#female characters

[raidermomma]

Physically, none. Mentally, a lot.

Almost always yes.

Depends on the things, and the motivation.

things to ask yourself when designing a female character:

how much blood is she covered in

are her eyes filled with madness

can she rip things to shreds with her fingernails

[astudyinimagination]

Why is BBC Sherloc fandom so horrible to its female characters?!

To be fair, not all of it is. Molly Hooper, Sally Donovan, and Mary Watson, especially, have fierce fans and defenders.

It's a thorny issue, Nonny. Some people will claim it's because of how the women are written. I call bullshit on that idea, because most people don't need a male character to be especially well-written to like him. Dr. Watson isn't particularly well-written in the ACD canon, and yet he is beloved! So... yeah, I believe that they believe that, but I call bullshit.

I've heard people say that Molly is pathetic, but they seem to have this idea of her that's locked on to season 1 and ignores all the character development she gets throughout the rest of the show. (It's also frankly mean to quiet girls who don't know how to stand up for themselves, and as a quiet girl who didn't used to know how to stand up for herself, I really hated that.)

Most hate for Sally Donovan is really just misogynoir, and I have zero problems calling it that. Sally's doing her job, and she's probably doing it better than Lestrade (a fandom darling) is.

Irene Adler... well, to be fair, that story is a mess. But also I at least haven't seen a lot of hate for her...

Janine, also not a lot of hate, but she is victimized by both her boss and Sherlock, so I think she gets a pass, lol.

Mary Watson... hoooo boy. Mary was hated before she ever got to the screen, because a lot of people wanted so badly for their boys to get together, and Mary threatened that. And then she showed up and she was a delight and she sort of won people over for about two weeks, lol. Then she shot Sherlock, and people hated her even more. And I kind of get it, but also... two of my favorite characters of all time are a father and son who cut off each other's hands. I'm okay with some serious angst and drama and even violence between characters if it's not brushed under the rug, and Mary's actions were not brushed under the rug and it was very clear that Sherlock loved Mary and she ended up loving him back. So... I get that Mary is complicated, and that the writers over-complicated her. But, Your Honor, I still love her.

Eurus... dunno, I think by that point, people were too worked up about other things, and Eurus is also handled extremely messily, lol.

Mrs. Hudson is universally beloved, as she should be.

It does seem, in general, that if you have a story or set of stories where the main characters are all male, the fans are going to be hyper-focused on the guys and not pay that much attention to the girls. I could be wrong about that, but I can think of one or two others where that's the case.

But also in general, female characters are held up to much more scrutiny and much higher standards than male characters are, and the BBC Sherlock fandom is no exception. John Watson flew under the radar for years with a characterization that I never especially enjoyed, and very few people seemed to notice until he was cheating on his wife. We all have certain ideas about what our favorite characters are like, but John really benefited from a very cinnamon roll perception the fandom at large had of him, that also had very little basis in reality.

And I know a lot of people would be very angry with me for saying this, but I also think it's the truth: I think that sometimes, female character hate is just misogyny. Especially as it comes from real women. And I'm tired of seeing people here on Tumblr clutch their pearls about that. You can be female or AFAB, you can be politically left, you can be LGBTQ+, you can be a staunch feminist, and absolutely none of that protects you from misogyny coloring your thoughts because we are all born into a world that really hates women. And whether our parents hammer misogynistic ideals into us from a young age or not, they're all around us as we're growing up. Girls are held to higher standards of behavior than boys are. Men can make all the mistakes in the world and you just have to keep giving them chances, but God forbid a woman steps one millimeter out of line.

So yeah, I think that there's a lot of misogyny that goes on in fandom spaces, even left-leaning spaces, and I think that a lot of it is coming from inside the house. And I'm not saying that those people are Bad People TM. I'm saying that none of us are perfect, and deprogramming yourself from a lot of bad shit is a lot of work, and it's hard, and sometimes the shit that you missed surfaces in your fandom life. Which sucks. Nobody is evil for that, though — just human.

I'm not saying, either, that all dislike for the women of Sherlock is misogyny. I am saying that I think quite a lot of it is.

[marshmellowed]

every time.

[noperopesaredope]

I wish we had more female characters like Eleanor Shellstrop. One of the most unlikable people you've ever met. Read a Buzzfeed article on most rude things you can do on a daily basis and decided to use that as a list of goals. Makes everyone's day worse just by being there. Dropped a margarita mix on the ground and tried to pick it up, only to get hit by a row of shopping carts which pushed her into the road where she was hit by a boner pill delivery truck, killing her instantly. Cannot keep a romantic partner despite being bisexual. Had a terrible childhood but will die before she gets therapy. Best employee at a scam company. Just the worst but also can't help but root for her to improve.

