BY ELIZABETH GILLILAND
As you scroll through our editor’s notes, you may notice something of a trend here at Xchyler Publishing . . . most of us are women. The same could probably be said of most publishing houses and agencies. There are a lot of women in this field. We love to read. We’re passionate about books. And if you ask most of us what we’re looking for in a story, while we might vary on plot or genre, almost all of us would probably list “strong female characters” as one of our absolute must-haves.
. . . But what does that mean, exactly?
No doubt it is due to series like Buffy the Vampire Slayerand The Hunger Games that when we now refer to a female character, she is either ‘strong’ or ‘weak.’ In a way, this is really great; our lives are saturated with kick-butt female role models who aren’t just designed to be sexual icons for men. But in a way I wonder if this hasn’t also skewed our perception of what it actually means to be strong—that a woman can be independent and empowered without whipping out tae kwon do or putting an arrow through someone’s heart. And that we do, in fact, need to see women like this in the literature we’re reading.
Frankly, I’m kind of tired of reading female characters who can beat up all the guys and have all the best lines and have all the men dropping at their feet because they’re just so fabulously sexy and witty and tough and clever all at the same time. Part of being strong is being allowed to explore what makes us weak, too. I want to be able to relate to the female characters I’m reading about, and I am none of those things all the time. Sometimes, occasionally, but definitely not all the time.
I am sometimes smart and sometimes tough and sometimes funny but also shy and awkward and don’t think of the right thing to say until way after I should have said it, and if men are falling at my feet it is probably due more to a lack of personal hygiene than a surplus of charm. That isn’t to say that you have to bring out all the worst qualities in your female characters, but allow them to have some bad qualities. Allow them to be human.
Then there’s the other end of the spectrum—where the main character is not strong AND tough AND sexy AND funny, but she’s none of those things either, because she’s mostly there to help the male character discover himself and so her character development takes a back seat. To that, I say—writers, write responsibly. If your protagonist isn’t very interesting when you take the man out of the equation, then she isn’t very interesting, period.
(For a great take on writing well-rounded characters of any gender, read Jessica Shen’s blog post, “Introductions, Please.”)
A good example of one of my favorite strong female characters who doesn’t use any weapons aside from her wit and who isn’t solely defined by her love story? Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice (did you really think I could make it through a blog post without mentioning P&P at some point?). Now granted, yes, part of why I love her story so much is because of that snobbishly dashing Darcy, but Elizabeth more than holds her own. She’s clever, she’s sharp-tongued, she’s loyal, (even when Charlotte marries that awful Mr. Collins and Lydia is… well, Lydia), she subtly defies convention (like muddying her skirts and walking by herself to get to her sick sister at Netherfield Park), she makes rash judgments (even though, as we quickly learn, her first impressions of people are not always correct—I’m looking at you here, Wickham), and she can be a bit of a snob (though she’s much quicker to find that fault in others than in herself). In short, she is a fully rounded human being who is both weak and strong, with or without a crossbow.
This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy me some action. There is a time and a place for a girl beating the trash out of somebody who’s supposed to be bigger and tougher than she is, and a time and a place when that is flat-out awesome. But maybe it’s time to broaden our minds a little bit. Let’s not trick ourselves into thinking that the only way for a woman to be strong is to bench press 200 pounds and know the difference between a glock and a Beretta. For every Sidney Bristow, we need a Lorelai Gilmore. For every Buffy, we need a Willow. For every Sarah Connor, we need a Dr. Quinn. There’s room for all of us at the table.
As the Spice Girls so aptly put, If you wanna be my lover/you gotta get with my friends . . . or something like that. Girl power!
Author, editor, and story coach Elizabeth Gilliand currently kicks the trash out of the literature doctural program at Louisiana State University. Her most recent project. Conjectrix by Candace J. Thomas, Book 2 of the Vivatera series, was released in May of 2014. Her next project, Accidental Apprentice by Anika Arrington, is slated for release October 4, 2014.