While watching Serenity today, I arrived at the impression that River Tam wasn't a terribly well-written character. Googling to see if anyone shared my opinion (doubtful, yeah) I came across a Cracked article on Hollywood's stabs at feminism [http://www.cracked.com/article_16587_hollywoods-5-saddest-attempts-at-feminism.html], and, per a link from there, a deeply disturbing feminist rant on Firefly. [http://users.livejournal.com/_allecto_/34718.html] There are certainly a number of interesting, although not automatically correct, points in both articles - moreso in the first as the second is by one of those fabled militant feminists that occasionally emerge from the bowels of academia to scream about "rape" (any consensual sex).
From there I found this critique [http://stuffgeekslove.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/strong-female-characters-who-actually-arent/] of feminism in sci-fi/fantasy. It was here that I realized that none of these articles voiced an opinion on a critical question: what constitutes a feminism-compatible, well-written character? Of particular interest is this quote from the third article:
Personally, I don't believe in the critique of the wo-men trope. For starters, feminists often target the misconception that women are inherently mysterious, but in the criticism of "wo-men" they seem to be suggesting that such characters are lacking an intangible attribute without which they are just men with racks. Where do you fall? And are there any feminists out there that could give their opinion?
From there I found this critique [http://stuffgeekslove.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/strong-female-characters-who-actually-arent/] of feminism in sci-fi/fantasy. It was here that I realized that none of these articles voiced an opinion on a critical question: what constitutes a feminism-compatible, well-written character? Of particular interest is this quote from the third article:
Several posters didn't agree with the disapproving tone of that passage, and neither do I. As a guy who does creative writing, I want to know how to write female characters that aren't under some kind of institutional/societal domination, but the implication from the material written on the subject so far has avoided defining what this elusive ideal female character would be. Does such a thing exist?The wo-man is a male character who happens to also have breasts. She is written exactly as the male characters are, shares all the same interests of the male characters, and has all the same problems of the male characters. Other than the breasts, her only other signifier of being female is that she will be in a relationship with one of the male characters. In addition to Zoe, the Firefly character mentioned above, other notable wo-men characters are Dana Scully from The X-Files and Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica.
Personally, I don't believe in the critique of the wo-men trope. For starters, feminists often target the misconception that women are inherently mysterious, but in the criticism of "wo-men" they seem to be suggesting that such characters are lacking an intangible attribute without which they are just men with racks. Where do you fall? And are there any feminists out there that could give their opinion?