I recently watched a wonderful video about the nasty “girlbossification” of female leads in books, and how their badassery is cheap, flimsy and annoying to most readers, especially in its recent repetition. As someone who has written a female badass who is many of the things this video and similar ones critique - assassin, threatens everyone, emotionally distant, so on and so forth - I think I’m a decent person to give pointers on how to make avoid this trope or, if you so desire, to make it good.
A note before we begin: Women can be assholes. In fact, I encourage them to do so. There are so many male characters who are shallow, cocky, rude, selfish, and women hating. They do not get the same hate we give to these female characters and I think, in part, that’s because we sort of expect it from men. Men can do whatever the hell they want as a character and someone will find a way to justify it. So I’m not saying that you can’t write a female character like this, I’m saying don’t ONLY write female characters like this. The things I’m about to say are less “writing women” and more “writing a good character”. Got it? Got it. Good.
1. The Rejection of Femininity. Look, there’s nothing wrong with a tomboy. Women don’t have to like dresses or showing skin or pink to be a well-written woman. The issue is that most characters who are “rejecting femininity” are not tomboys, they just hate women. It’s baseless and stupid; these characters tend to dress stereotypically feminine, except maybe with PANTS, and will turn her nose up at randomly offered beautiful dresses but will still inevitably wear them and look beautiful as she does so. She’s still a socially agreed upon ideal for feminine beauty, and does nothing to try and change that. All this really culminates to, at least from my experience as a reader, a character who displays her usefulness and badassery as a character by labeling herself as “one of the guys” and ridiculing every female character that doesn’t do the same.
A girl can dislike stereotypically girly things without putting down other characters for liking them, or thinking she’s different or special because she doesn’t like those things.
My suggestion? Write actual tomboys. Write characters who like their nails short and their hair cropped, who like baggy clothing and prefer suits over dresses, and actually act on this.
2. Intentional Rejection of Femininity. If that’s what you’re aiming for, you have to tell me WHY. That’s the base of any character related advice you will ever recieve. If your character is going to act a certain way, you have to tell me why. Athena from Claire North’s The Songs of Penelope is an absolutely fantastic example of this. To quote her narration from the third book;
Inevitably he (Zeus) began to look upon me as a sexual creature. If he could take my body by force, then could he not also take my mind, my soul, reduce all of me to a mere adjunct to his will? To get ahead of this, I swore myself a virgin. I pulled my helmet over my face, strapped my shield to my arm, renounced all signs of desire, longing or passion.
I punished women for the things men did to them, saying that they too should have shrouded themselves as I did, and what really did they expect to happen to them if they dared to laugh out loud or be seen to exult in joy?
In short, I made myself like a man of Olympus.
Perfect. Absolutely beautiful. Claire North, I bow before you. Athena rejects femininity and crucifies other women for not doing as she did, and here she says, outright, why she does that.
3. What if there’s no reason? Does your character’s personality have to be backed by trauma? No. Personally I prefer writing characters like that, just because I’m under the belief that human beings are kind until forced to become otherwise, but there are definitely exceptions to this rule. My high school band director is probably one of them. If the answer to the question of why is “she’s just like that”, that’s fine! But that has to be clear. Having a character who is cruel and merciless simply because they are can be incredibly powerful, but only if it’s being done with the intent to be powerful, not a cheap attempt to make a woman appear strong without allowing her to also be vulnerable. There is no strength without vulnerability or fear, there is only narcissism and stupidity. Quote by Astrid.
I'm gonna trademark this.
4. Tiny thing, but something I do want to mention; badass heroines are cooler when they earn their badassery. No more chosen ones, because those usually lead to the whole “incredibly small and frail and petite but still somehow incredibly strong and capable in a fight, etc etc”. Train them. If you’re writing a fighter, make them buff. Give them broad shoulders and a strong chin, rough fingers, the works. Rin from The Poppy War is a good example of a character who works for her place, and Mare Barrow from The Red Queen is a good example of a character who’s training impacts their appearance. My poor girl looked like she was on her death bed half the time. Again, it all boils down to putting thought and effort into the character. I’m not one to criticize short cuts, but sometimes I think the long road’s payoff is much, much better.
5. IF your girl is a fighter. Notice how I said IF, because, in case no one has told you, NOT EVERY BADASS WOMAN HAS TO HAVE A SWORD.
Everything I want to say can be encompassed by this interview with Elle Fanning for Maleficient 2.
I think a lot of Disney films... they expect the princess to be in armor and have a sword and fight and like; "oh that makes her strong!" Of course there are princesses that it's necessary... Aurora's a fighter, but in a different way. I think there's a strength in her femininity and her softness and there's nothing wrong with her wanting to be a mother and be married... There's beauty in that, and that is still strong.
There is strength in compassion, like Aurora and Chantine (System Divine). There is strength in love, like Cinder (Lunar Chronicles) and Lei (Girls of Paper and Fire). In resilience like the Radium Girls or the Ladies of Ravensbruck. In cleverness like Penelope (Songs of Penelope) or Dita (The Librarian of Auschwitz). A woman has many ways to be strong and to be a badass, let’s spread out a little bit here.
When I was in high school, I wrote a book called A Throne of Secrets and Blood. I know, incredibly original title. In my defense, I was fifteen. But the main character was named Vixen, and she could fight, sure, she decapitated her evil husband in battle, but Vixen was a badass because she was smart. She knew how to make people tic, and she was very good at playing a part assigned to her. Her older sister, Anastasia, was much the same; and she did this so well, Vixen herself thought Anastasia was a spineless coward until crunch time came around and, oh look, who’s that with the bow and arrows up on the parapet, shooting enemy soldiers? Why, it’s Anastasia, who’s actually been helping this whole time!
In short; strength is not “how close to a man can I make this woman seem”, nor is it “whatever men think strength is”. Frankly, I would not trust a man’s opinion on strength, point blank. Strength is an infinite, shifting concept, and I encourage you to play with it!
I’m sure there’s other aspects of this that I haven’t covered, so maybe there will be a part 2 in the future. Until then, look back on the characters you’ve written and consider what makes them strong. See if there’s any way you can look into it deeper, or alter it in a way that feels truer to the version of them you have in your head. Until next time! Happy Writing!
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