R, R & RR

Female characters in fantasy✨

Hello people!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR 🥳🥳🥳
I wish you all (that's maximum 2 people reading this but oh well it's a precious two people :) ) the best, health and happiness!
If you are still here and reading this rn, thank you very much <3
I hope you are doing well :)

I 've disappeared from this platform for way too long lmao
Maybe I should come back (??)

Anywaysss
There are these 2 rants that I have been thinking about for quite some time. I finished reading The Folk Of The Air recently and as much as I loved it (it was beautiful) it reminded me of both of these issues that appear a lot in worlds of fiction. So here's one of them ✨✨✨

~Female characters in fantasy~

For a long time, female characters in fantasy books, comics or shows have been absent or represented in considerably fewer numbers compared to their male counterparts. Thankfully, there are efforts to change this now and the truth is we have truly progressed a lot in that aspect, allowing for some amazing characters. Even so there are still problems which hinder realistic representation of women, some of which will be explored here.

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• Unrealistic tropes
The first and most extensive topic of this rant is related to female personalities and the tropes that represent them, as in many works of entertainment not only are fictional women less in numbers than men but they are also less diverse. Specifically -though there are exceptions- there seem to be two archetypes that rule the world of fantasy, both equally unrealistic and misleading.

For a start, there is the "weak passive sweet emotional and romantic girl who may also have healing powers" type. Examples of such characters I have seen mostly in anime: Inoue Orihime from Bleach as well as Sakura Haruno and Hinata Huyga in Naruto. Potentially Taryn from The Cruel Prince could be included here too, although not absolutely. Why such a representation is sexist and misleading does not need a thorough explanation. These are typical damstel-in-distress-kind-of characters, entirely absent from battles and powerless. They appear capable of only observing whatever happens from the sidelines without taking any action on their own and serving mostly as a motive for other characters who get involved in battle to rescue them.

On the other side of the coin, we can find the "strong independent violent warrior girl who throws snarky/sassy comments at others". The best examples I can think of come from romantasy books: Violet Sorrengail in Fourth Wing and Jude Duarte in The Cruel Prince (the latter does have a little bit more depth though). To clarify: this type of character -if handled properly- is perfectly alright by itself, as it often presents active women who are capable of making decisions and choosing their own path, thus giving an empowering vision to female fans -I absolutely love and enjoy it myself. However, when it is the only female representation there is aside from the "passive emotional sweetheart" type, a problem appears. Even if this character type doesn't directly diminish women, it does lead to oppresion, since aggressive behaviour appears to be the only way for a woman to fit into the feministic image, devaluating other personality traits.

The main danger that this type of character faces in terms of writing is to mistake "violent" for "badass". In certain context, it is understandable how a character would have grown up to become tough and cruel, but these should be considered negative traits which can serve as a means to explore the horridity of violence itself and/or as a starting point for character development leading to inner peace. Sadly, for many characters being aggresive is only seen as "cool" and female ones suffer particularly more from that, as for them aggressiveness is additionally shown as proof of "feministic" writing. (The presence of violence in entertainment media is the topic of fje next rant btw!)