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H is for heroines
Apr. 14th, 2012 11:00 pmI got a nice email recently from a fan who basically thanked me for writing a well-rounded human being who happened to be female. I was very happy to get the email, but it also made me want to bash my head against a wall because this should not be a thing worthy of comment.
I was very lucky as a fantasy-reading kid. I know several people nearly my age who keenly felt the lack of female characters in SFF, but I'm young enough--and obtuse enough--that I never noticed it, or at least missed many problematic elements. I had Meg Murry and Arha and Nancy Drew, and later all the women in the House of Homana and the Sunrunner books, Lessa and Menolly and the ships-who, Pyanfar Chanur and her crew, Morgaine and Morgaine (MZB's and CJC's), and all the various women in Elf Quest and the various X titles. Which isn't to say none of those were flawed, but as a reader I never felt the absence of female characters, or female characters who interested me. And this was only through high school, before I ever discovered Barbara Hambly.
There were certainly authors who I felt didn't write women well, but I generally found they did other things poorly too. I still believe this: if an author writes female characters who are all flat or unrealistic or cliches, their other characters probably aren't that dazzling either*. If half of the population mystifies you, you're likely missing some of the finer points of the whole population. And possibly a smidge of self-awareness or empathy.
Now, of course, I'm all too aware of the sexism we're soaking in every day, and the ways female writers and characters are belittled and dismissed. I'm just really glad I never internalized it.
* I've found a few exceptions, but not many.
I was very lucky as a fantasy-reading kid. I know several people nearly my age who keenly felt the lack of female characters in SFF, but I'm young enough--and obtuse enough--that I never noticed it, or at least missed many problematic elements. I had Meg Murry and Arha and Nancy Drew, and later all the women in the House of Homana and the Sunrunner books, Lessa and Menolly and the ships-who, Pyanfar Chanur and her crew, Morgaine and Morgaine (MZB's and CJC's), and all the various women in Elf Quest and the various X titles. Which isn't to say none of those were flawed, but as a reader I never felt the absence of female characters, or female characters who interested me. And this was only through high school, before I ever discovered Barbara Hambly.
There were certainly authors who I felt didn't write women well, but I generally found they did other things poorly too. I still believe this: if an author writes female characters who are all flat or unrealistic or cliches, their other characters probably aren't that dazzling either*. If half of the population mystifies you, you're likely missing some of the finer points of the whole population. And possibly a smidge of self-awareness or empathy.
Now, of course, I'm all too aware of the sexism we're soaking in every day, and the ways female writers and characters are belittled and dismissed. I'm just really glad I never internalized it.
* I've found a few exceptions, but not many.
