I’ve been working on putting my criteria for good women characters into a simple outline, and it occurs to me this might make an interesting discussion. What do you look for in a good character? What questions do you ask yourself to make sure you’re not just having a kneejerk reaction? Some of what I look for in a character would be:
(1) The character is consistent, and when she does behave in an unexpected way, the writers at least make some attempt to explain it in the script.
(2) If the character fits any stereotypes, this too is explained by the writers.
(3) Behavior that would create serious problems for a real-life woman is not treated as perfectly ordinary.
There are also some questions I ask myself once I think I’ve decided the character is good or bad, to make sure I’ve got perspective:
(1) Would I feel the same way if a male character did the same thing? This is tricky, though – it doesn’t apply in situations where female stereotypes are being touched. For example, a white male character sulking like a teenage girl does not send the same message as when a female character does it.
(2) Are the male characters written any better than she is? This, also, doesn’t always matter. For every white male character who falls into stereotypes from hell, there are quite a few who don’t. For every female character who’s stereotyped, there are… well, very few others to choose from.
What do you look for when you’re evaluating a character, or in particular, a female one?
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Excellent points, both! Pointless mouthiness is a mockery of saying what needs to be said – a noble effort many writers leave exclusively to the men. Pointless recklessness is a farce of bravery, which is also frequently left to the men.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Don’t make a woman a victim of her own power.
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
Once again, late to the game.
First I should mention that I assume we’re talking about “Head Six”, the one who interacts with Baltar.
I tend to think of flipping a character’s gender as making no changes other than pronouns. If you did that with Six, but didn’t flip Baltar’s gender, it would probably work fine. But if you changed both character’s genders I think there would be problems. Mainly because flipping Baltar’s character is problematic. Baltar is weak, egotistical, and cowardly. Write a male like that and it doesn’t send a particular message because it’s so easy to find examples of strong, humble, brave males. Writing a female like that? Well, BSG might have been able to get away with it, but I think they would have taken some flak at least.
But it seems to me that making Six “a female fantasy of a man – attending to her every wish, sensitive yet strong, etc,” involves some fundamental changes to the character, so to my mind we’re not talking about a simple gender flip.
Keith(Quote) (Reply)
Yes, flipping Baltar’s gender would require some minor tweaking – she’d need to be one of several other (male) archetypes:
–The headstrong scientist who refuses to hear that her work is evil
–Too power-hungry to consider ethical ramifications or whether Six is really her ally
–There are probably others, but that’s all that came off the top of my head.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
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