MLP:FiM is probably a good available example of the reverse phenomenon. [...] I suggest male readers ruminate on this aspect of the show until it seems a bit disturbing
I’m afraid I easily skipped my chance to be disturbed by this, with any amount of rumination.
When I watched several episodes, I noticed that the overwhelming majority of characters are female, which seemed strange. Then I got interested enough to read some interviews with Lauren Faust and found how she grew up with three brothers and no sisters and had to watch boys’ shows which were mostly about boys. Then I remembered some shows which are full of boys, realized that I took that for granted and understood that making a good show for girls about girls, for a change, makes sense and it didn’t bother me anymore.
What bothers me a bit is the recognition of the fact that I couldn’t accept how some of the cast are actually female. “Wait, so Applejack is a girl? And Rainbow Dash? And Scootaloo? I can’t believe it. Does it make me a male chauvinist?” Of course, I want to count myself as a male chauvinist no more than the other guy, so my unability to accept the whole spectrum of female gender roles that Lauren Faust presents us in the show bothers me. Of course, I deeply respect her for being able to think up and defend such diverse female role models for a girls’ show that I still have trouble accepting.
Of course, I deeply respect her for being able to think up and defend such diverse female role models for a girls’ show that I still have trouble accepting.
Not sure whether we think about the same thing, but to me it seems that inventing many diverse female characters is actually very easy, under one condition… you don’t fill all the roles with male characters first.
As an example, imagine that a male author is going to write a story or a movie with the typical fantasy settings. First step, he designs a party, and his planning might go like this:
“So, we need a warrior guy, a strong one with a hammer or an axe. But we could also have one guy shooting arrows; let’s make him an elf. And of course a wizard, a guy who will shoot fireballs at enemies. That’s it, basicly. Oops… I guess I should add some women too. So, there will also be a woman. No, that’s not enough. Let’s have two women; let’s call them Woman#1 and Woman#2. Now I wish I could find some meaningful way to make them differ from each other...”
The problem is not that there is not enough place in fantasy setting to have two different female characters. The problem is that the author already assigned the male gender to all the archetypes he knew, and then there was no archetype left for women. The outcome would be completely different if the author started like this:
“So, we will have a strong warrior girl, with a hammer or an axe. Also a girl shooting arrows; let’s make her an elf. And of course also a wizard girl who will shoot fireballs at enemies.”
This is exactly the same shallow character party design algorithm as in the previous example… but suddenly, it has enough space for different female characters. (A better author would certainly invent better characters than this, but the idea is that you can think about N meaningful characters, and then it is your choice whether you make them male or female.)
A better author would certainly invent better characters than this, but the idea is that you can think about N meaningful characters, and then it is your choice whether you make them male or female.
Reframing your post: “male” is so overwhelmingly default of a choice that people have to make conscious effort to remember that there is a choice, and choose otherwise. “Unless otherwise specified, an agent is a gender-normative male” seems to be a cognitive bias, but possibly a bias that we inherit from culture instead of from biological instinct.
I’m afraid I easily skipped my chance to be disturbed by this, with any amount of rumination.
When I watched several episodes, I noticed that the overwhelming majority of characters are female, which seemed strange. Then I got interested enough to read some interviews with Lauren Faust and found how she grew up with three brothers and no sisters and had to watch boys’ shows which were mostly about boys. Then I remembered some shows which are full of boys, realized that I took that for granted and understood that making a good show for girls about girls, for a change, makes sense and it didn’t bother me anymore.
What bothers me a bit is the recognition of the fact that I couldn’t accept how some of the cast are actually female. “Wait, so Applejack is a girl? And Rainbow Dash? And Scootaloo? I can’t believe it. Does it make me a male chauvinist?” Of course, I want to count myself as a male chauvinist no more than the other guy, so my unability to accept the whole spectrum of female gender roles that Lauren Faust presents us in the show bothers me. Of course, I deeply respect her for being able to think up and defend such diverse female role models for a girls’ show that I still have trouble accepting.
Not sure whether we think about the same thing, but to me it seems that inventing many diverse female characters is actually very easy, under one condition… you don’t fill all the roles with male characters first.
As an example, imagine that a male author is going to write a story or a movie with the typical fantasy settings. First step, he designs a party, and his planning might go like this:
“So, we need a warrior guy, a strong one with a hammer or an axe. But we could also have one guy shooting arrows; let’s make him an elf. And of course a wizard, a guy who will shoot fireballs at enemies. That’s it, basicly. Oops… I guess I should add some women too. So, there will also be a woman. No, that’s not enough. Let’s have two women; let’s call them Woman#1 and Woman#2. Now I wish I could find some meaningful way to make them differ from each other...”
The problem is not that there is not enough place in fantasy setting to have two different female characters. The problem is that the author already assigned the male gender to all the archetypes he knew, and then there was no archetype left for women. The outcome would be completely different if the author started like this:
“So, we will have a strong warrior girl, with a hammer or an axe. Also a girl shooting arrows; let’s make her an elf. And of course also a wizard girl who will shoot fireballs at enemies.”
This is exactly the same shallow character party design algorithm as in the previous example… but suddenly, it has enough space for different female characters. (A better author would certainly invent better characters than this, but the idea is that you can think about N meaningful characters, and then it is your choice whether you make them male or female.)
Reframing your post: “male” is so overwhelmingly default of a choice that people have to make conscious effort to remember that there is a choice, and choose otherwise. “Unless otherwise specified, an agent is a gender-normative male” seems to be a cognitive bias, but possibly a bias that we inherit from culture instead of from biological instinct.