#in retrospect i think this is why i liked asoiaf so much as a teenager

[boethiah]

random gripe of the evening i don't think the "there are no good female characters" problem is gonna be solved until people figure out how to write female characters who are victims of abuse and still fully realised complex powerful autonomous people. like what, 1/6th of us are victims of csa and 1/3rd of us will be victims of sexual assault in our lifetimes and 1/5th of us are/will be domestic abuse victims, and yet people treat "strong female character" and "abuse victim" as antitheses. find an irl woman who hasn't been influenced by either her or someone very close to her being a victim of abuse. it'll take a while, i'll wait. and yet this topic is taboo in most fiction. maddening.