I’m So Over the “Powerful Female” Trope In Media – Opinion

I’m going to be called a sexist for this, but what else is new? I’ve had so many accusations about my character hurled at me over the course of my career as a socio-political commentator that I’m barely moved by outrage…but I digress.

I’m pretty over the “strong woman” trope I’m consistently seeing in media nowadays. Even in movies and shows that I enjoy, there’s always some woman in the show that is always far smarter and can perform any task better than a man. She’s powerful and fierce. But, most importantly, she’s boring.

This is the part of the article where I state the obligatory disclaimer that I actually do appreciate strong women in media when they’re written well and fit naturally such as Sarah Connor, Samus Aran, and even modern characters like Katniss Everdeen, but it always felt like a defense of myself, and I’m not here to do that. I’ve done that enough.

Instead, I just want to focus on attacking these blatantly feminist box-checking characters that are so flat and one-dimensional that they might as well have cast a piece of notebook paper with a kid’s crayon drawing of a stick figure woman on it to play the roles.

Let’s start with one of the biggest standouts in my mind…how does one defend Brie Larson’s, Captain Marvel?

For those who haven’t seen it or don’t plan to, Captain Marvel is a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) character whose only flaw is that she’s not letting herself be the powerful person she is. She is able to outfight those more skilled than she and overcome any obstacle with her pure power. She’s more or less invincible and has only lost one fight in her life. She’s witty, kind, and everybody loves her except the sexists who want to hold her back because she’s a woman. Her character arc can be summed up with “she was less powerful but then she broke free of the restraints put on her by society and now she’s more powerful than anyone.”

Except for a sense amnesia and a patriarchal social programming, she has no real adversary. She has no real hero’s journey, she never has a real flaw, and she arrives at the end of her arch having hardly deserved it. She never had any stakes and the only thing she stood to lose was her “chains.”

I’ll break this down, but first, let’s look at an even worse example of the strong female trope in the form of Ray Palpatine and/or Skywalker, the most powerful Jedi to ever live in the history of ever.

For those of you who haven’t seen it or don’t plan to, Rey is a character in the new Star Wars movies whose only flaw is that she’s not letting herself be the powerful person she is. Rey can defeat people who are more skilled than she and is able to overcome any obstacle with her pure power. She’s more or less invincible and has only lost one fight in her life. She’s witty, kind, and everybody loves her. She is able to fly Han Solo in the Millenium Falcon and knows more about it than Han Solo. When she’s captured she needs no help because she’s already so powerful with the force that she can rescue herself. She’s also so good at combat that she can beat Jedi master Luke freakin’ Skywalker in a duel.

I’d say she has a very shallow character arch, but I can’t because she has no character arch.

Let’s move on to another in the form of Disney’s live-action recreation of Mulan.

For those of you who haven’t seen it or don’t plan to, Mulan is a character whose only flaw is that she’s not letting herself be the powerful person she is. Her ability to outfight those more experienced than herself and her power can overcome all obstacles. She’s more or less invincible and has only lost one fight in her life. She’s witty, kind, and everybody loves her.

This is where you get it. All of them follow the same pattern and it is destroying beloved media. One of the primary complaints for the Wheel of Time Amazon series is that it’s turned one of the greatest fantasy series of all time into a man-bashing strong woman-fest. I’m loath to see what Amazon has in store for us when it finally releases the Lord of the Rings series but I have very little hope for it.

It’s not even relegated to movies. Everywhere you turn, you will see a woman somehow winning over everyone.

These characters don’t appeal to audiences. Their films, while being praised by professionals, are constantly destroyed by the public or completely ignored by them. They make one excuse after another, but the reason we don’t want to watch these movies is clear, and it has nothing to do with sexism, the patriarchy, or some societal flaw.

This is due to the fact they are terrible characters. These characters lack authenticity from beginning to end. These women don’t act like women, they act like robots with very little allowance for actual human emotions with the exception of righteous anger. They practically aren’t allowed tenderness or warmth, especially toward the opposite sex, and rest assured, if there is a relationship you can bet that she’s better at him than everything and he is highly deferential to her. It’s not a sin to ignore maternal values. A child can distract a woman from her true potential.

There are no faults in her, so there is no enemy.

These characters are often praised by people who expect them to be in the theatres. But why would they? We’re given no reason to like these characters that are more manifestations of bad propaganda than they are people we can relate to on some level.

Rest assured, this question or questions like this have been asked of filmmakers and these film’s defenders but the answer is generally the same: “you just don’t like seeing women in powerful positions.”

Wrong. It’s wrong. We like women holding powerful positions, as shown by the many women character we admire as a society. What we don’t like is bad characters in prominent positions. Characters we can’t relate to that bore us to tears that, while they have a story they’re a part of, have no journey.

These studios are unlikely to change their minds about these characters anytime soon. They will keep losing money every time someone shows up to watch them. The financial consequences of failed movies will soon take their toll. The sales of studios that are not using this type of propaganda will increase, which allows for greater budgets for marketing and production. Studio that once were powerful are now in the shadows. People will want movies and so more creative studios rise to the top.

This may take years, possibly decades, but it’s what will happen if this formula is continuously stuck with, and I won’t miss this era of bland characters made on the back of post-modern political thinking.