Absolute loser. Girl-failure. Bad at almost everything. Literally perfect female character.

[ikebanaka]

Thank you @warsawmouse for elaborating

I cannot relate to people who dislike female characters for “being manipulative.” She’s literally creative problem solving before your eyes. She’s literally just using her words. Maybe the other blorbos should be less pawn-like for her beautiful hands hmm

[hacked-wtsdz]

You can’t win as a woman in fiction. Be too positive, you become a Mary Sue, have flaws and those flaws are why almost nobody likes you. Be moderate, you have wet-cabbage personality, be exuberant, you are an unrealistic example. Have strong morals, and you’re badly developed, be morally corrupt and you’re hated with such vigour fans will send hate mail to the actress who plays the character. Be kind and soft and in love, you’re a representation of sexism, be cruel, harsh and cold and you’re just a bitch. Be a complex, realistic, ambiguous character, and either your flaws or your positive traits will be ignored or blown out of proportion and into oblivion. There is no winning for female characters.

[ebenelephant]

freddie lounds is so funny. she antagonises violent criminals for the entire series. the stories she gets scoops on should be on the news but she writes for her gossipy private website. she's a sensationalist tabloid journalist talking about active serial killers. her hair is amazing. she's a girl's girl. she's career-driven. someone faked her death. everyone hates her. she's right about everything from day one. will's mad about it but he is doing murder now, so... 🤷‍♀️

[suzannahnatters]

all RIGHT:

Why You're Writing Medieval (and Medieval-Coded) Women Wrong: A RANT

(Or, For the Love of God, People, Stop Pretending Victorian Style Gender Roles Applied to All of History)

This is a problem I see alllll over the place - I'll be reading a medieval-coded book and the women will be told they aren't allowed to fight or learn or work, that they are only supposed to get married, keep house and have babies, &c &c.

If I point this out ppl will be like "yes but there was misogyny back then! women were treated terribly!" and OK. Stop right there.

By & large, what we as a culture think of as misogyny & patriarchy is the expression prevalent in Victorian times - not medieval. (And NO, this is not me blaming Victorians for their theme park version of "medieval history". This is me blaming 21st century people for being ignorant & refusing to do their homework).

Yes, there was misogyny in medieval times, but 1) in many ways it was actually markedly less severe than Victorian misogyny, tyvm - and 2) it was of a quite different type. (Disclaimer: I am speaking specifically of Frankish, Western European medieval women rather than those in other parts of the world. This applies to a lesser extent in Byzantium and I am still learning about women in the medieval Islamic world.)

So, here are the 2 vital things to remember about women when writing medieval or medieval-coded societies

FIRST. Where in Victorian times the primary axes of prejudice were gender and race - so that a male labourer had more rights than a female of the higher classes, and a middle class white man would be treated with more respect than an African or Indian dignitary - In medieval times, the primary axis of prejudice was, overwhelmingly, class. Thus, Frankish crusader knights arguably felt more solidarity with their Muslim opponents of knightly status, than they did their own peasants. Faith and age were also medieval axes of prejudice - children and young people were exploited ruthlessly, sent into war or marriage at 15 (boys) or 12 (girls). Gender was less important.

What this meant was that a medieval woman could expect - indeed demand - to be treated more or less the same way the men of her class were. Where no ancient legal obstacle existed, such as Salic law, a king's daughter could and did expect to rule, even after marriage.

Women of the knightly class could & did arm & fight - something that required a MASSIVE outlay of money, which was obviously at their discretion & disposal. See: Sichelgaita, Isabel de Conches, the unnamed women fighting in armour as knights during the Third Crusade, as recorded by Muslim chroniclers.

Tolkien's Eowyn is a great example of this medieval attitude to class trumping race: complaining that she's being told not to fight, she stresses her class: "I am of the house of Eorl & not a serving woman". She claims her rights, not as a woman, but as a member of the warrior class and the ruling family. Similarly in Renaissance Venice a doge protested the practice which saw 80% of noble women locked into convents for life: if these had been men they would have been "born to command & govern the world". Their class ought to have exempted them from discrimination on the basis of sex.

So, tip #1 for writing medieval women: remember that their class always outweighed their gender. They might be subordinate to the men within their own class, but not to those below.

SECOND. Whereas Victorians saw women's highest calling as marriage & children - the "angel in the house" ennobling & improving their men on a spiritual but rarely practical level - Medievals by contrast prized virginity/celibacy above marriage, seeing it as a way for women to transcend their sex. Often as nuns, saints, mystics; sometimes as warriors, queens, & ladies; always as businesswomen & merchants, women could & did forge their own paths in life

When Elizabeth I claimed to have "the heart & stomach of a king" & adopted the persona of the virgin queen, this was the norm she appealed to. Women could do things; they just had to prove they were Not Like Other Girls. By Elizabeth's time things were already changing: it was the Reformation that switched the ideal to marriage, & the Enlightenment that divorced femininity from reason, aggression & public life.

