[unfiltered] Women in Urban Fantasy and Mistreatment Thereof

[elialshadowpine]

I love urban fantasy. I have for years. I started out with Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde series, then discovered Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books, and longed for more. For a long while, it just didn't exist. Annnnnd then it boomed.

Unfortunately, there's a pattern in urban fantasy that I have a huge problem with and has been turning me off the genre more and more. And that's the treatment of women in urban fantasy. You would think this wouldn't be an issue. After all, most urban fantasy these days features a tough, competent, kickass heroine. What could go wrong? Well, a lot of things.

Most prevalent is the overwhelming tendency to completely defang women. Hear me out. Most modern urban fantasy has a heavy romantic subplot and borrows heavily from romance tropes. Being a writer myself, I follow a lot of writing circles, and I can't tell you how many times I have heard someone say, "I have this awesome heroine, but she's so capable, she does everything! And I need to make the hero sexy! And nobody will find the hero sexy if the heroine can do better than him!"

Ignoring the obvious solution of having the hero and heroine have completely different and complementary strengths, far too many writers go for the TSTL solution. If I had a penny for every time I saw a heroine do something completely out of character... *sigh*

Like, oh, storming off for no good reason and doing something utterly stupid that nobody competent in their field would do. Usually because, well, the hero suggested it, and thus he must be wrong. And if there was a good reason for the heroine to disagree, great! But that's often not it at all. It's a matter of cutting off her nose to spite her face. It's a plot device to put the heroine in a position where the hero has to come to the rescue and save her from her own stupidity -- and frankly, this is just insulting. And it's common. Ridiculously common. And it's lazy writing.

It's one thing if, hey, the heroine runs into odds that she can't beat, or an enemy that's stronger than her, or gets outwitted by someone equally as capable. But that's not what's happening. These are situations the author is forcing the heroine into by making her act out of character for the purpose of giving the hero a moment to shine. Why not put the characters in situations where both their skills are needed? But, that wouldn't allow the heroine to be the damsel in distress, now would it?

One of the other major issues in urban fantasy in regards to women is how the heroines relate to other women. In a genre that is so focused on strong female characters, it is pretty shocking how few heroines actually have relationships with other women. Often, other women are not friends and allies, but the enemy. Often, the heroine looks down on other women. And you see the same trope over and over again -- the leather-clad dark and tortured gun-toting heroine whose strength is all physical or perhaps supernatural.

This is really just the whole "girl in the boy's club" thing rearing its head. Femininity is derided while masculinity is put on a pedestal. Rarely do we see women who enjoy feminine things, and when we do, it's usually a slight touch rather than an integral part of the character. Even Anita Blake, with her stuffed penguin collection, dismisses and derides other women. It's been a long time since I read the books, admittedly, and I haven't read the recent ones, but of the early series, all the characters that I recall her being close to were male.

(Mind, the problem is not that masculine-leaning heroines exist. The problem is that they are the sole archetype that we see commonly in urban fantasy heroines.[1])

Very few urban fantasies actually pass the Bechdel test (two women, who talk to each other, about something other than a man). For a genre that is supposedly woman-focused, that's just sad. Where are all the relationships between women? Most of us have friends who are women, mothers, sisters, aunts, etc. Where are they?

So what's the solution here? It comes down to writers being aware of the social implications their fiction will have. Because words have meanings, and stories have power. If they didn't have power, Piers Anthony's Mode books wouldn't have helped me when I was a suicidal teen, and Mercedes Lackey's books wouldn't have helped me come to terms with my bisexuality.

When even supposedly strong heroines are undermined at every turn and cannot succeed without the aid of a man, the underlying message is that of Well, if $awesomecharacter can't do it, why should I believe I can? Women are already at a disadvantage in society, with all the negative messages lobbed at us. We should be able to read fiction that empowers us, not reinforces that we are nothing without a man.

I am not saying that heroines should be all-powerful, because that would be boring. But if you're writing about a top-notch FBI agent, you don't have her forget basic gun safety. You don't have her barging into trouble without thinking about it. You don't have her so distracted by the hero's good looks that she misses the villain's move and gets trapped (and yes, I have read this). It sends a very negative message.

So how do you get around it when you need the heroine to screw up somewhere? Well, make it a believable screw-up, not something that a rookie would do (unless your character is a rookie, but most of the heroines I've seen in urban fantasy are purported to be some of the best at what they do). Or, hey, maybe she doesn't have all the information, makes a decision on what she knows, and then finds out that she was missing a vital piece of the puzzle.

But you know what I'd love to see more of? I'd love to see more heroines who get themselves out of that pickle, rather than heroines who have to be rescued by the hero. But, how do I manage an alpha hero and heroine and their power struggle without having one or the other knuckle under? Not everything has to be a power struggle, although they can be fun to write. The best alpha heroes I've read have been adept in their own field but respected the heroine in hers and listened to her opinions. But what if they're both experts in the same field? Well, hey, they're probably going to argue -- but the automatic reaction shouldn't be for the heroine to be the one who's wrong. Mix it up a little. Or hey! Maybe they're both wrong.

There's a lot of focus on alpha heroes in urban fantasy and a need to make them sexy. You know what? The sexiest heroes I've read aren't the ones who are always rescuing the artificially created dumbass heroine -- they're the ones who respect the heroine, her abilities, her strengths, and love her for who she is. The ones who aren't threatened by a strong woman. The ones who know when it's appropriate to take a backseat. The ones who know when it's time to stand their ground, and when it's time to say, "Hey, you know more about this than I do", or "I don't agree, but let's compromise." It's not an all or nothing situation.

