22 Jun 2014 12:23 pm
Strong Female Characters
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frayadjacentAs I await the Orphan Black finale's appearance in iTunes, I'm thinking about broader movie and television representations of women. And obsessively watching ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sisabet and sweetestdrain's VVC challenge vid from last year, The Sellout, a multifandom vid about Strong Female Characters. As laurashapiro and I discussed after VVC, this vid is especially great in combination with Sophia McDougall's essay, which appeared, like, the same weekend as VVC, called I Hate Strong Female Characters.
But what I've just realized is that the vid actually is more nuanced than the essay. That's no mean feat for a vid. (Though, admittedly, the essay isn't terribly nuanced.)
It celebrates beloved characters while also longing for more for them, and more of them. It loves at least as much as it criticizes. It begrudgingly admits we fangirls will take what we can get, while always hoping for more.
It wins my heart by subtly suggesting that Buffy and Xena are exactly the kind of women characters we need more of.
Relatedly, I feel like Orphan Black and Orange is the New Black have reduced my already-low tolerance for shows about dudes.
sisabet and sweetestdrain's VVC challenge vid from last year, The Sellout, a multifandom vid about Strong Female Characters. As laurashapiro and I discussed after VVC, this vid is especially great in combination with Sophia McDougall's essay, which appeared, like, the same weekend as VVC, called I Hate Strong Female Characters. But what I've just realized is that the vid actually is more nuanced than the essay. That's no mean feat for a vid. (Though, admittedly, the essay isn't terribly nuanced.)
It celebrates beloved characters while also longing for more for them, and more of them. It loves at least as much as it criticizes. It begrudgingly admits we fangirls will take what we can get, while always hoping for more.
It wins my heart by subtly suggesting that Buffy and Xena are exactly the kind of women characters we need more of.
Relatedly, I feel like Orphan Black and Orange is the New Black have reduced my already-low tolerance for shows about dudes.
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