Something I Saw Today About Feminism, Women In Media, And How ‘MORE’ Could Be A Solution

"The post started with a comic by artist ‘Alyssa Korea‘ and a reply by another female artist that goes by the username ‘Gingerhaze‘."

Who brings up a good point that maybe "MORE" female characters are needed in general, rather than have the one or two in a story carry all the weight.

[-Gespenst-]

The whole "complaining about NOT being one (a woman warrior) implies that feminine traits are something negative" point is questionable I think.

A lot of the female form has to do with cultural and social factors - social pressures, expected diets and appearance. All people should be "strong" in some sense, be it in mind or body (by that I don't necessarily mean physically strong, but strong in their individuality). I'd say that the female body can be seen as a negative thing IF it's wholly based on subjection to a patriarchal culture's pressures. The body shouldn't cave into to ideological pressures like that- there's nothing wrong with a "weak" or "small" body if it was a personal choice divorced from such pressures, and if the person enjoys such a body. The point is that the aesthetic ideals of the female body are largely informed by patriarcal values- by the demands of men.

No person, be they man or woman or otherwise, should allow themselves to be enslaved and moulded by such ideologies and social pressures. It should be about personal taste and choice. All people should be at least a "warrior" in either mind or body or both. Not in the sense that they should be violent and belligerant, but in the sense that they should be autonomous and critical and self-asserting, all the while being sensitive to the lives of others. It shouldn't be a pattern of subjection and social moulding / manipulation.

The same applies to men. A lot of men aspire to an equally patriarchal ideal- to be ripped etc. Buying into this is tantamount to being brainwashed by a patriarchal society and being complicit in its maintenance. The male body too, is as fluid as the female's.

But yeah, I agree. MORE women should be in all media, as well as multiple subjectivities therein- different types of women. These "different types" should be shown to be the result of autonomous choice and preference, not being beholden to a patriarchal culture and adopting a certain lifestyle and appearance to simply appease men.

As for the point about holding writers accountable for their treatment of female characters (and any other historically marginalised group for that matter), you absolutely should do this. It's reflective of their lack of critical thought and knowledge that they include such conventional stereotypes and assumptions. You're not imposing a higher standard of femininity, you're questioning the system that means all feminine subjectivities are bi-products and functions of that socety instead of personal choices and preferences. You're questioning a piece of media that contributes to the normalisation of a female stereotype or fixed gender role and hence to a patriarchal society. What you're doing is not imposing a higher standard, but demanding freedom of expression- asserting that the representation is not essential and in no way represents a fixed and universal identity- to fix such realities is to engage in ideology, to take a form of reason as reason in its entirety; to say that this is the best way for women to be in this society when in reality their identity is unbounded. To fix knowledge in such a manner is to link it inextricably to power and control. Everyone outside such a fixed discursive idea is persecuted and excluded