Women are not considered to be the default in the media.
In movies, books, tv shows, video games and even toys, a woman’s gender is a novelty. It’s something creators can use to pat themselves on the back for being “good feminists” and to market to young girls. It’s something to wrap in pink packaging and ship off to a generation of impressionable children.
In the media, women aren’t allowed to simply exist — they have to be perfect. A woman’s makeup is flawless as she fights for her life; her movements are graceful, her face never twisted into something unattractive to her male audience.
This is shown through Natasha Romanoff from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jane Smith from “Mr. And Mrs. Smith” and Storm from “X-Men.” They all fight their villains and the surface-level sexism while looking perfect.
The problem is not just in male-focused action movies, either. Sitcoms surrounding the “nuclear family” almost always feature a goofy dad and his buzzkill of a wife. She practically parents him and the kids, and is made out to be a villain for it. Claire Dunphey from “Modern Family” displays this trope, as does Marge Simpson and Lois Griffin, even though they don’t come from sitcoms.
Aside from specific genres, there is an overarching view that femininity is bad — something to be hated. In romantic comedies, there is the dress wearing, smiley, manipulative girlfriend of the male lead. In Young Adult books, targeted toward girls, the main character has a hatred of dresses. Women of color are casted as the sassy best friend, and plus-sized women are always the funny ones. They are used simply as plot devices, something to move the story along, or they die and give the male main character a traumatic backstory with the dead wife trope.
There are a few movies that have well-done female characters. “Wicked” gives both female leads well-developed personalities. “Hidden Figures” portrays its female leads as smart, capable people while also going deeper than the surface-level feminism other pieces try to shoehorn in. There are well-written female characters, but they are not the norm. Both “Wicked” and “Hidden Figures” were well-received, showing that good representation and good critical reception are not mutually exclusive.
It shouldn’t be a novelty that a character is a woman. It shouldn’t be something she has to overcome to be on the same level as a man. It is crucial that there is positive representation of women in the media; reinforcement of negative views of women through media is actively harmful to everyone.
