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lizbeeTaking the day off work to have my jaw checked out. As I spent three hours yesterday waiting for work to come, I don't think they'll miss me.
LET'S TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ANNOYING! The Female Character Flow Chart. This is supposed to demonstrate whether or not a female character is "strong" or actually strong. What it boils down to is, DON'T WRITE WOMEN, THEY ALL SUCK. Which is probably not the feminist message intended.
I tried to trace along Romana, right? TV-canon only. Carries her own story? Yes. Three dimensional? NOT SO MUCH. Not a villain. Not a love interest. Part of the team. What is her role? Er, leader, voice of reason, token female, emotional core. Sorry, I can only pick one. Okay, leader. Does she want a baby? Canon has little to say on the topic, but "no" is not an option. THANKS, FLOWCHART! I choose "not right now". She does not get pregnant. She is not in a horror story, except for "State of Decay" (which leads her to being The Final Girl, such as that famously one-dimensional character, Ellen Ripley). Okay. Not in a horror story, right. She's not violent. Is she nearly perfect? Well, I'm a bit biased, so I'll go both ways.
We wind up with three options: Romana's either a Wise Crone (...what? She's in her second century!), a Mary Sue or a Damsel in Distress.
And that's a fairly simplistic character from a 1970s children's show. (OKAY, family show.) That that degree of multiple choices and oversimplification is necessary to make the flowchart work means it's not so much a commentary on sexism in storytelling, as a participant.
SO MUCH PAIN MAKES ME CRANKY, GUYS, I'M JUST SAYING.
LET'S TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ANNOYING! The Female Character Flow Chart. This is supposed to demonstrate whether or not a female character is "strong" or actually strong. What it boils down to is, DON'T WRITE WOMEN, THEY ALL SUCK. Which is probably not the feminist message intended.
I tried to trace along Romana, right? TV-canon only. Carries her own story? Yes. Three dimensional? NOT SO MUCH. Not a villain. Not a love interest. Part of the team. What is her role? Er, leader, voice of reason, token female, emotional core. Sorry, I can only pick one. Okay, leader. Does she want a baby? Canon has little to say on the topic, but "no" is not an option. THANKS, FLOWCHART! I choose "not right now". She does not get pregnant. She is not in a horror story, except for "State of Decay" (which leads her to being The Final Girl, such as that famously one-dimensional character, Ellen Ripley). Okay. Not in a horror story, right. She's not violent. Is she nearly perfect? Well, I'm a bit biased, so I'll go both ways.
We wind up with three options: Romana's either a Wise Crone (...what? She's in her second century!), a Mary Sue or a Damsel in Distress.
And that's a fairly simplistic character from a 1970s children's show. (OKAY, family show.) That that degree of multiple choices and oversimplification is necessary to make the flowchart work means it's not so much a commentary on sexism in storytelling, as a participant.
SO MUCH PAIN MAKES ME CRANKY, GUYS, I'M JUST SAYING.
