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reenkaThe thing I couldn't quite articulate yesterday when talking about the lack of badass-yet-flawed women characters (like Faith) is what I meant by them being 'romantic'. I thought about what it is that Faith (and Catwoman, etc) has and characters like Buffy or Arya don't, quite, and what 6th Season!Willow does (somewhat) and I think it's... it's that 'going bad' factor.
This is largely a male-dominated style of 'romanticism' in that the badass hero darkens, becomes not only flawed but tainted, struggling against themselves. Here's this strong character not only challenged but nearly defeated by the inner demons they're struggling against. Their chances of even being anti-heroes successfully (and not just dead or completely lost) are in question; they are on a darker Hero's Journey than a character like Buffy, who is strong and flawed and heavily conflicted but always basically 'in the safe zone'.
I think I totally got distracted talking about Femme Fatales, because the important thing there is the darkness-- though it helps if it's a sexually tinged sort of thing, but that's just natural with a grown female (which is why Arya is out of the running for now). I guess it's the difference between 'flawed' and 'tainted', but it's also important they're conflicted-- lots of tainted/strong villain-type women, I guess, but that's not my thing either, because their types of weakness tends to be too obviously fatal, if that makes sense. Thinking of Drusilla, I guess.
Hm. This is sort of a noir sensibility, but the thing is that in that genre, you mostly have men of that type and Femme Fatale women that are just objects of the male hero's gaze. I also think that noir-style 'dark' women aren't typically fleshed out that much, right. Maybe it's more that if there -are- strong women, they tend to be portrayed positively, even if they're 'flawed'; this is about walking the line between the hardass selfish arrogance and genuine, conflicted attempts at being a decent human being. I'm always a sucker for that story in guys, and it's just delicious when it's (rarely) about girls. *sigh*
This is largely a male-dominated style of 'romanticism' in that the badass hero darkens, becomes not only flawed but tainted, struggling against themselves. Here's this strong character not only challenged but nearly defeated by the inner demons they're struggling against. Their chances of even being anti-heroes successfully (and not just dead or completely lost) are in question; they are on a darker Hero's Journey than a character like Buffy, who is strong and flawed and heavily conflicted but always basically 'in the safe zone'.
I think I totally got distracted talking about Femme Fatales, because the important thing there is the darkness-- though it helps if it's a sexually tinged sort of thing, but that's just natural with a grown female (which is why Arya is out of the running for now). I guess it's the difference between 'flawed' and 'tainted', but it's also important they're conflicted-- lots of tainted/strong villain-type women, I guess, but that's not my thing either, because their types of weakness tends to be too obviously fatal, if that makes sense. Thinking of Drusilla, I guess.
Hm. This is sort of a noir sensibility, but the thing is that in that genre, you mostly have men of that type and Femme Fatale women that are just objects of the male hero's gaze. I also think that noir-style 'dark' women aren't typically fleshed out that much, right. Maybe it's more that if there -are- strong women, they tend to be portrayed positively, even if they're 'flawed'; this is about walking the line between the hardass selfish arrogance and genuine, conflicted attempts at being a decent human being. I'm always a sucker for that story in guys, and it's just delicious when it's (rarely) about girls. *sigh*
