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[temvald]

So Feministing linked to a list at Cracked of "Hollywood's 5 Saddest Attempts at Feminism". And so I read the list, and it was pretty interesting. But as I got to the end of it, I started wondering how it was that the author of the list became such an expert on female characters who, while on the surface may appear to be strong, are actually

Comments

[touchstone]

Very amusing :)

The only one of these I'd actually question is River. She's the one character of the five listed who I think could have been rewritten as male and still kept the same role in the story - fans would have reacted differently to the character, but the story still would have worked. On that basis, I can't really see the portrayal as sexist.

There's some other word that should be used there, I think, but I'm not sure what. Help me out here! It's...augh. The stereotype is that being a nurse is a 'woman's job' - caretaker, yada yada. The reality is that some nurses are women and some are men. If you're writing a story that contains one nurse, and the gender of the character isn't otherwise important so you flip a coin...if the character ends up being female, you're not really being sexist, but you're certainly playing to peoples' preconceptions, intentionally or not.

[touchstone]

*nod* Re: Eowyn, their criticism is valid, but yes - it's properly directed at Tolkien.

And I agree about River's general lack of agency. I just don't see that lack of agency as being rooted in her being female; Simon's little brother, programmed into insanity by the Big Bad Guys, would have been in much the same boat. So where I'm right there with you on the lack of agency making the character less interesting, I'm not sure that it's sexist, per se. It feels to me less like 'this character doesn't get choices because she's a girl' and more like 'this character who doesn't get choices IS a girl'. Which does reinforce the idea that female characters can't have meaningful choices, but...perhaps by accident.

That said - there's no way in the world Whedon was ever going to write this character as male. So really, my quibble might be moot.

[speaks]

I'll bet Jennifer Tugs her braid and sniffs when angry, then folds her arms under her breasts.