#we need more complex female characters

[epickiya722]

Okay, I ranted about it in my tags of another post, but I'll say it here. And I know some of you ain't gonna like it.

The amount of hate Mei Mei gets is an example of how people can't actually handle complex and/or evil female characters.

Now before anyone says anything, I'm not saying you should like Mei Mei or you shouldn't hate her. Just really think about what I'm about to say next.

Do you hate Mei Mei because of her character (how she treats people, her personality, etc,)? Or do you hate her because she's a woman?

If it's the former, think about this and see if your answer changes.

Think about all the male characters you like that are complex and/or evil and why you like them. Did your answer change? In fact, do you like a male character worse than Mei Mei?

Now, here's the thing.

It's really odd to me that people will be like "we need more complex female characters" and yet when we get those female characters, the fandom acts like they shouldn't exist.

"Oh, she's a bitch."

"She should die."

"She deserves all the pain and suffering."

And yet, male characters who are just as bad or worse easily can get people glazing the hell out of them and dropping panties. Where is that same hating ass energy? Don't you want the male character to die, too?

That's an issue. Do you see the issue?

Still using Mei Mei as an example.

I doubt, I do, that Gege intends for people to like Mei Mei. Quite the opposite. The way her scenes are written and drawn makes me feel like the mangaka wants us to feel intimidated by her in a bad way. We're supposed to feel uncomfortable by her relationship with Ui Ui. We should feel some hate towards her.

However, not because she's a woman. It's because of her character. She's not written to be a good person.

This is going to sound awkward, but if you hate Mei Mei because she makes you uncomfortable gender be damned, then you're hating her right.

You hate her now just as you would if she was a man.

I'll use Sukuna for example for comparison. He does has his fans (as does Mei Mei), but he does have his haters.

However, it's not because he's a man. People don't hate him because he's a man.

It's because he's downright damn evil. He murders, he tortures, he uses and abuses, he doesn't care who you are he'll cut you down. The only person we know Sukuna actually never wants to kill and never shown any sort of annoyance to is Uraume. People say Gege is glazing Sukuna and are mad because it seems he keeps winning, but has no one stop to think THAT'S THE POINT?!

You're supposed to be frustrated that Sukuna is still around. Gege keeps throwing Sukuna in our faces to make the audience mad. Not to troll. It's how stories work. You should feel different emotions. Especially with bad people like Sukuna.

If Gege wanted us to sympathize with Sukuna, Sukuna would have been gotten his sad backstory. But no, when there was a chance for that (fight with Hajime), we get a line of Sukuna saying he was unwanted or whatever and him just brushing it off. That right there is a sign of an explicitly evil, unsympathetic villain. (We might get a sad backstory later, you knows, but I kinda doubt it.)

Now apply all that I just said about Sukuna to Mei Mei and rethink over this.

Do you hate Mei Mei because she's a woman or because she's a bad person?

To end, can you actually handle complex female characters? Can you hate a female character who is evil or ambiguously evil and/or complex because that's how the author may intended (or she just isn't your kind of character) and not because she's female?

#that's all I really gotta say #we need more complex female characters #we get them and still act fucking nuts and continue to act thirsty for the male characters who are just as bad or worse #i like a complex character regardless of gender #like curious from bnha #i don't care what anybody says she was the best pla character #re destro is just... ugh to me as the other guys #but her? CURIOUS WAS GREAT #just kiya's thoughts #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jjk spoilers #jjk manga spoilers #mei mei #mei mei jjk

[apocalyptichearts]

the most frustrating part of being an elle greenaway girlie is having to sit through the rest of the series and watch everyone else do EXACTLY what she did and facing not even a fraction of what she did post-Lee.

AHHHH

#elle is very important to me #and i have many MANY emotions about how she was treated #double standards my ASS #“we need more complex female characters” #y’all couldn’t even handle elle #elle greenaway #criminal minds

[chamerionwrites]

Somewhat more controversially - beyond just well-written characters, I think a lot of people find themselves repeatedly drawn to particular Types of characters. And I think the frequency with which those types appear, and the particular flavor of those types, is often (unnecessarily!) gendered. (Sticking with the espionage theme: it’s pretty difficult to find clever, calculating, socially astute female spy characters whose tradecraft doesn’t hinge primarily or at least very heavily on their sex appeal). TL;DR even very well-written female characters are often (unnecessarily!!!) confined to a much more limited set of narrative roles and archetypes.

