Not sure if any of you have ever heard of the Youtuber Just Some Guy, but I recently discovered him and was going through his videos and I came across one that made a point that I have been thinking about for a while.
He was talking about with all the obsession today with diversity/inclusion that the opposite effect will happen and I would have to say it is. I'm black and I'll be 40 next month and whenever I see a black character, author, director being hyped the first thing I think of is "oh great more white man bad material" and the same with female representation. I do feel kind of bad but I know I'm not the only one who is wary of this.
The best solution is to acknowledge that being diverse in and of itself doesn't make something great, and people are still required to do a good job. Sadly today you aren't allowed to criticize anyone unless they are a straight white male which is a shame because good honest criticism can work wonders. For instance in Star Wars Lando is a beloved character because he was a good character.
I remember when the movie Get Out came out and I saw it I was scratching my head as to why the critics thought it was so amazing. To me it was just another white people are bad message. I also got excited when I heard they were doing a New Gods movie but then I saw they were going to have Ava Duvernay direct. It think I'll just buy the source material and read Jack Kirby's vision.
In Kill Bill she got fucked over more than once. Now not even that is allowed, women aren't allowed to get hurt and make you doubtful even if they win at the end. They have to just win without a single scratch.
This is one of my favorite internet comments.
The problem is that they aren't writing these female characters to be interesting, likeable or relatable. Rather, they are a kind of testimonial to the the writer's commitment to good feminism.
Feminists proclaim that women and men are literal equals, meaning literally the same. It's just the hetero-normative, white-supremacist patriarchy that makes it look like men and women are intrinsically different and, overwhelmingly, have different strengths.
A man and a woman might accomplish the same goal in an action movie context, but they are almost certainly going to do it in a different way. Black Widow is a great example of this in the Marvel movies. She's a fucking bad-ass, and she does not fight like the boys, she fights like a weird little jujitsu-spider-monkey, and the movies are better for it.
There is so much scope for cool concepts and fight choreography that revolve around a smaller, weaker fighter having to out think or out maneuver a bigger stronger opponent. But showing a woman having to compensate for a weakness would imply that women have weaknesses, which they do not #yesallwomen.
This turned into a rant. TL;DR: I agree.
Ah, yes, the ever-proven Galbrush Paradox.
The only situation where I've found complaints against having a flawed female protag tend to be non-existent is when you're given the option to create-a-character and alter their sex and appearance to your liking, and the story is largely built around the protag being a 'they' rather than a he or her, with little deviation between the two paths.
And you can't have a good story, or a decent protag, without tension, and if The Bride hadn't been beat up and fucked over, it would have been a very boring movie.
I mean, the biggest and most consistent complaint about old-school Superman is that he's BORING. You know he's going to win, he had no flaws, moral, physical, or otherwise. A truly perfect guy. And then when they started giving him any old grab bag of abilities, that just made him worse.
But now they expect us to suck up unbeatable, flawless Mary Sues who can't have any chance at even getting a black eye, because it might "glorify" domestic abuse or some bullshit (as if domestic abuse is the only way to legit get a black eye.) Sounds like being forced to use god mode/training wheels on a video game even after you've got the hang of what to do with it ... ie, something no one would ask for or find entertaining, at least not for long after the mere novelty wore off.