Why do males complain about female-led stories or too many female characters when the majority are still dominated by males?
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Being a woman is "marked" while being a man is just the default, so anything that strays from the "default" sticks out and it seems reasonable that it requires justification. This goes in reverse in some cases, like the need to refer to someone as a "male nurse" - why do we feel we need to say this? Because the default nurse is assumed to be female.
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It's more explicit in the directors cut when you learn of her own daughter's fate.
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Because they are assholes.
Because they are so privileged they REALLY believe that they should see themselves in all stories.
Because they were taught from a young age that empathy is not manly.
Because, at the end of the day they were failed by their parents and society as a whole.
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It was a change to satisfy something outside of the world they were in--to satisfy a check box in our world. It is just an example of badly handled "add women" to a plot.
I do agree many genres are under represented by women as main role or important roles, and I totally enjoy stuff that is different that the Hollywood Schlock that gets produced. But it should be true women characters and stories not just a cut and paste role.
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There are probably a decent amount of people who will just not watch a female lead
They probably would, if she acts like a man.
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Furiosa irritated the hell out of many men with a wounded pride.
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Those movies work because the female leads are just good.
The usual suspects whined about Furiosa, precisely because as you say the movie was about her.
The selling point isn't that they have women in them, the selling point is they are really really good movies.
Yeah, but whiners whined anyway.
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Isn't that the problem though? Pandering by creating overly masculine women doing things that men traditionally do?
Idk, maybe I'm over simplifying it - but I've known a decent amount of sexists that love Alien. I don't think she was overly masculine, nor do I think her role was overly masculine. Idk.
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Because men are babies.
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I’ve known women who won’t watch something or play a video game without a female lead or the ability to create a female character, so I assume the same has to be true for men.
I've seen women express confusion or even anger that the men in their lives choose to play as female characters in games, I don't think I've seen the reverse.
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Ripley was... neuter enough in Alien and Mama Rambo in Aliens. I'm sure the whiners hate the cutesy scenes with Newt and love the Queen Fight.
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Not particularly. Whedon's work in particular caters to his particular fetish, small women kicking ass. Compare Buffy, Dollhouse, Firefly, The Nevers.
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Asimov is so, so difficult to read through now that I'm older, as the female characters are just... ouch.
Case in point: Noys Lambent in The End of Eternity. She was added by editor mandate, and she's hollow: a kept woman who's secretly a perfid ally of an opposing faction. The hero is somewhat redeemed by his understanding that the rebel cause is just, but she's pure cardboard and eye candy. 13 y.o. me loved her. Years later... She's cringeworthy.
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I don't know if it's because i'm not a native speaker, but i consider people who use "male" and especially "female" instead of "men" or "women" very very weird at best.
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Yup, poorly paraphrasing a well know quote: When you're used to privilege, equality feels like oppression
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One thing people do seem to hate is hoe they add a token female character who is just badass for no justifiable reason. Rey from starwars, that ninja turtle who they gave multiple weapons. That just feels like shameless pandering.
Also female characters complaining about female problems to people who went through actual hell.
Like in she hulk and she hulk was going off to Bruce about how she has to constantly keep her anger in check due to men. Completely tone deaf and ridiculous as a statement alone, but saying this ti Bruce banner of all people from the mcu is crazy. It's either bad writing or intentionally inflammatory.
Just make female characters who feel genuine and aren't trying to be the jock character and people wouldn't complain as much. And they need to stand on their own, not try to eclipse a counterpart character
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Dissect all ya want. But in the end it usually comes down to exactly that. Why do we have to expend so much mental energy on fools?
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Because fools appear to be natural leaders in this mad world of ours? Again, not saying you're wrong.
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In Aliens, it is precisely the caring about Newt that humanised Ripley.
Otherwise she would have been to badass, to robotic.
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It's what you know, i lived more years with my gran than i didn't and before she slipped into the madness of Alzheimer's and i got to watch her die a little bit everyday, she still used females when ta looking about women as a group.
Seemed a little old fashioned to me because she was old (born 1934) but its hard to see that term used as something particularly weird, just seems antiquated to me.
But that being said people are really struggling to find terms what won't offend people or be inaccurate, its bloody impossible but therec are plenty o people who are just trying to make better word choices, even if they are failing and mixing in with the weirdos
