Welcome to a Different Kind of Strength

Last night, I had the pleasure of having dinner with and seeing speak at one of my writer's groups, the fantasy novelist Sarah Beth Durst. Though I haven't read her novels (or seen the Hallmark TV movie based on one of them), they sound amazing and I'll probably pick a few up once my "to read" pile decreases a little bit. The majority of her writing centers around female protagonists, which naturally led to the question: how do you write a strong female character?

Sarah Beth Durst isn't the first author I've seen speak be asked this question and I doubt she'll be the last. A lot of authors who write lady protagonists seem to get this question all the time.

Which makes me wonder: is it really that hard to write a "strong female character"?

Interestingly enough, TV Tropes doesn't have a page dedicated to this topic, so it doesn't seem to have a defined set of characteristics. They do, however, have several links to other pages with titles like "awesome strong female protagonist", "funny strong female protagonists", and "Action Girl"  to name a few examples.

Guess I'll have to base this off of anecdotal observations on what characterizes a lady character as "strong".

If I were to name a few strong lady characters that I grew up with, I'd probably list out Buffy Summers, Princess Leia, Wonder Woman, Hermione Granger, and The Power Puff Girls. I'm sure there are others, but these were the ones who came first to my mind.

What do these ladies have in common?

They're smart, determined, and are able to kick major butt when they need to. In fact all, but maybe Hermione (I mean she does punch Draco in the third book) are able to handle themselves in an action sequence. They're also leaders of their respected social groups (in the Power Puff Girls case it would be their elementary school class). They certainly don't need a man to save them, but they find that guys are still nice to have around, even if they are very frustrating.

Newer versions of the strong female lead include Kitness Everdeen from The Hunger Games, Rey from the new Star Wars movies, and Black Widow from the Avengers team.

These women embody what I was taught was meant to be a strong woman. You had to be loud, unafraid, able to handle yourself in a fight, and not be the warmest cuddliest person on the team.

But does a strong female character have to be an a$$ kicking, outspoken, extrovert?

Short answer: No.

However, we as a society seem to gravitate towards the idea that a lady needs to be a black belt in karate or at least be a natural fighter to be the ideal lead in an epic story. Women who stay home and focus on love or loyalty typically aren't given the strong female character status. Strong women characters don't need to be saved, they do the saving. And they only cry on rare occasions.

There are a few story tellers who write lady strong lady characters who don't fall into this societal norm. Studio Ghibli has tons of strong female leads from Sofie in Howl's Moving CastleI to Kiki in Kiki's Delivery Service. Then the are pretty much ever lady character in Princess Mononoke, who all kick butt, have leadership positions, and authority in their own stories.

One strong young female character I constantly return to from my childhood is Sheeta from Castle in the Sky. When we first meet her, she's fairly passive and definitely seems like the typical damsel in distress. However, that spark of courage is shown early on when she climbs out of an airship window to get away from her kidnappers (and another set of would-be kidnappers who eventually turn into allies...and I'm off topic sorry). She takes great pains to keep her new friends safe, even at the detriment to her safety.

Sheeta seeing Laputa for the first time

It isn't until she's taken in by the Dola Gang that her strength really begins to shine. Her determination to work is balanced by her ability to be flexible. Her kindness endears her to all the other pirates, including their leader (and for some of the pirates their mother) Dola. She becomes defiant and confident while staying with them, which gives her the strength to give the movie the ending we deserve (sorry no spoilers).

However, Sheeta isn't an action star and her main character traits are her unending kindness and loyalty. On the surface she seems to be a "weaker" character, but most of her actions are based on the fact that she's about 12 and in multiple situations that could kill people she cares about. Dola is another unexpected strong lady character. She's an older woman with a ton of kids, doesn't have the most "ideal" body type (at least not as far as society is concerned), but she does kick butt and has a position of authority in the gang.

You might notice that I haven't meantioned Disney, yet. They, too, have a lot of stories with female leads. However, society seems to find these leads too passive or "weak" to be considered strong characters - at least if we're looking at female characters from movies before the 2000s.

I don't want to discount the Disney princesses, but they don't really match the expectations I grew up with for the strong female character archetype. Which doesn't entirely make sense to me because Belle, Cinderella, and Snow White all have an inner strength that should be admired. Yes, people harp on how a man still saves Cinderella and Snow White (who was 13 by the way) and it's become popular to claim that Beauty and the Beast is an example of Stockholm Syndrome (it's not, watch this explanation by Lindsay Ellis for details).

These characters are all strong, but there stories leave something to be desired for some modern audiences. Though I still think the original animated Beauty and the Beast is a masterpiece and no one will change my mind.

What I think is holding back the "strong female character" type is that we've placed too much emphasis on shedding them of their female traits. Compassion, loyalty, love, and emotional intelligence are thrown to the wayside in favor of more traditional masculine traits. On the surface, there isn't anything necessarily wrong with that. Some women are more masculine than traditionally feminine.

However, traditional feminine traits aren't passive. It's just that the stories they are written in, make them seem passive.

A great example of strong female lead who embodies everything that it means to be feminine is Sarah from Labyrinth. She's compassionate, friendly, kind, resourceful, and almost completely non-violent. I think the one time she resorts to violence is when she throws a chair to shatter an alternate reality she gets trapped in. There is a battle of sorts in the movie, but you never see her actually hurt any of her opponents (at least I think she doesn't the goblins are a pretty incompetent bunch).

Sarah in the labyrinth

It's through her ability to embrace her strengths as a woman that allow her to navigate the labyrinth. She's kind to the monster Ludo and Ludo basically becomes her body guard. She slowly but surely befriends the goblin Hoggle. Though their relationship is rocky at first, she cements their friendship by forgiving him for helping trap her in that earlier mentioned alternate reality.

So the next time someone asks me what qualities you think a strong female character should have, I'm going to respond that they just need a good story to show off their best qualities. Strong female characters, like any good character, needs to be put in a situation where their strengths best shine. Molly Weasley might have been the smothering mother archetype throughout the Harry Potter series, but when push came to shove, she still killed Bellatrix when her daughter was threatened.

To be a strong character simply means that that they need to be determined to get their objective done. Don't tell stories that put a character in a passive situation, put them in a plot that requires them to be an agent in their own destiny.

And ladies don't need a black-belt to do that.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope ya'l like hearing from me.

Until next week.