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The Mary Sue: During an interview with The Radio Times recently, Doctor Who‘s Maisie Williams opened up about the film and TV industry’s pervasive sexism. As reported by Mashable, the actress talked about the lack of well-written female characters, and the emphasis placed on women’s looks
2 comments:
Emma Reichard
said...
God bless Maisie Williams. Women are so often written in the worst way possible. It’s so bad. I mean really really bad. And let’s not pretend that Doctor Who doesn’t also perpetuate this sexism. Because Clara could have been so much more than the mystery, impossible, love interest she wound up being. TV shows almost never have their female characters live up to their potential. And now that I’ve become increasingly aware of these issues, it makes watching TV so much harder. And this heteronormative, gender stereotyping affects male characters to some extent too (see man pain and hyper masculinity). The problem is that people consider gender way too much when writing a character. The gender of a character should be the absolute last thing decided, because it doesn’t really affect the character, just the previous circumstances the character has experienced. So let’s please break away from the negative, restrictive troupes which completely destroy the potential of characters, specifically female characters. I think we’ve all moved past that.
One of my favorite SNL skits in their recent season has been their "one-dimensional female character" bit played on Weekend Update by Cecily Strong. In the bit Strong portrays Heather, the typical nerdy side-kick gal pal turned beautiful ingenue by the good graces of an attractive and heroic male lead who convinces her to take her glasses off. I remember being an awkward, antisocial seventh grader with glasses and braces. I remember wishing for such a hero. I remember feeling as if I could never be attractive so long as I had my glasses and braces. But in the end, my only heroes were my optometrist, my orthodontist, and my parents. And puberty. Puberty gets a bad wrap, but I'm a big fan. Ultimately, a lot of my self-hatred and personal sense of defeatism came from movies, television shows, and books which made it seem as if the only way to self-acceptance was through conventional transformation by male standards of beauty. Oddly, the rare movies, shows, or books which portrayed strong, multi-faceted female leads defined more by their skill and ability than their looks and who ultimately were beautiful through their own unique means - those were my favorites. Those were the stories which helped me to survive. They are a big part of the reason I chose this industry, so that I can be a part of bringing stories like these to the forefront of young women's attention. Maisie Williams isn't just correct, she is the voice of necessity, and I think a lot of female performers are starting to hear this call to arms. In publicizing the lack of diverse and multi-dimensional female characters available to them, actresses also remind those young women watching that they ought to look further than the nearest mirror when evaluating themselves. Young women need to be taught that they are strong and brave and smart and kind and capable and astonishing and for god's sake heroic. Because they already are, they just don't have much telling them this as of yet. It's time the entertainment industry reflect a truth actresses like Maisie Williams already know: Women matter. Women are more.
2 comments:
God bless Maisie Williams. Women are so often written in the worst way possible. It’s so bad. I mean really really bad. And let’s not pretend that Doctor Who doesn’t also perpetuate this sexism. Because Clara could have been so much more than the mystery, impossible, love interest she wound up being. TV shows almost never have their female characters live up to their potential. And now that I’ve become increasingly aware of these issues, it makes watching TV so much harder. And this heteronormative, gender stereotyping affects male characters to some extent too (see man pain and hyper masculinity). The problem is that people consider gender way too much when writing a character. The gender of a character should be the absolute last thing decided, because it doesn’t really affect the character, just the previous circumstances the character has experienced. So let’s please break away from the negative, restrictive troupes which completely destroy the potential of characters, specifically female characters. I think we’ve all moved past that.
One of my favorite SNL skits in their recent season has been their "one-dimensional female character" bit played on Weekend Update by Cecily Strong. In the bit Strong portrays Heather, the typical nerdy side-kick gal pal turned beautiful ingenue by the good graces of an attractive and heroic male lead who convinces her to take her glasses off. I remember being an awkward, antisocial seventh grader with glasses and braces. I remember wishing for such a hero. I remember feeling as if I could never be attractive so long as I had my glasses and braces. But in the end, my only heroes were my optometrist, my orthodontist, and my parents. And puberty. Puberty gets a bad wrap, but I'm a big fan.
Ultimately, a lot of my self-hatred and personal sense of defeatism came from movies, television shows, and books which made it seem as if the only way to self-acceptance was through conventional transformation by male standards of beauty. Oddly, the rare movies, shows, or books which portrayed strong, multi-faceted female leads defined more by their skill and ability than their looks and who ultimately were beautiful through their own unique means - those were my favorites. Those were the stories which helped me to survive. They are a big part of the reason I chose this industry, so that I can be a part of bringing stories like these to the forefront of young women's attention.
Maisie Williams isn't just correct, she is the voice of necessity, and I think a lot of female performers are starting to hear this call to arms. In publicizing the lack of diverse and multi-dimensional female characters available to them, actresses also remind those young women watching that they ought to look further than the nearest mirror when evaluating themselves. Young women need to be taught that they are strong and brave and smart and kind and capable and astonishing and for god's sake heroic. Because they already are, they just don't have much telling them this as of yet. It's time the entertainment industry reflect a truth actresses like Maisie Williams already know: Women matter. Women are more.
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