Why Modern Movies Suck - The Strong Female Character

FYI - Experienced an editing glitch that caused the video to freeze half way through. Sorry about that, but its fixed now so enjoy the vid!

People don't dislike female characters. They dislike poorly written characters.

Write female characters
Not female characters.

Sarah Connor is a very good example which I never realized about. The writers never tried to overpower her from other men, she ran and escaped where she had to. She planned things out with her team. The writers never forcefully tried to show us that she's "equal" and as strong as the terminator.

Im from Sri Lanka, and I think my mom was a strong female character. She did not fight an army or defeat a super villain nor had super powers. But she raised me alone amidst all the hardships the society threw at her. Now she inspires me. Not all powerful Captain America. 😢

Don’t forget the first ever female character to be strong:

Jennifer Lawrence

Traits like arrogance, self-entitlement, know it all, stoic, bluntness, rudeness, ruthlessness, confidence, self-respect, and aggressiveness

For males, they’re flaws

But for females, they’re “strengths”.

Double standards

Eowyn vs the Witch King is how its done. Perfect example. I even smiled when she took off her helmet and said, "I am no man." And fucked him up. That wasn't insulting at all. She stood her ground, faced absolute death and won. Thats worthy of a standing applause in itself.

I think Over-confidence looks gross on both men and women. No balance.

Also, can we just talk about how Disney felt the need to elevate already strong female characters into "even stronger" by basically making their whole personality "badass female character"?

For example, Belle was already a well written character, a girl who is nerdy and quiet but also knows where to stand up for herself or the people she cares about (rejecting Gaston directly, yelling at the Beast and refusing to join him for dinner, showing no qualms about walking away from him when he tried to scare her, scolding him later for not controlling his temper). But the live action? Belle is not strong enough, she needs an occupation to be a good character, so she is the scientist now. They also shoved in a few sexist comments that were too on the nose and cringy, to say the least.

Jasmine? OG Jasmine was already strong. Again, she knew when to speak for herself and exactly what she wanted. She knew her own worth and she wanted a suitor who would accept her as a person, rather than for her title. But in the live action, Jasmine needs an ambition. She wants to be the sultan. And she positively insults all men (unlike in the animated version, where she only insults the over the top haughty princes) and has an entire song that talks about not allowing herself to be silenced when there were no instances of anyone trying to silence her. Again, "strong female character".

And quite possibly the most unnecessary change was to Mulan. OG Mulan was arguably the most physically powerful female character but the creators felt the need to change that as well. OG Mulan was a socially awkward girl who cares about her family, and disguises herself as a soldier for selfless reasons. She is not perfect; she has to learn everything from scratch, she fails time and time again while training, she has to work her way to the top. She also used her brains in most of the fights because physical strength in itself isn't enough, and that's what made her stand apart from the others. She got along with the male characters perfectly well, with no need of comparison or proving herself to be better. But the live action version? That Mulan is born with magical chi, she has trained from when she was a child, so she has to face no difficulties when joining the army. The only thing stopping her from proving herself is the society; otherwise, she is perfect. She is far from being a realistic character because young girls would look at her and think, "well, she's strong because she was born with it". Not to mention, the live action Mulan was as boring as a slice of bread. She had no character other than "female warrior", emphasis on the "female".

Basically, physical strength isn't everything. All of the OG princesses were strong in their own ways. Cinderella dealt with abuse and torment for years, but still kept her good morals and kindness. Snow White realized that running away from toxic situations is not cowardly. Tiana wanted to have an occupation to support herself and her mother, and worked hard for it. Ariel wanted to explore a new world that she didn't know, and be part of new experiences.

Also. Romance is not weak. A strong female character can still fall in love. And if they choose to stay single, it should not be because "she's too independent for a partner". You can be in a relationship and still be independent. If the relationship is built on mutual trust and understanding, no one is "too strong" for it. I understand that aroace characters can exist, but their motive for not having a partner should not be "oh, I don't need a man"; it should just be that they're happier with friends or family, and they don't really feel the need to be in a relationship.

Ripley was done perfectly. She was often scared, indecisive, bested in battle, belittled by her male coworkers, and even - gasp - cried now and again. At the same time, she was 100% grade A badass.

I’m glad you included Samantha Carter in your list of real women of strength. She often gets overlooked. I’ve known females in the Stargate fandom who went into a scientific field because of her.

I think it's funny how the one time Disney hired an actress who actually looks like she has a pretty reasonable chance of being able to fuck up an average man in a one-on-one fight (Gina Carano) they went and shit-canned her.

I'm a tall girl, 5'9. I was in a brief relationship with a guy who was shorter, skinnier, and weighed less than me, and he was still significantly stronger than me to the point I knew he could hurt me if he actually tried. Modern movies are ridiculous in their lack of realism.

Mulan is the perfect example of what you are talking about. In the original animated Mulan, she started off as a weak recruit that was trained and hardened into a fighter. She learned to fight using her speed and intelligence, not brute force. In the live action remake, she started off with a special ability that allowed her to quickly excel with little effort. The first one could be seen as inspiration for girls to exceed despite what hinders them. The remake just says, "she exceeded because she had special powers."

Emily Blunt in Edge og Tomorrow is the brilliant way to tell a strong female character, we do not even see a second of what made her a Rey-like but we all learn from watching Tom Cruise go through the exact same over and over, we learn how it's all muscle memory and experience. Seeing women today just reminds me of how ridiculous it was watching Steven Seagal movies, wondering how he could possibly do 99% of the things he did or try to relate to his bland characters.

BEATRIX FUCKING KIDDO - I love her character so much. My favorite part of the film series? Her rigorous training with Pei Mei and how she had to EARN his respect and admiration. The strength he teaches her comes full circle when she has to free herself. It’s chefs kiss perfection

Amazing that in the same breath, they wish to call masculinity "toxic" meanwhile, EVERY positive trait that creates the modern; Strong Female Character™ is masculine!

The irony cannot be lost if you are immune to it.

The best example of this is Mulan. In the animated movie, she constantly struggles during boot camp to the point where others are telling her to quit.

Then comes the giant pole with the arrow on top of it, and no one can get to it. No one! Not even the strongest recruit.

Mulan refuses to give up, and while everyone else is sleeping, she keeps trying her hardest until she reaches the top of that giant pole. When her drill Sergeant comes out in the morning, Mulan throws that arrow at his feet. It was a powerful moment, not just for Mulans character, but for ALL kids regardless of gender.

Jump to the live action movie, and Mulan is so strong from the moment of birth that she literally has to physically hold herself back so as not to easily embarrass everyone around her. Absolutely butchered her character with a straight trash message.

A friend of mine is an actual female writer. When I asked her about her views , she says the issue is agenda. Modern/woke female writers don't want to write female characters as people. They want to write them as agenda driven memes.