For more on this topic, read Katherine Hager's article "Endowed With Manly Courage: Medieval Perceptions of Women in Combat" on women who transcended gender to occupy a liminal space as warrior/virgin/saint.

So, tip #2: remember that for medieval women, wife and mother wasn't the ideal, virgin saint was the ideal. By proving yourself "not like other girls" you could gain significant autonomy & freedom.

Finally a bonus tip: if writing about medieval women, be sure to read writing on women's issues from the time so as to understand the terms in which these women spoke about & defended their ambitions. Start with Christine de Pisan.

I learned all this doing the reading for WATCHERS OF OUTREMER, my series of historical fantasy novels set in the medieval crusader states, which were dominated by strong medieval women! Book 5, THE HOUSE OF MOURNING (forthcoming 2023) will focus, to a greater extent than any other novel I've ever yet read or written, on the experience of women during the crusades - as warriors, captives, and political leaders. I can't wait to share it with you all!

[queen-paladin]

I love you hated female characters. I love you female characters who are flawed. I love you female characters who mess up and try to do the right thing after. I love you female characters who get the undeserved vitriol from fans. I love you female characters who fans completely condemn because of one mistake they made. I love you female characters who fans completely condemn because of one mistake they made as a child. I love you female characters who people blame for ripping apart their ships instead of the larger forces that be. I love you female characters who get all the hate as the male characters who do worse in canon get absolutely none. I love you female characters who get hated on because they told a man “no.”

[stevienick]

girls + massive attack

[writtenbycassandra]

most female main characters in ya fantasy usually don't have their parents around/are orphans/ran away from home (e.g. the mortal instruments, lockwood & co, a deadly education, ...), which is why there are often no adult figures around to manage the (magical) chaos the teenage characters have to untangle standalone.

but the raven cycle is different — the adults work together with the teen characters, actually listen to them, and try to help them with their quest. blue doesn't have only her friends around to help her out, she also has a giant home with different, female rolemodels. calla, persephone, maura, and all the other aunts and friends — they give blue something most ya characters don't have.

and as the series continues, she also meets the grey man, who becomes a familiar figure for her, too.

instead of having not enough help and support from adults, which is a thing most ya protagonists struggle with, blue has so many people constantly trying to protect, guide, and help her, and i think that's awesome.

she has a family, and they're actually a part of the story.

[ghostmadam]

In general in any fandom culture we belittle and avoid the women/girls for two reasons

1) So many authors are bad at writing or just don't care for their female characters and use them only for love interest/ sacrifice for the greater good plot. They often make them quite one-dimensional and quite boring to be frankly. They're not allowed to be mischievous, smart, a good friend, dumb, funny or even evil without being linked in some way to sexualisation. Women are often limited to be someone's or that their story ends when they get to be someone's.Also their attractiveness very often decides how important she will be for the story.Women in fiction are rarely allowed to have many layers or grey morals. Authors are bad at building chemistry between their canon hetero couple (often one-sided crushes till the very end some lightbulb appears) while the protagonist dreams daily of their "rival". So ofc we lean to shipping these maniacs. Male characters are in general often more explored and engage more with eachother. In fiction women are often only good if we're an emotional doormat. If we dare to say no or don't agree we're mean and a bitch. Tbh even in IRL.

2) There's a lot of internalised misogyny that we can't unpack in one day, we all have it in us. Like the realisation for many girls growing up that it was never about the colour pink.

Hence about the Harry Potter World:

Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasly

Lily Potter, Molly Weasley ,

Nymphadora Tonks, Fleur Delacour

Luna Lovegood and so on....

"I love this fandom it's so inclusive 🥰" Of queer people? Absolutely. Of women? Uhh... about that...

[writeaboutit]

I LOVE WHEN FEMALE CHARACTERS SPIRAL AFTER GRIEF AND BECOME UNHINGED AND EVIL🗣️🗣️🗣️

[twistedshipper]

MERLIN 5.01 Arthur's Bane

[dalliancekay]

Aziraphale, misogyny and the female character treatment

I don't know if anyone wrote a post about this but I see from time to time comments to this end - that Aziraphale is treated like the female leads in films often are, obviously especially romantic films. So I'm gonna try to point how I see this. I welcome further insights of course.

