Unfortunately, the rise of the female protagonist has also come with the rise of a particularly controversial trope, the "Strong Female Character." This kind of female character isn't simply physically or mentally strong, they are often the best of the best, the most powerful person in their story, a flawless character that people all love while those who despise her are unanimously evil people. Commonly cited examples of this trope include Rey from Star Wars, Carol Danvers from Captain Marvel, Korra from The Legend of Korra, and Mulan from the live action Mulan. A lot of people are annoyed by such characters, prompting many others to label the haters as misogynists, that they only dislike the character for being a woman. But the truth, at least in my view, is that these Strong Female Characters are more harmful to feminism than beneficial.
Other scholars, including those with a feminist leaning, are critical of this trope. Sophia McDougall has criticized the trope as not only becoming a cliche, but it denies woman the ability to be portrayed in a more realistic, complex way. Carina Chocano has criticized these characters for the implications that women in stories aren't interesting or worth identifying with if they aren't strong. She also mentions how the Strong Female Characters trope are often cold, flawless, and masculine. Other writers like Alexandria Gonzales, have mentioned that focusing so much on strength and power, it leaves many other types of women and female empowerment underrepresented.
In my own view, the overemphasis on strength and power present in these tropes creates an unrealistic standard and expectation on women. That they must become these flawless paragons of strength or else they've fallen short of being a great woman. The distinct lack of flaws in many of these characters also creates this issue, as people are inherently flawed. Not only does it make the character less engaging to watch, given that they have very little struggle or challenges to overcome, but it places expectations unrealistically high for many women, since if they have any flaws or blemishes, they can't be a strong woman. Finally, as Gonzales pointed out, the focus on strength over everything else is more detrimental as it ignores other great characteristics of women.
Take the two iterations of Disney's Mulan as a prime example of this. In the animated classic, Mulan isn't as physically powerful as the other male soldiers, but it's not her strength that saves the day. It's her ingenuity, her cleverness, and her smarts that ends up saving China. This sends the message that you don't need strength to save the day, you just need to utilize your strengths to their full advantage to make a difference. By comparison, the live-action movie removes this flaw by giving Mulan an abundance of Qi, making her inherently more powerful than anyone else in the army, and she ends up saving the day through her strength instead of her wits. It's not only inherently less interesting since she barely struggles through the movie, but also detrimental, as it implies the opposite message. That you need to be stronger than everyone else to make a difference.
Do you think that the Strong Female Character trope is hindering feminism? Or do you think the criticisms are overblown? Are there examples of this trope that you think work well?
One thing I kept thinking as I read this post is how we tend to label female leads as "strong female characters," yet we do not label male characters the same way. We don't say that Batman is a "strong" male character, we simply refer to him as the lead or as Batman. It's like we have to differentiate weak female characters from the strong ones but males have the advantage of everyone already assuming they are strong. I think that is hindering feminism in and of itself. I do think that the trope pertaining to how female characters are portrayed to be viewed as strong, can be valuable, but what about other women who are strong in their own way that doesn't fit the strong male framework? Think about Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: is she considered strong? Is she breaking stereotypes of blonde females? Does she fit the aforementioned mold? Perhaps not, yet the movie does resist the dominant ideology.
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