maybe you just hate women
MAYBE YOU JUST HATE WOMEN
For female characters, there seems to be no winning. No matter what decision they make, critics dismiss it as stupid and unreasonable—criticisms that reveal a deeper unwillingness to see fictional women outside a narrow, cookie-cutter mould. Whether she is independent, angry, or in love, there comes a point where the audience disconnects, judging the ‘ugly’ traits that are often celebrated in male characters. And if the character is a young girl, the scrutiny only increases, every move being nit-picked. Meanwhile, a male character can appear on screen briefly, doing something as simple as washing a plate or communicating, and still be drooled over.
As someone who has long enjoyed female-centric media, I have noticed an all-too-familiar pattern: female characters being criticised for making human, everyday mistakes. She can never seem to be quite good enough of a worker, friend, daughter, sister, lover, or mother. There also seems to be a push, especially from Eurocentric audiences, for more complex, layered female characters. Yet, when the media sometimes attempts this, it is often met with backlash, especially when intersectional identities are part of the character, and with a greater intensity.
This attitude drives deeper into the hornet’s nest when female characters, particularly in heterosexual stories, start dating, especially if it is with the ‘wrong’ man. At that point, her dating history becomes a getaway license for shaming and moral judgment by viewers. When the relationship is unhealthy, misguided, or socially frowned upon, the focus shifts away from the female character as a person and toward blaming her for ending up in that situation. The man’s actions are rarely held accountable, and he slides away without a scratch.
If you are still reading this, you might be thinking, “Who even cares? It is not that serious; these are just fictional people.” But such reactions are not confined to a fictional landscape. They reflect a broader societal pattern in how victims are treated. For starters, women are victim-blamed if they are not perceived as the ‘perfect victim’ (spoiler: no one is allowed to be!), targeted by smear campaigns and threatened with harm. All while the perpetrators are defended and might gain a fan club in the process.
Even in a world of fiction, where anything is possible, female characters, much like reality, are still held to patriarchal expectations and demanded to be likeable above all. If not, they are met with the inevitable cruel fate of being defined by others and never believed.
