We've probably all heard plenty of reactionary wojak-nooo grill-broke frothingfash about the accursed "strong female characters" in fiction.

It doesn't help when there is a LIB way to write and portray such characters that is terrible and often panders more some thirsty writer than it does in any way actually "empower" the character outside of spank bank material. Looking right the fuck at you, "waifu fights for senpai" anime industrial complex. pathetic

The reaction against LIB "strong female character" writing promotes RETVRN misogyny ideology, as if those are our only two choices, and that also sucks.

I'd love it if someone or a lot of someones did a little trolling a-little-trolling and started some momentum against "strong male characters" instead, because they are such an unexamined cliche and built in expectation that they really aren't even questioned, or even noticed except as a default state that everything revolves around to the point where its absence is seen as "political."

What if a man's wife died... and it made him very sad and in need of emotional support?

What if a man's daughter was kidnapped... and he needed help to rescue her and asked for that help?

What if a father figure was shown being warm, supportive, patient, and constructive, period?

Or, for Toby Fox enjoyers, to sum up my argument, why not more Ralsei-like characters? ralsei-splat

Oh, the reactionary rage alone would make the movement worth it. sicko-wistful

  • Albanian_Lil_Pump [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    It depends on the movie or show for me. In Breaking Bad, Scarface, American Psycho, etc. (using cliche examples here) there are no doubt badass lines and moments, but if you’re not a mindless conservative consumer then you’d realize how pathetic the main characters are outside of very specialized situations.

    Like Walt thinks he’s some criminal mastermind when in reality he’s just a very good meth cook and engineer. He thinks he can kill actual hardened, indifferent criminals by just walking up to their house.

    Bateman is going around murdering people, but he’s obsessed with how he’s perceived by others and the brands they wear - a literal soydl consoomer in their parlance (it’s also theorized/implied that he’s such a bland loser that he fantasizes all his violent crimes).

    Montana will kill hundreds of assassins sent to his mansion, but that was the consequences for embracing the American dream and realizing that capitalism is a soulless, racist, and lonely enterprise when it was far too late.

    Tony Soprano can kill and chop up a body and have sex with dozens of mistresses, but he’ll have a heart attack over a box of uncle Ben rice because he hates black people, only to be treated by minority doctors.

    But these shows and movies were written by intelligent people and half of the audience is too dumb or lazy to analyze it. Movies like Taken or the various police, SWAT, FBI, special forces dramas on ABC or whatever are taken at face value because it was written to be taken literally. Also, as for the strong female lead, these shows mentioned in this paragraph will usually have them, but they’re usually just tomboys who aren’t taken seriously until they commit police brutality/war crimes and every man in the force is like “whoa she’s just like me! I can trust her and now treat her with respect.”

    But these are antiheroes. You can’t just be a normal guy who feels sad