Odoylerules360 said:
But he stopped short of describing any kind of female-perspective Power Fantasy character.
That's because almost none exist. Because women are told they're not supposed to want power fantasy. It's considered pretty much beyond butch. Butch women are considered more or less androgynous. Power is considered by the majority of people in our society, at least subconsciously, as a purely and exclusively masculine and male essence.
Power fantasy also means pure power fantasy. Which is power for the sake of power, and power as equal to worth. Which women are never included in. As women's bodies aren't considered compatible with the attempt to put some kind of quantifiable number or measurement on power(the kind of power as superiority idea that has people debating who is stronger, Goku or Superman, all the time). If they were, they'd be drawn just as muscular as the men for the sake of "pushing human limits" and the imagination of how strong a living being can be. Men are drawn pushing the limits of strength just for the sake of it, women never are.
There are some examples of at least "power fantasy" in mild terms, not "facing the Gods, I can do anything" level of power fantasy. But they're on the rare side. For a female to be part of a power fantasy, they would have to be stripped of anything relevant to their gender, and just be a vessel of power and badassness.
A regular power fantasy already exists in many ways. Male power fantasies, to be honest, can't you really tend to call them Gary Stus? Similarly, the Mary Sue itself is a kind of power fantasy.
That's a plain version.
The next step would be a character most people feel is sufficiently feminine, but sufficiently badass. Such as Revy from Black Lagoon, or the like. Or Tetsuwan Birdy Decode, or the like.
The way it would come equal to how men are represented, women would be these over the top athletes with just as many muscles as the dudes. Not too many of those exist, especially since when they do exist, they're not important characters.
Examples of this would be something like Dragon Ball Z if Goku was a girl. The super saiyan transformations are one of the purest forms of power fantasy in existence. And something like supergirl or superwoman without being a watered down version of superman and more sexualized.
I consider Makoto to be one of the closest real life examples offhand, at least of what a female power fantasy would look like:
It's a fighting game and she isn't an important character. But they aren't sexulaizing her like Cammy, and she's clearly built like a fighter. They aren't afraid to give her huge feet and a determined look that isn't about looking sexy at all. Her facial expressions are to look intimidating, not sexy. And you can reasonably assume she's at least half as muscular as the ridiculously muscles male characters under that gi.
Any show or game centred around a character like this becoming
stronger and
dominating foes would be a female power fantasy. Through and through. And any notions of her being "feminine" by our standards would have to be thrown out for power for the sake of power. She can be muscular, "ugly", tall, covered in scars, have mechanical body parts. All as long as it's something that serves the purpose of power and not seeming feminine or beautiful.
In general, Makoto, though, looks exactly like a female power fantasy should look like. She isn't make to look like some skinny, puny little thing that can somehow, despite all logic, go up against gigantic muscular dudes who are drawn as big and brawny as possible.