And while I’m definitely not saying this is something we should all just accept completely uncritically, I do think it’s a pretty undeniable factor in why a lot of people’s lists of favorite blorbos might be kinda dude-heavy.

#as an aside one of the things I’m enjoying about bg3 is that there’s a lot of genderswapped archetype stuff going on w the companions #reading tag #also #fandom #my posts #like to be clear i think that as writers we should be the change we wish to see in the world #add depth and dimension to characters that canon did wrong by! genderswap some archetypes! #ask yourself if there is any particular reason the character you created needs to be the gender you initially assigned them! #but also i think it’s at least *slightly* more complex than people not engaging with characters just because they’re women #personally i have a weak spot for emotionally reserved/guarded characters who struggle with vulnerability and self-revelation #there is nothing inherently gendered about this and I can certainly name female characters that fit the mold! #but also surprise surprise: Socially Enforced Masculinity Norms And The Crushing Weight Thereof are a thing #and this is reflected in fiction. and in fictional dudes.

[blog-of-frontiers]

Greg Rucka I am in your fucking walls

#the old guard #what the fuck was force multiplied and where is fade away #'we need more complex female characters' you cant even handle andromache of scythia

[rainsofcamelot]

silly little edit bc every time i listen to this song i think of THEM

#also i'm mainly blaming jessica but i guess this can be interpreted in both ways #paul blames jessica and jessica blames paul #i'm a jessica enthusiast and also a jessica blamer!!!! that can coexist!!!! #and idk why but it's kinda epic to think it all started because she decided to have a son?? for love?? and betrayed her sisterhood?? #she literally ruined everything (and KEPT ruining everything) including her children's lives #but what a character #she's like that “we need more complex female characters” “y'all could barely handle her” thing #love her #like #the thing about her is she obviously always tried to do the right thing #i don't think she had bad intentions at all #and that makes her THE cringefail character #dune #paul atreides #lady jessica #dune 2021 #my edit

[hacked-wtsdz]

Bewildering to me that house of the dragon is disappointing people because the women of the show aren’t badass girlbosses who do whatever they can to get to the throne. If you want that, game of thrones is right there for you. Daenerys and Cersei and Sansa and Arya are all badass women, ruthless, ambitious and powerful. They have many scenes in the show in which they hold power: sack cities, avenge their families, break free of chains, acquire even more power. It’s all there, enjoy. House of the dragon is NOT about that, and I think that as soon as people grasp that concept, it will be much easier for them to either enjoy the show or stop watching it. Hotd is about familial cycles, the tragedy of losing your best friend to a patriarchal system, soulmates, existential rot, generational trauma and women feeling conflicted, confused, heartbroken, enraged, lonesome, feeling grief, longing, love, fury all of it about the same people. This is not a show about girlbossing your way through court life, to my great joy.

#green vs black shit is all about the same thing #they are deep contradictory conflicted human beings #this ain’t marvel #they aren’t supposed to kick ass #they are supposed to elicit deep buried feelings from girls who fell in love with their childhood best friend #we don’t need more powerful female characters imo it’s too simple #we do need more complex female characters that you can watch and see yourself in though #it’s a lot more hard to write the second one than the first one #hotd #rhaenyra targaryen #alicent hightower #rhaenyra and alicent #house of the dragon #asoiaf #house targaryen #targaryens #fire and blood #george rr martin #female character #women in tv #women in cinema #cinema #rant

[katnissgirlsmakedo]

utterly cannot stand the type of post thats like "what are the female characters you like" and i KNOW it's not the fault of the people who make those posts i know they only do it because 95% of this site's blorbos are men. but i hate it anyway. like really the only way you can get fandom people to talk about women is to explicitly tell them to talk about women. and it always comes off so disingenuous because i KNOW most people reblogging those posts would never say those characters on a generic "what are your favorite characters" post. like it's all just so bleak :/

#like. tumblr user on an average blorbo tag post: omg dean <3 #tumblr user on average Woman Blorbo post: well i really like woman 2 from netflix original bullshit show #and i don't mean to suggest these people DON'T really like woman 2 from that show. i just think like. #well i've seen ur posts and 80% of them are about a man. and you only ever even mention HER in relation to men or when specifically prompte #like. idk. i promise female characters are interesting when you take off the patriarchy goggles. i promise they are also usually much bette #written than whatever man you're obsessed with. i promise you. #like. clary gets almost no love from this site at large but she is probably one of cassie's most complex characters ever #meanwhile everyone here lovesssss will herondale. and i won't continue that thought lest i be blacklisted #so you see what i'm saying. #most tumblr users could not defend their love of a female character against their raw posting data #beth.txt #don't mean to suggest i never like male charaters we all know i have my guys #but i don't think i talk about men more than women. actually lets review the characters of the year #i'd start with danny obviously danny was huge in january #alina. alex. liv. i'd say call tamara and aaron all count #livvy ty dru and kit are a contant and don't need to be included in the data. but if they were it'd even out anyway #ok so that's 4 men and 3 women. not a bad ratio #didn't mean to make this post about me but well it is my post so yk. whatever #anyway. basically some of you could stand to get really weird about a female character sometime. sick of your deans and whatnot!

