I've just had an idea

[avevale_intelligencer]

This is a shout out to all my fellow feminist blokes, all the allies among the two-lumps-and-a-sponge-finger clan who are serious about wanting a better deal for women, socially, economically, and (in this case) culturally. Gather round, lads, gather round. You too, Humble Bellows. I've had an idea.

You know how there's a flap on about female characters in video games and why there are so few that are playable and serious, and how video game companies like Ubisoft are whining that they would make female characters but it's all hard and stuff? You know how we keep seeing articles about how the harder the cultural push for believable female characters with agency in films and tv shows, the more the industry seems to push back, and how they're still making films that don't pass the trivial Bechdel Test? You know why they're still getting away with that?

Because nobody ever complains about the male characters.

Seriously. You can write a film or a game in which the most outrageously unrealistic guys do the most ridiculous things, and nobody will utter a peep. Everyone complains that female characters do too little or have too little definition. Report to studio boss runs "More complaints about female characters." Studio boss issues decree: "Lay off the female characters. They cause complaints." (Seriously, ladies, that is how we think. For given values of the word.)

Nobody complains that the male characters in movies and games and tv shows are ridiculously overdrawn, carry far too much of the plot and do things that no self-respecting coward in the audience would ever dream of. Nobody complains that there are no scenes in which two named male characters talk together about a female character who is more important than they. Nobody complains about male characters at all. Women roll their eyes and think about something else, men sit there lost in a happy dream of "duh yeah...'f I was Superman I'd be just like dat, yeah." No you wouldn't. Nobody would. If you were in the shoes of Tom Cruise or Vin Diesel or Shia LeWhatnot or whoever, and it was real, you'd quake like a jelly and take to your heels. So would I. So would any man with sense.

I'm quite serious about this. Someone told me recently that the way to level the seesaw is to clear the shit off the lower end, not pile more shit on the end that's up. Well, guess what. It isn't working. Efforts to make our culture more accepting of female characters are meeting with determined and increasing resistance. So, okay, let's start piling crap on our end as well, and when we've got it level that way, we can see about removing some of the crap from both ends at the same time. Let's Get It Level First.

Next time you review a film or a game or a tv show, look really closely at the male characters. Are they believable? Do they have depth, or just quirks off a tick list? Do they have motivations, or just the writer's hand up their thingy? Do they respond to extreme situations the way a normal man would?And do they honour and respect their female counterparts, if any?

If not...say so. Loudly and clearly.

Let's start complaining about the guys. It's the only way we'll ever make them listen.

Thanks for reading.

Comments

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

That's a really interesting idea. Good luck with it!

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting thought, but I see an issue with it.

I think (but have not done research) that people people generally *want* their heroes to be larger-than-life. We see lots of ordinary people in ordinary circumstances every day, people who back down from a challenge, or people who do the bare minimum to get by. Star Wars would have been exceedingly dull if Luke Skywalker had decided to just stay on the moisture farm and go into the family business. If Boudica had just stayed quiet and done nothing, nobody would even remember her name (and she'd make an AWESOME subject for a film, so long as Frank Miller wasn't doing it).

And that is, I think, where your proposal falls down.

[wolfette]

Nobody complains that there are no scenes in which two named male characters talk together about a female character who is more important than they.

Hmm, how about Lara Croft's staff? (butler and pet geek)

:-)

The Tomb Raider movies fail the Bechdel Test every time - and yet the lead character is female - and strong. Go figure!