Say we take a basic premise of a romantic film: A girl is wooed by a bad boy for example. And she is a good girl, from a good, proper family and everything so she refuses his advances. This goes on through his various ploys to entertain and romance her, do things for her etc etc and frustrates us as the audience because we can see the bad boy is actually good, her family is oppressive and holding her back and that she (deep down) cares for him (if only she was brave enough to admit it to herself) and so we want her to open her eyes and say she is actually in love with him cos her life will be so much better should she (finally) give in and run away with him.

Familiar? Reasons Aziraphale is not her and the analogy does not fit (but that I so often see in metas and takes about her):

Aziraphale always knew her family is shit. Or at least longer than Crowley did. She was already anxious in Before the Beginning about what she thought Angel!Crowley could and could not say or do without getting into trouble.

She knows Crowley is good. She never doubted him. Whatever he says or does or pretends to do or must do for his job. Aziraphale knows he's inherently good and would always do good if he can.

She knows she's in love - I mean we can argue about when each realised this and also when each realised the other loves them back just as fiercely, but they both know. And they both love. And they both long to be together. Aziraphale is not ashamed of her feelings nor hiding or suppressing them for fear they are wrong or immoral or other BS like that.

Aziraphale doesn't need to overcome her love for her family/employer and finally make the leap to be with Crowley. They simply can't leave their bosses without punishment. Neither of them. They live in a dictatorship with nowhere to go. And just because Crowley experienced both sides, doesn't give him some huge insight that Aziraphale completely lacks. Both places are awful. Their separation isn’t about fear of societal judgment (or Aziraphale's unwillingness to give up Heaven, being seen as good, being an angel - and to what end, to Fall? I really don't know what takes like this want from her, it would not work anyway), it’s about survival in a system that won’t let them be together.

Aziraphale doesn't want to change Crowley. She never did. She asked for Crowley to come to Heaven as an angel because that was THE ONLY option she had for them to be together in any capacity at that point. It was NOT an attempt to “fix” him—it was a desperate bid for a way they could be together at all.

One thing I don't see as much anymore is the call for Aziraphale to change. Obviously she's pretty but she would be prettier if she lost those century old clothes maybe and started listening to something made after 1950? Be more cool to match Crowley? Less stuffy?

These kind of film premises are already pointless, offensive and make me roll my eyes, but to stick them all over Aziraphale and huff cos she doesn't do what the clever sexy man in dark clothes and sunglasses says she should - well that makes me angry.

And so do takes and mischaracterisations that ignore Aziraphale as silly, her worries as pointless, sometimes excessive - maybe she's just hysterical, you know? The one time she shows more emotion, in F15, she is so often completely ignored in her obvious distress just because Crowley is trying to confess his love at the same time and seemingly 'not getting through,' because Aziraphale is not reacting the way everyone expects. So many takes that always assume Crowley is right, no matter what. Even when he calls Aziraphale an idiot. If Crowley says that, it must be true. No matter that the book spells out in Terry's voice that the angel is extremely clever.

Aziraphale’s charm lies in her kindness, her love for books and knowledge, her whimsy, and her quiet courage. These qualities don’t make her naive—they make her resilient. She often hides how she truly feels, hides her grief, her pain, her true desires, hides what she really thinks; always always to protect herself and her beloved. She is often forced to say stuff she doesn't mean. Again. To keep the one she loves and their fragile relationship safe. But where people seem to catch on with that on Crowley's side, they don't with Aziraphale. She is fierce when pushed and will defend the defenceless (humans) and the ones she loves (Crowley) to her last breath (whether she needs to breathe is irrelevant right now okay).

She loves her bookshop. She built this home, full of knowledge for herself and her demon and you can take this HC from my cold hands. That she was forced to leave it, only emphasises how little choice she had in Final 15. Good Omens has two main, equal characters; who are both gorgeous and complex and deep and neither is right or wrong or in need of saving or learning some huge lesson to get to their goal and be together. What needs to change is the world, the system they live in. And they will change it.

Just look at her!! Anyway. I love her. P.S. Just to add, many, many (if not all) bad takes on Aziraphale are also bad takes on Crowley. They mischaracterise and misunderstand just how deeply and unconditionally he loves Aziraphale. How he adores her and understands and accepts her just as she is. He does not expect or want Aziraphale to change in any way. He knows why they are not together. And it's not Aziraphale's fault, it's because of circumstances, not because of her choices. Crowley would never ever want Aziraphale to suffer, he wouldn't expect her to come back from Heaven saying how sorry she is for what happened, how stupid and blind she was and how he was always right. That's just not going to happen. ------------------------------------------ @tenok I simply must highlight the awesomeness you put in hashtags!! EVERYBODY please read:

Thank you sm for this!!