Illustration by Stella Chen | Nikki Swango holding Ray the kitten in purgatory. The scene, famously known as “the bowling alley scene,” would go on to become one of the most famous ones in Fargo.
Western media often fails to execute strong female characters
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She-hulk, Captain Marvel, Ghostbusters (2016), Fargo, Casino Royale, and Arcane — all of these movies and shows have prominent female characters; only the latter three contain well written ones. The trope of the “strong female character” has taken a surge in the recent decade with the emergence of “fourth-wave feminism.” Compared to the late 1900s and even early 2000s, female-led movies have soared in both popularity and abundance. However, despite this change, the agenda to push for strong female characters has failed more than it succeeded.
Many “strong female characters” are reflections of toxic masculinity with a mask and wig. The term toxic masculinity is often used to address “traditional” gender expectations of men — a lack of emotion or vulnerability, and a need to dominate. In literature, these traits surface in male characters as unaddressed arrogance, stubbornness, and indifference. They do not go through character arcs, are not dynamic, and are not relatable. The same issue is present in many female-led movies, the epitome of this issue being Carol Danvers from Captain Marvel. Danvers is written to be insanely strong, to the point where the writers forget to make her a relatable character. Danvers’ flaws are not addressed the entire duration of the movie, nor does she go through any sort of character arc. While acceptable for side characters, a protagonist should not have this type of staticness.
The goal of strong female characters is to empower women, but many achieve this via overpowering the female lead over other characters. There is the recurring idea that in order to emphasize empowerment or equality, the others (typically male characters) must be put down. Controversies over this issue occurred in movies and tv shows like Ghostbusters (2016) and She-Hulk. Of course, not every movie or show needs an equal number of differently gendered characters, but the problem arises when the attempt at equality is done by bashing another gender. When this happens, a large part of the audience is alienated and the theme of the movie is lost. If a movie turns solely to prejudice in order to make a point about female empowerment, it’s practically asking to generate misogyny.
On the other hand, it can be argued that strong female characters should be allowed to have negative traits — after all, a character needs some in order to not be a “perfect” or “boring” character. While this is true, for them to be good characters, they also need to be dynamic and/or relatable. Although Nikki Swango from Season 3 of Fargo teeters towards the femme fatale trope — she is beautiful as she is intelligent, morally dubious, and enabling — her loyalty and compassion makes her sympathetic and understandable. Jinx from Arcane is a major antagonist whose tragic backstory makes her current flaws believable. Vesper Lynd is a heavily nuanced character in Casino Royale who is stuck in a complicated game of betrayal; the ghost of her actions ripple throughout the entirety of Daniel Craig’s James Bond films.
The problem does not inherently lie in the trope itself, but how Western media pushes for it. Even if that’s the case, there are lots of well-written female characters out there, despite badly written ones gaining a lot of attention due to the poor writing. Bad characters and/or plots will always exist, but they shouldn’t ruin the rest of entertainment media.
