Uninteresting female characters

I never read comic books, and I’ve learned to avoid superhero movies. I watched them with my kids, but I think superhero movies are stupid and I don’t enjoy them.

As a consequence, I know very little about any of the characters, which “universe” they’re in, etc. It’s not that I’m against pretend worlds. I like Tolkien. I like Dune. I just find superhero stuff over the top in too many ways, and underwhelming in too many other ways.

So I don’t give a rat’s fleas about She-Hulk, or any of that stuff, but one comment about that show (from this page) caught my eye.

Writing female Heroes as smug and sarcastic isn’t ever going to work well. It’s like writers these days only have one default personality they go to when making “strong” female characters. Masculine and smug.

That rings true.

There are all kinds of male heroes, with different temperaments, personalities, and quirks. But female heroes seem to fall into a very narrow zone. They have a chip on their shoulder. They’re snarky. They’re angry. And it’s all the fault of men.

Okay, fine. Do that character every once in a while. But for the sake of (the most holy and honorable) Diversity (praise be its coming and going), why not try something different? How about a female hero who’s grateful? Full of thanks. Pious.

How about one who doubts herself — not because she’s a woman, but for some other reason?

Or how about this? Rather than finding some male hero and making a female version of him, make an authentically female hero, who isn’t a copy of anybody.

There are probably some examples of each of these things. But not nearly enough. We usually get one, very narrow and predictable female character.

It’s boring.