on writing female characters

[splinteredstar]

Okay, so. This is mostly me trying to sort my own brain out. Sometimes writing things down helps me figure out what they are.

Short version: sometimes I get wigged out over female characters.

Context: I have an old, old idea. Involves rebels against an oppressive government, only the leader of the rebellion falls under the influence of the superweapon (I can ramble about how that works later) and goes bug fuck insane. Still not certain if the crazy is terminal.

Originally, the rebel leader was a man named Joshua, but Joshua ended up being a very different character (a Royalist, for one). So I split him into two, Joshua and Julian, Julian being the rebel leader who eventually goes insane and becomes the villain. And it sat for a year.

Well this week I was struck with the idea. What if Julian was instead Jillian?

But that sort of opened a mess of questions in my head. A good rebel leader (and good villain) requires passion and drive and cunning and charisma. Would making the villain a woman ‘make a statement’ about women with those traits? I always despaired as a child that all the powerful women in fiction were evil. But if I /don’t/ make the character a woman, is that making a different, equally bad statement? Does equal representation count for the antagonists?

Worrying about all this is a bit daft, I know. A character shouldn’t be swayed by the pressures in my society. But I do worry. What if I’m being swayed and not aware of it? There's a mess of social implications with female characters which of course also exist for male characters, but I don't feel them as strongly. Thinking about it is better than, well, not thinking about it, but how do I find an /answer/?

Arg. Any opinions would be wonderful.

 

Comments

[sarillia]

Yep, this.

I've said before that I think the key to good representation is having several characters who fit into whatever group you're worrying about who are all different people. If you have just one, it could conceivably be read as a statement about how all X are Y, but if you have several with various vices and virtues then it's hard to read anything into except that they are individuals like anyone else.

[splinteredstar]

Yeah, I think that's it. It's just, it's like I'm aware of the social ramifications of characters, and the whole mess of social politics and implications, but it's difficult to know what to /do/ about it.

I am getting some ideas, though, about what I can do. Thank you, everyone.

[sarillia]

I find it kind of strange that I don't worry more about this. I'm very conscious of social implications and often critique things from that angle, but somehow I just don't worry about it that much while I'm writing. With this subject, I'm okay with only worrying about it after someone has read it and commented on it.