Fantasy Females (of the literary variety)

So I read primarily genre fiction, and specifically, I read young adult genre fiction. I love it, even as an adult; it’s my choice for reading, and it’s what I want to spend my life writing. Figuring out what’s going on with it – what I like and what I don’t like – is very important for that reason: I want to be able to write books that present ideas, archetypes, and stories that I enjoy, but that I don’t see a lot of floating around. What’s sad is that that means I want better female characters. I want to see female characters I can identify with. I want to see female characters who are intelligent. I want to see female characters who are characters, and not archetypes.

But too often, I’m disappointed. Female characters are love interests above all else. Traditionally, they were only princesses and damsels in distress; they slowly evolved into warriors and fighters. And recently, an exciting new archetype has emerged.

I have a theory about the evolution of female characters in fantasy in particular, but I haven’t researched it yet – consider this a hunch. Back in the olden days, before this whole feminism, women’s lib thing came about, fantasy archetypes were much more clear cut: you had heroes, with their swords and shields, who went out and battled villains (wicked witches or black knights or dragons), and when they won, they were rewarded with a prize: a beautiful woman to marry. It brings to mind traditional fairy tales, no?

But new images of women began to creep into culture. Women who weren’t passive, who weren’t damsels in distress, and who weren’t prizes. The fantasy genre reflected it, and women were allowed to pick up swords and do battle. But they retained their primary purpose as love interests; male characters often find love in their quests, but it seems like female characters always do. They also rarely seem to take leadership roles; in ensemble casts, generally all the women pair off with a man, and it’s a man who makes the decisions and leads the way. But at least women were allowed to join the party.

But that’s about where evolution ended for female characters, for awhile, and it still seems to be stuck in a lot of authors’ minds. At first glance, it doesn’t look so bad; women can now be royalty, warriors, bards, sidekicks, mothers, sisters, whores (with hearts of gold), and almost anyone else. But there are still rules: she needs a man, and she isn’t in charge; she still either fits into the role of prize for the hero, or subservient heroine. It’s just that she gets to need a man and not be in charge in so many more situations.

This might have been a good step forward, and a necessary one in getting some well rounded female characters out there. It still has its problems – why can’t girls be single? why can’t they lead the group? – but I think it’s important to note the way these women are still very flat characters.

First, it disturbs me that these characters are always beautiful. That beauty generally is how they catch the man – sometimes it’s because she’s so strong or caring or such a good warrior, but being beautiful never hurts – and we all know that’s the main goal. It’s wrong that it’s always external traits, not internal ones, that make women lovable. Again: her beauty, her physical prowess, or her caring (which is, of course, traditionally a very feminine trait – nothing progressive about it) attracts a man. Off the top of my head, I can think of one fantasy heroine who I can even make a case for her being admired for her intelligence first and foremost.*

Second, there’s the problem of looks and intelligence being an either/or. Often, you get two extremes for female characters: the Princess or the Warrior. Princesses remain what the always were, with perhaps a token gesture at feminism; they’re pretty and passive and rewards for the hero. Consider it in Disney terms: compare Aurora, from Sleeping Beauty, to Jasmine, from Aladdin. Aurora’s sole function is to be rescued by, and then marry, Prince Philip. Jasmine resists doing that same thing; she declares to her father that she is, “Not some prize to be won!” She also attempts to help Aladdin in his final battle. But at the end, it’s clear that he’s the hero, she’s the Princess, and gosh, he finally wins the girl (by winning over her father, no less) after he defeats the villain. She’s a modern Princess, who talks the talk of feminism, but in the end, she’s not the hero. (Oh, and Aladdin originally falls for her when he sees how gorgeous she is, not when she demonstrates to him that she’s intelligent or spirited. So would he have even gotten involved if she weren’t beautiful? Who can say?)

Warriors, on the other hand, win wars through might. They’re almost always paired off with men as they do so, and usually are supporting characters in a male protagonist’s story. Even when they aren’t following a male lead, and are off on their own, they win fights through sheer strength. Not a bad thing in and of itself, but still not exactly thrilling when you consider that again, intelligence doesn’t come into it. She has a Smash things, win fight! mentality. And, of course, her physical abilities mean she’s got an awesome body (never bulky muscles, just toned, lean ones), so when she does meet a man who dares try and get near her, he’s taken in by…her looks. Not her ability to do him bodily harm. (And I wonder, how many of these Warrior women are actually shown as able to do bodily harm to their eventual love interests, as those interests usually tend to be Warrior men?)

Anyhoo. If both Princesses and Warriors are pretty (and they are), and I’ve said it’s an either/or thing, then…who’s smart? The answer, for a long time, was not female characters. They may be passably intelligent, and maybe even almost as intelligent as the men they’re surrounded with. But since they’re not leaders, they’re followers, it’s hard to even tell.

However, I think the genre is finally starting to move on. Another archetype is emerging; she’s been around for awhile, but is actually gaining visibility and popularity in recent years. My guess is that it’s because she’s easy for young, female fantasy readers to identify with, because let’s face it, young girls who’re reading fantasy novels are likely to be enamored of her: a young girl, who’s bookish and shy, and not completely gorgeous. She’s often very ordinary, but somehow gets caught up in an adventure. She’s still not free of the old tropes (she still has to become beautiful, and she still has to get a guy) but she’s closer: often, like her sitcom sister (in the last entry) she beautifies herself and stuns boys into noticing her. After they’ve noticed her shocking good looks, however, they might discover she’s a really cool person. They might even appreciate her brains. She might even get to be a hero. Probably not the hero, but a hero. That’s something.

(Obviously, the most famous example is Hermione, of the Harry Potter series. I think Rowling did a very good job in making it clear that she was smart – and that was how she earned her position as a protagonist – and didn’t care about her looks. She also wasn’t, at least at first, out to catch a man. I suspect she was freed of that because her ultimate love interest was not the ultimate hero, Harry, but instead was his sidekick. And yet I’m still disappointed – Ron only clued in to how much he liked Hermione after seeing her beautified for the Yule Ball. So while Hermione, and her popularity, is clearly a sign of things moving in the right direction, I don’t think that pointing at her as a counter example proves much, either.)

So there you go: you’ve got a Princess, who’s beautiful and has no agency of her own; you’ve got a Warrior, who’s beautiful, and has little agency of her own (but a big sword); and the Bookish Girl, who has some agency, and is fairly intelligent. Oddly, though, you can’t really mix and match. Neither BG nor Princesses can wield swords. Warriors and BGs may both be beautiful underneath, but neither one is comfortable in a dress or on a dance floor. And, most disturbing of all, neither Princesses nor Warriors – the most common and traditional of these three characters – are intelligent.

Females in fantasy have come so far, but they’re not there yet. Sigh.


*For the record, that’s Cimorene from the Dealing With Dragons novels, who is generally assertive and kick-ass, and doesn’t have any romantic interest for the first two books at all. If I can find copies of the books, perhaps I’ll review them in the future.