SciFi4Chicks: Can Heroines Be Delicate AND Rough?
Women. They can be kind, caring, beautiful, sexy. They can be damaged, ruined, dirty, tragic. But which is the hero?
Director James Cameron claims that Wonder Woman is a step back in comparison to Sarah Conner, that a woman needs to be damaged to be strong. Is he right?
How about William Golding’s classic novel, Lord of the Flies which is going to have its third film adaptation….with girls.
Yup, girls.
Has Hollywood become so desperate for projects that they feel they need to take a book about male aggression and attempt to say girls are the same? Why did Golding write about boys and not girls? Can strong women be equal to strong men? And are girls equally savage as boys?
What do the Chicks think? Well, you’ll have to listen to find out.
The Panel: Mindy Inlow, Ann Laabs, Jen Wise, and Sonya Rodriguez
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There are two questions here.
First, Cameron is an idiot. A woman doesn’t have to be damaged (or suppress her emotional reactions to things) in order to be strong, to be tough, or to deal with a massive threat. Sometimes our emotions make us stronger.
As to Lord of the Flies….it’s been a very long time since I read the book. I think Goldman was trying to say something about the general human condition in terms of politics and who’s in charge — and certainly in the time frame, it was men (which those boys would become) who were running things. A group of girls wouldn’t have suited what he was trying to do.
Are boys and girls (men and women) different? From experience as a child and as a parent, not from any scientific study, I’ve found both girls and boys to be savages. Boys tend to be more physical with their attacks, girls tend to be more vicious socially, with words.
If I wanted to explore the idea of what happens when a group of girls (rather than boys) are left with no guidance, I’d probably write my own story. Taking Goldman’s tale and swapping out boys for girls seems like you’re not actually exploring how GIRLS would behave…unless you’re making a lot of changes in the story, in which case, why not write you own? Name recognition of the novel isn’t going to help you that much.
My two cents, anyway.
Mother of the future.
I think Cameron misses the point of Diana: One can make an argument that in the origins film we’re seeing Diana as a much younger, more idealistic character than the older Diana who opens and closes the movie. In fact I would say that Diana’s optimism and moral clarity, her expectation of equal standing is part of her appeal. She shines out undimmed in a gray, jaded, war-worn setting. As is appropriate for a goddess. It will be interesting to see how Gadot plays the older Diana in the upcoming Justice League film.
Viz Ripley – Ripley was originally written as a male character – Ridley Scott made the decision to switch Ripley from the standard male action hero to a heroine. I saw Alien when it came out in theaters, and I can report that there was absolutely no fuss and bother over it. In fact around that time Tom Baker was coming to the end of his run as Dr. Who and (after the female Time Lord, Romana had been introduced) there was a lot of speculation that Tom Baker’s replacement was going to be a woman. We all thought that was pretty cool at the time. Of course, back Dr. Who had very limited exposure in the US.
Lord of the Flies: Usually anyone throwing out the ‘boys are wired differently than girls’ argument is in for an argument. So I was surprised to hear it pass without question in this context. What does this mean outside of the context of this particular story? Can we say ‘girls don’t act that way’ when we don’t like the negative turn of one story, but turn around and say ‘girls are only socialized not to act that way’ if the more boyish behavior results in turn of story we like?
Badass: It’s doubtless fun and makes a lot of readers and writers happy. However, I agree that the trope has become overused. It’s become so obligatory in genre fiction and media that I’ve developed several drinking games based on it.