[ladsofsorrow24]

the only ship i care about in chainsaw man part 2 is yoshida being a creep to denji lol other than that i don't care i'm just enjoying the wild ride that fjmt put me on, makeshift safety belt and all that

#idk i think the way some people react to the characters summary jump released is kinda annoying #let asa be a protagonist bro we're moving on a different story now #yeah denji is fun but him being a supporting character now makes sense #also it makes chainsaw man into this abstract thing rather than a concrete being which is cool #because rather than just a character chainsaw man feels like a symbol now #and that's a very interesting way to go when unravelling just what the hell chainsaw devil is #and focusing more on asa and yoru #their forced codependency and the way they view the world around them is interesting so far #especially asa's reluctance to do anything not out of sense of justice but moreso from her fear of making mistake #and being shunned by the society #like she's such an interesting character especially with how not traditionally feminine the way fjmt wrote her #and i fucking love that #we do need more complex female characters like that #so fuck it man if you don't like asa being the main character solely for being a girl... that's so fucking stupid #tmi tag

[marveltaughtmetoread]

As a fan of slightly feral characters, the writing of female characters frustrates me because it's like, I want a good character who is written to be both able and willing to kill, chaotic enough to be threatening it or just go off the rails at any time

And then writers will be like, oh, you wanted a good female character, well here you, she might be capable of murder but you'll never know because she's so morally and lawful good that you will never see it

And it's like, my guy I didn't mean morally, now give me back my chaos gremlin, and do not touch any more female characters, do not pass go and do not collect £200

The world doesn't need more perfect female characters, they need more feral ones

#female characters #female character #writing #bad writing #sexist writing #you know they think they were being feminist but in writing only ever morally good female characters they were in fact not #if the only female characters you ever write are perfect angels or ones whose flaws are clearly not intentional #then it ain't feminism #you're still placing female characters on a pedestal above reproach and not to be touched #we need more representation of females who are messy chaotic and you know human #capable of fault and complexity

[knorrig]

”we need more complex female characters!” you bitches cant handle sansa stark and she’s twelve.

#sansa stark #asoiaf #grownups having beef w the middle schooler…… what else is new

[bloodraven55]

“we need more complex female characters” y’all couldn’t even handle her

#revolutionary girl utena #rgu #shoujo kakumei utena #sku #anthy himemiya #rgu anthy #sku anthy

[sunshineonashelf]

"we need more complex female characters" y'all couldn't even handle sara erikkson

#young royals #sara erikkson #sorry if this post has been made already

[river-of-wine]

“We need more complex female characters” y’all literally couldn’t and still can’t handle Mia Winters. She gets either reduced to a completely innocent bystander or the secret antagonist of Resident Evil all along. Like huh

#re7 #re8 #mia winters

[azatas]

"we need more complex female characters" you couldn't even handle her

#ash: hey idk if it’s a good idea to give full access of the most advanced warship we have to a mercenary who shot a suspect in cold blood #and a cop who quit his job because there were too many rules (and also happens to be a member of the military we were recently at war with) #also i think the council will throw us to the wolves to save themselves #like half the fandom: omg space racist??? #sorry for discourse posting™ but i saw a terrible post that rocketed me back into 2013 #anyway we may have preferences but we love and appreciate both virmire survivors in this house #mass effect #ashley williams

[nonbinarylesbianherb]

“We need more complex female characters” Y’all could barley handle her

#alicent hightower #hotd #house of the dragon #lady alicent #alicent my beloved misunderstood and overly hated on queen

[strrwbrrryjam]

"we need more complex female characters" you guys can't even handle diane nguyen.

#i would have included princess caroline but between the two diane gets the most hate in the fandom. its ridiculous #people like BOJACK more than her n he's a much worse person than diane #bjhm #bojack horseman #bjhm diane nguyen #diane nguyen #strawberry speaks