Hello all! I've been letting my amazing guest posters take the reins on my Characterize series, but a thought has been nagging at me lately and I wanted to talk to you guys about it.
See, it's about female characters. I am always ranting about how much I love a strong female character. Kick-ass ones are my favorite; if they can run a sword through you while managing a smile, I love them for it.
But here's the thing: strong doesn't necessarily mean kick-ass.
You might be confused. You could be thinking But Nicole, if she can't physically lift a weight, doesn't that make her weak? Okay, yes, we'll play technicalities; there can be physically weak characters. There can emotionally weak characters.
But just because somebody is kick-ass doesn't make them inherently weak.
We live in a world where being feminine is stigmatized as being weak; it's why you never hear questions about strong male characters, because it's assumed that male characters are strong. Female characters have to overcome that stigma before they can be accepted as strong.
That kind of thinking is bullshit.
Tumblr understands me. When I talk about a strong character, it's not about physical strength or how awesome they are. It's about helping to make the story, not being an aimless part of it.
I don't care if you like to wear dresses. I like to wear dresses. That doesn't make me weak and it doesn't make your character weak. Crying and emotions doesn't make your character weak.
A character is weak because they're not part of the story. A character is weak because everybody else dictates how the story goes and they shuffle along in that direction. A character is weak because they're not treated like a character but a plot point.
A character isn't weak because they have emotions or like dresses or any other sort if inane, asinine reason.
And they certainly aren't weak because of whatever body parts they have.