I am currently writing a book in which the protagonist is a young girl. I am also raising a daughter who will grow up surrounded by fiction and will likely identify with at least some of the female characters in those stories.
I had a blog post drafted that singled out a few exemplary female characters in children's and young adult fiction, including Hermione Granger and Katniss Everdeen, as well as some less than inspiring characters, like Bella from the Twilight books. I looked at each one and decided which ones I thought would be the best role models for young girls, and therefore the "best" sort of female characters to create. After looking at the list and looking back at my own character, I started thinking about what it is that we really want and need from these fictional women.
I think it would be easy to say that what young women need are strong, independent, intelligent characters to act as role models for them and to promote self-reliance and maturity. But really, that way of looking at fiction might be too simplistic.
If the stories we read are just tricked out after-school specials, then yes, bring on the superwomen. But what is the real point of immersing oneself in a fictional story? Is it to practice the role of someone great, then put down the book and assume those positive qualities? I don't know anyone, (maybe with the exception of a biography reader), who really reads like this.
I do know plenty of Hermiones, but, luckily, very few if any Bellas. What I'm trying to say is that, in the real world, the women I know are strong, intelligent, creative, persevering, passionate, and not waiting around for a prince to come and save them. So why do some of these awesome women love to read Twilight (or Shades of Grey, for that matter)?
I don't think it's because they are secretly Bella, or Anna. I think that by entering a fantasy world temporarily, they are able to lay down the expectations of greatness that weigh on us constantly, and relate to the damsel in distress. By reading about characters who have nothing, (no skills, no advantages, no exciting abilities, who are utterly passive), and yet are thrown into excitement and adventure nonetheless, the readers stop putting themselves in competition with the character, and instead are able to escape into the fictional world.
What I think is attractive about these stories, usually romances, is that a character who is basically a blank slate at best, and offers very little to admire on her own, is still able to effect change, just by being present in the story. This kind of indulgent writing has a message all its own: everybody is special. Every lame-ass heroine deserves to have her story told, and "every pot's got its cover." (This last phrase was one my grandmother used when she heard that some particularly weird person got married.)
The message isn't true, not everyone is important, and not everyone will get a steamy romance, but it is comforting, isn't it? It may be the comforting message a young girl can escape to now and then, when she's facing the harsh reality, that women are expected to balance every previously delegated role perfectly, all while looking like a beauty queen, and princes are few and far between.
Needless to say, I hope to create a character young women can look up to, and I hope my daughter enjoys reading about female characters who get things done. But maybe I won't cringe if she wants to indulge in a dumb romance now and then. Because after all, who cares what she reads? It's what she does when she's done with the book that matters.
