An annoying (at least I find it) trend in writing women is the trope of ‘not like other girls.’
Often characterized by a girl/woman who eschews all the ‘traditional’ tropes of femininity to adopt the traits of ‘coolness’ that would make a man like the woman more. These are the women who either dress completely dowdy (but not really fashionably) or silkily sexy with long legs and half-undressed buxom. These women, for the most part, can’t get along with other women, or when they do the relationships seem shallow, bitchy and have a lot of mean one-liners. And if by chance, they do have a good relationship with a women, god-darn-it they don’t listen to advice or even accept interventions; it’s a friendship on a one-tonal avenue with no growth, calling-out or even closeness. Even more irritating to me is that ‘not like other girls’ are also wounded or strong-but-brittle. You probably know the fictional women I’m talking about, there are plenty of examples out in the fictional world. There is the detective (either private or police) whose career is stunted/re-starting because of a major incident, but she also drinks beer out of the bottle, can fix her own car, a sharpshooter. There is the heroine who is floundering in life (dang-it she just can’t be pleasant and frilly-feminine) but she is tapped for saving the world because of some hidden (but not for long) aspect of her background (missing dad/relative, criminal past, rape etc.). There are other iterations of the same trope, but I think you get what I mean: a (sometimes unlikeable) woman that seems one-dimensional. Sigh, many authors (and not only men, alas) seem to believe that it would make the woman more interesting, less ‘cookie cutter,’ essentially worthy of making them a protagonist.
Why does a woman need to be less traditionally feminine, strong but about to break apart at any moment to be worthy of telling their story? Where is the representation of the women who have both traditional characteristics like loving frilly dresses and untraditional characteristics like drinking beer from a bottle? Wheree are all the women who are untraditional but who are bad-ass, strong and not about to fall apart at the slightest provocation because of some past shadow? Why can’t women have a traumatic past, a monumental blunder and not be brittle or turn into an alcoholic? Where is the therapy for these women? Why do they have to be resistant to therapy? Where are the beautiful women friendships? Where is the love for fashionable but not over-the-top sexy dressers? Why are all the cops wearing high heels!
The result of this narrow view of which women are worthy of being a protagonist is a loss of the richness of diversity, an unspoken censoring about other types of women, and teaching their readers unhealthy stereotypes about women.
Thankfully, fictional women are starting to become more diverse, but alas they often stay in their little genre niches.
twofriendscom.wordpress.com 