writing Strong Female Characters™
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i think there's a big difference between "strong female character" and "female character who has no emotions and punches things", and that's my main issue with writers who attempt to be feminist and result in taking away all humanity from their female characters. this post is going to talk about how to write Strong Female Characters well!
disclaimer: these are all my opinions and not to be taken as fact. i'm open to debate and constructive criticism as long as you're kind and respectful! i'm not a professional writer, i'm a student who writes for fun, and this is based on my own experiences and preferences.
give them motivation other than "proving people wrong"
don't get me wrong, spite can be a really great motivator for so many characters. but it's been used so many times for female characters that it becomes repetitive. many Badass Female Characters™ have been discriminated against by men in their life and want to prove their strength and their worth. while this can be part of their motivation, i think it would be refreshing to see something other than this as well. for example, give me a female character fighting for her family or her religion or for her country rather than against it. take helene aquilla from an ember in the ashes - she's the perfect example of a badass woman with unique motivation (if you don't know what i'm talking about, read the books)
please dear lord give your characters emotions. even if your character is an angsty heartless assassin or someone traumatised into believing emotions are weak, no character is devoid of emotions. let them feel love, let them feel regret, let them have faith and remorse and mercy. inej from six of crows is my favourite example of this: she's a really badass knife wife, but she's religious and kind and empathetic while deciding how best to carve up her victims.
when you take away a female character's emotion, you're leaning into the stereotype that a) women are too emotional and b) emotions are weak. vulnerability is not a weakness, but it can be shown through narration rather than dialogue/action if that fits your character better.
this one is entirely my opinion, but i feel like "i'm too hardcore for love" has kind of become the new "i'm not like other girls" - except this time it's marginally more subtle. i'd love to see female characters who are strong without giving up on love! like annabeth chase - none of her intelligence or strength is compromised because of her relationship with percy, and not once does she suggest that her love for him holds her back from reaching her potential.
NO CHARACTER IS SUCCESSFUL 100% OF THE TIME and if they are, they're a badly written character. in order to see what your characters are made of, you have to break them, and this holds true for Badass Female Characters™ too. i think this holds true especially for physical strength - it would be refreshing to see them fail in a fight against a man sometimes (but obviously not all the time - possibly at the start of the story, before they gain strength depending on how their character arc is structured). honestly, even a woman failing against another woman! don't make your characters unbreakable.
give them a weakness other than pride
something very common among Strong Female Characters™ is that their weakness or "fatal flaw" is pride, such as with annabeth in pjo. pride can be a really strong weakness because of how much depth it can give to a character, and i think annabeth is really well written. but many other female characters have the same weakness, and once again, it becomes repetitive. i found this true with captain marvel as well: carol danvers is really awesome, but her entire personality revolves around the fact that she punches things and is too prideful. make your female characters have varied weaknesses! let them be loyal and stubborn and empathetic and convinced of their own intelligence.
or, let their pride not just be a character trait - make it affect their plot. make your character overconfident and fail because of it. make them unwilling to compromise. but also make sure it's a strength - them so confident that they convince a minor villain to side with them. essentially, make sure that it's not just for show and that it has an impact on their story.
i also think that the Prideful Character trope was kind of a fight against Not Like Other Girls, where the protagonist always ridiculously low self-esteem, and i will say that i much prefer someone prideful. but it would be nice to mix it up a bit and find a middle ground as well!
