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...and boy howdy, do I hate the female protagonist. The plot in a nutshell: man with the Heart of an Angel possesses the supernatural ability to kill via touch, while a man with the Heart of a Devil possesses the supernatural ability to heal via touch. Predictably, politicians, businessmen, and the cops get involved, with varying motivations and levels of knowledge about the situation.
The cops are represented by Detective Hasebe, the drama's lead female protagonist and "Strong Drama Heroine." Unfortunately, "Strong Drama Heroines" are often little more than Typical Drama Heroines in disguise, Hasebe being a case in point. Her initial appearance in the drama promises an awesome character--she interacts with her male colleagues as an equal (not a as a "proper" Japanese woman), doesn't take crap from her boss, and is a powerful fighter and crack shot with firearms.
But then she attempts to arrest three teenagers during a solo drug bust. One of the three manages to completely overpower this equal-to-males, no-shit-taking, crack shot by using impolite forms to her. When he takes her gun, this hand-to-hand combat-trained woman (who kicks the ass of a jailer at least 100 pounds heavier than she) stands there mouth agape and does nothing until he shoots at her, the bullet grazing her arm, causing her to faint winsomely. The final scene of the episode again finds her with the upper hand versus a villain, only to be reduced once more to slack-jawed uselessness when he speaks to her, leaving him to take her firearm from her unresisting hands and escape, and leaving me to wonder WTF happened to the trash-talking, no-shit-taking, kickass fighter the series introduced to me in the episode's opening scenes.
I think this sort of switcharoo probably has a lot to do with the oft-repeated complaint that female fans' dislike of female leads is irrational and misogynistic. Because it seems to me that it isn't either of those things as much as it is exasperation and irritation at the fact that although the series in question present multiple male characters with varying strong points and faults, there tend to be only one or two female characters...who are presented as being intelligent, tough, equal to their male teammates, etc., but who are written as "typical" women (e.g. shrill, manipulative, dependent, or my personal annoyance, "loveably spunky"). Which isn't to say that I think every female character must be an Aeryn Sun; just that if you tell me Female Character A is an Aeryn Sun but she acts like a shrinking violet, I will despise her all the more for it.
That said, I'm probably going to stick around for a few more episodes as the male actors make for nice scenery and the ham-fisted co-optation from Death Note and VC is amusing.
これで以上です。
The cops are represented by Detective Hasebe, the drama's lead female protagonist and "Strong Drama Heroine." Unfortunately, "Strong Drama Heroines" are often little more than Typical Drama Heroines in disguise, Hasebe being a case in point. Her initial appearance in the drama promises an awesome character--she interacts with her male colleagues as an equal (not a as a "proper" Japanese woman), doesn't take crap from her boss, and is a powerful fighter and crack shot with firearms.
But then she attempts to arrest three teenagers during a solo drug bust. One of the three manages to completely overpower this equal-to-males, no-shit-taking, crack shot by using impolite forms to her. When he takes her gun, this hand-to-hand combat-trained woman (who kicks the ass of a jailer at least 100 pounds heavier than she) stands there mouth agape and does nothing until he shoots at her, the bullet grazing her arm, causing her to faint winsomely. The final scene of the episode again finds her with the upper hand versus a villain, only to be reduced once more to slack-jawed uselessness when he speaks to her, leaving him to take her firearm from her unresisting hands and escape, and leaving me to wonder WTF happened to the trash-talking, no-shit-taking, kickass fighter the series introduced to me in the episode's opening scenes.
I think this sort of switcharoo probably has a lot to do with the oft-repeated complaint that female fans' dislike of female leads is irrational and misogynistic. Because it seems to me that it isn't either of those things as much as it is exasperation and irritation at the fact that although the series in question present multiple male characters with varying strong points and faults, there tend to be only one or two female characters...who are presented as being intelligent, tough, equal to their male teammates, etc., but who are written as "typical" women (e.g. shrill, manipulative, dependent, or my personal annoyance, "loveably spunky"). Which isn't to say that I think every female character must be an Aeryn Sun; just that if you tell me Female Character A is an Aeryn Sun but she acts like a shrinking violet, I will despise her all the more for it.
That said, I'm probably going to stick around for a few more episodes as the male actors make for nice scenery and the ham-fisted co-optation from Death Note and VC is amusing.
これで以上です。
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From:
no subject
Arrrrgh but this idea drives me nuts. If we don't like a lot of female characters, we're misogynists - not, say, because a lot of female characters are really badly written, especially in comparison to the male chars...!
(For a while I thought I didn't like female chars, but then I figured out that the truth was I just don't like a lot of romance. And in too many series, that's the female chars' primary purpose...)
From:
no subject
Yes, exactly. Plus, I'm willing to bet that the fact that so many of the offending female characters have strength, intelligence, and independence as their Informed Attributes just amplifies the negative reaction on the part of many fen.
You're exactly right about the romance aspect too. If the female chara is the main protagonist, she's often written as devoting as much effort and attention to getting love as she is to her ostensible quest; if she's a supporting character, her role tends to be one of the items the male protagonist has to obtain in order to complete his quest.
From:
no subject
I used to only want to read books with girl heroes when I was little and then switched to the guys, who didn't have to deal with all the fucking *baggage* that heroines had to slog through.
Boys: Problem. Go on a quest. Gain fame/notoriety/adoration. The end.
Girls: Problem. Whine about wanting to go on a quest but having to deal with parents and marriage and romance and restrictions and how to circumvent a male-dominated world and being a useless whiny... etc. etc.
From:
no subject
Yes! I think one of the reasons I am such a big fan of story!slash and story!yaoi is because both genres remove female characters entirely, neatly sidestepping the problem discussed above. If you're going to write shitty female characters, I'd rather you just didn't write them at all.
Why I don't believe this makes me or other fen "misogynist" is because I will happily glom all over any series (Avatar, Farscape, CP, ::cough:: Terminator) where there are a multitude of female charas written to several molds, who kick ass as much as the male charas.