Just portray women realistically

Women in pop culture should reflect women in society

Just+portray+women+realistically

The mainstream entertainment industry is notorious for depicting female characters as cliches to appeal to the broadest audience possible. This pattern belittles many women’s characters by negatively stereotyping their personalities. More often than not, a woman receives the shorter end of the stick when it comes to her character’s development throughout a story.

Take, for example, the “manic pixie dream girl.” A character fits this trope when she is written in a story for the sole purpose of taking her always-male and usually white counterpart on quirky adventures and releasing him from his pathetic, barren, white boy life.

Her objective in the story rarely goes beyond that, as she usually fails to mention her friends, family, interests, source of income or insecurities. Zooey Deschanel is the epitome of a manic pixie dream girl in her role as Summer in the movie “500 Days of Summer.” She takes her boyfriend Tom on unconventional dates to Ikea and loves the Smiths! (But specifically that one song by the Smiths. Their most popular song.)

The goal of the manic pixie dream girl is to be as spontaneous and seemingly unique as possible. While individuality is important, the idea of “not being a stereotype” in itself is a stereotype. However, the manic pixie dream girl is setting the bar pretty low for whatever qualifies as unique. To her, this entails engaging in offbeat pastimes and listening to entry-level indie bands.

More recently, John Green has created very shallow and incomplete female characters in his young adult fictions. His books romanticize teenagers and their seemingly mundane lives in high school. A pattern in Green’s books is the way that he goes about describing his female characters and the dialogue he writes for them. These characters are obviously a way for him to vicariously live out his unsuccessful teenage romantic pursuits, as these girls are reduced to a fantasy.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never encountered a human being that is as spontaneous and mysterious as the female characters he so often writes about. The sole objective of Margo, from Green’s novel “Paper Towns,” is to enlighten her costar Quentin about life and push himself out of his comfort zone. These women are written in as creative, puzzling and conventionally beautiful creatures who are only there to release these young men from their pedestrian lives. What sane human being would volunteer for that?

Women in pop culture are not actually glorified for their individuality, but are instead constantly compared to other women. Why are we taught that the greatest compliment a girl can receive from a guy is that she is “not like the other girls”? Time and time again, this backhanded compliment has been given to these characters. What I don’t understand is this: What’s wrong with the other girls? Other girls are clever, smart and funny, too. And, by the way, plenty of other women are listening to the same boring music as you, and reading the same dystopian society novel as you.

Writers believe that creating these magical characters is paying some sort of homage to women everywhere, but in reality it is turning us against each other. Women are automatically signed up for this game where no one can win. We can be unique individuals without it turning it into a competition over who can be most unlike the “other girls.”

Women are multifaceted and mainstream fiction rarely shows that. More often than not, we watch depictions of shallow and one-dimensional female characters. This commonality neglects the hundreds of other ways that women can be represented. Show us in a more realistic fashion. We can be the heroes, the respected leaders and even the complicated yet ordinary human beings! There is no need to turn women against each other. Of course we are worthy of love and praise, but we need to do it without putting down our fellow sisters in the process.

Be aware of the stories you consume and the way that they depict women. The way that women are portrayed can have a negative effect on the way that we are viewed. When a girl only consumes stories where female characters are reduced to a stereotype, she starts to believe that a stereotype is all she can be. It’s time we start casting women as the heroes — not the damsels in distress, or useless sidekicks. We are complex individuals and we have interesting stories to tell. Show women realistically, with well- rounded lives, believable interests and actual flaws.