rather than men.
And I appreciate the author of this article's point that if there were more female characters, there would be less need for one of them to be the iconic superwoman. Flaws are what make a character interesting.
I think that was what I loved about Buffy--she's an imperfect heroine (reluctant, not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, inclined to feel sorry for herself), she's the main character, and her relationships with women are far more lasting and central to the story than her relationships with men. Buffy and Willow are a pair and remain so throughout the series. Angel and Spike and other assorted men come and go, but the relationship between Buffy and Willow, while not without its rocky moments, remains central.
That's why I prefer TV shows like Buffy and Bones and Leverage where the ratio of men to women is closer to that ideal 1:1 ratio, where the relationships between the women involve friendship, not rivalry, where the women's stories are as central to the plot as the men's stories. Where the women don't just exist to be in relationships with the men.
I was thinking the other day that I wish there were more movies in which I could have a "girl crush" on the female characters and where the "bromance" is between women rather than men.
And I appreciate the author of this article's point that if there were more female characters, there would be less need for one of them to be the iconic superwoman. Flaws are what make a character interesting.
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