Don’t be a drag (just be a queen)

by Goldeenin Blog Postson Posted on

Last night I read an article on The Mary Sue that got me surprisingly upset. It inspired this tweet from my alter-ego, Agent Elrond:

Now, if you go read that article you’ll find a thoughtful examination of the fact that women are severely under-represented, not only as heroes, but also as villains in mainstream media.

If you go look at the page I linked from Angeldevil you will see the hero, Shakuro—who happens to be female—engaged in a desperate battle with the ultimate villain, Saula—who also happens to be female.

The thing that annoyed me about the article was not the that it was bringing attention to the under-represenation of female characters—good and bad—but that it didn’t seem to be helping matters. The fact is, I’ve known there’s an imbalance in the male/female ratio on both the hero and villain fronts for years. This article told me nothing I didn’t know already.

This isn’t to say that I don’t think it’s worthwhile to bring attention to these short-comings. As a woman I recognize that I am “downwind” from the stinking heap of gender inequality, and as a result I can smell it from a lot further off than someone who is, say, male. So while the article does nothing for me, it could be helpful to someone from “upwind” of the issue, someone who might not have noticed it otherwise.

But like I said: I’ve known about this for years. And instead of complaining about it, I went and made a story that stood up in all the places mainstream movies and comics fall down in. And then another. And another. And another.

All my stories, to some degree, take what we perceive as gender norms and turn them on their head. I take people who I feel are under-represented and I put them in the spotlight.

And I am not alone.

The 2012 film Dredd (mentioned in the article) features arbitrarily female characters both good and evil (indeed, the main villain is a woman). And for a wonderful array of female characters all across the spectrum, look no farther than anything Hayao Miyazaki has made with Studio Ghibli.

So it annoys me, I guess, when I see someone who is clearly aware of the problem (and I do consider the dearth of female respect and representation as a Problem that Needs to be Solved), sitting back and writing about how “oh, look, we have this problem.”

I know there’s a problem. Now get up and help me fix it. There are two big things you can do to help beyond just spreading the word that there is a problem in the first place.

  1.  If you are a creative person, male or female, be it writing, illustration, song, dance, whatever—incorporate a solution into your art. Don’t perpetuate the problem. Be a part of the solution! Really push your assumptions about what any given character can be. (Does he have to be male? White? Straight? If so, how can you make him different from all the other straight-white-male characters?)
  2. Whether or not you are a creative person, go out and find stories that contribute to the solution. And then tell your friends about the good ones. Don’t stagnate in the established stories that dance around the equality issue (hello, Doctor Who!), broaden your horizons!

Mainstream movies and comics may be the most visible form of storytelling, but they do not make up the majority of all stories out there.

There are big movies out there that mess with the standard gender roles (Terminator 2, Robocop) and there are small, unknown acts of defiance—like my comics Angeldevil and The Iron Wizard. Go out there and find them.

I guess what really annoyed me about that article was not anything it did or said, but the fact that I spent time reading about a problem I already knew existed, when I could have been contributing to its solution.

With that in mind I’ll sign off now and get back to work on the next Professor Odd story.

Goldeen Ogawa wanted to be an actress when she was young. Then she discovered all the good roles were for men. She decided to take a break from acting to write stories with female roles she would like to play. The project is on-going. You can email her at goldeenogawa@gmail.com or peck at her on Twitter @GrimbyTweets.