I'd love to see more women who have relationships with other women, too. I'd also like to see a greater breadth of heroines -- heroines of color, heroines with disabilities, queer heroines, etc! Or hey, maybe not the heroine but a lady friend who is one of the above, or someone deeply involved in the story. I'd love to see more focus on this, because the lone uber!heroine surrounded by a sausage-fest is getting old.

This is something that writers have the power to change. Let's change it.


[1] I know there are exceptions to this. Please do not focus on them. This is a widespread issue, and the fact that there are exceptions does not negate that the overwhelming majority of urban fantasy heroines fits only one archetype.

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Comments

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

Yes. She's competent but she's not without flaws -- and that's the important thing right there. It's like they draw these characters that are so badass and competent that they can't think of how their villains could possibly beat her -- or how the hero could look sexy if he's not "better than her" -- and instead of giving her actual flaws (oh and hear this urban fantasy writers? Being a "little bit round" is not a flaw ffs. Flaws are part of your personality, not your body), they make her act entirely out of character -- and hey! villain gets to be awesome, and the hero gets to be all sexy and save the day! All good right?"

.... yeah, no.

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

Exactly this :)

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

Aw, you're welcome :)

Part of my hope -- and why I also posted this on my professional website and linked it to one of my main writing communities -- is that fellow writers may find this and think about these things more. Because really, living in this society, it is all too easy for us to fall back on old standards. I mean, I've been writing for YEARS and it took me until last year to realize that NO, I don't have to write about men if I don't want to. That if I want, I can write most of the main cast as women. And I bloody might well do that.

I hope writer-type-folk read this, and think about it, and start making changes in their own way. Because really, as writers, we're encouraged not to write about women. And if we must, they must be the Right women, the warrior woman, the woman who has carved out her place in a circle of men, with no other women there for her. Like there's some kind of limit on how many women you can have in a book. It's screwed up. And I hope people realise that and start to write stories where women and the friendships and relationships between them are deep and complex and important. I would love to read more books like these. :)

[nicosian.livejournal.com]

Chiming late..
but I think the final draft finished of the novel i did finally write, ( nonny, you met the characters ages ago!) I did nail the balance between characters.

The women aren't helpless sods, they take charge of their own situation, and in more than a few spots, they're the alpha of the guys around them. Of course it varies by scene, but they stand out as strong, competent, non-"save me obi wan!" sorts.

The guys aren't all "rawr alpha save the lass".

There's balance, and I'm pretty darn happy with it. There's shifting relationships, and character growth and sex isn't a "tool" to win prizes but more of a 'human experience", take note, Ms Blake!

But I've largely stayed away from urban fantasy since it's just so hit and miss and when my reading time is at a near non existence, well..yeah.

I could do better on the non-caucasian front but I'm frankly terrified I'll biff it up.

[munin.livejournal.com]

Followed you over here from seanan_mcguire's post too. That post is going to be a horrible horrible thing for my TBR pile. I'm going to need to buy an eBook reader just so I can keep my piles to a manageable level!

I've added the first in just about every series you've mentioned except the PsyChangeling series but with all the comments previous to mine mentioning how much they loved them I think I'm going to have to reconsider them and at least try the first one. More books. Oh noes!

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

If you're not certain about the PsyChangeling series, I would suggest looking into the Burning Up anthology, which has a novella in the setting by Nalini Singh that stands alone, and it has 3 other novellas that are also quite good... including one in Meljean Brook's steampunk setting :)

[kyra-neko-rei.livejournal.com]

Followed you over from naamah_darling, where I loved what you had to say and tried several times to come up with a good response but nothing sounded right.

One of the tricks I've seen to get the heroine to screw up is to have her do things that would be the right thing in any other situation, especially if it's a strongly in-character thing for her to do. Bonus points if the situation is confusing and tricky such that nobody really knows the right way to do it, or when there are multiple issues in play where following one's priorities to success with one issue could wind up blowing another one. It helps if the same tendency that leads her to be wrong sometimes also leads her to be right sometimes.

One of my favorites, the Cast series by Michelle Sagara, does this quite a lot with its heroine, Kaylin. At one point her boss is imprisoned for murder and tells her to leave him to it, but because she cares for him* (and quite justifiably hates his replacement), she digs for the evidence that he was set up, and winds up putting one of his wives and their daughters in the danger that he'd tried to keep them safe from by letting it seem that he'd committed murder. And then she fights with the same determination, intelligence, and drive to fix it.

*not romantically, but a close friendship with a strong hint of parent/grown child relationship, which is in character for someone who has come in at age thirteen and made a home and family of her workplace and coworkers. (This is, incidentally, the opposite of the vampire-banging drum kit lady mentioned above---she has two potential love interests which are much more to her, in various directions, long before anything of the sort is mentioned; it takes seven books (perhaps as many months in-story) before she and the guy she trusts have a talk about it and the guy she doesn't trust hints at it in book three and book six (after disdaining rape as beneath him in book one when she was outright afraid of him). And it works, it suits the character---she's not getting laid right now and that's fine.)

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

The very latest Anita Blake actually has some character development -- and thought / worry about relationships, instead of about how having more than one makes her look. Still no real female characters, but it's something. Yes, I was shocked.

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the "soft" option of running away, getting shot and turned into a tree, because that's kinder.

[everstar3.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, when a situation becomes unbearable, your only choice is to leaf.

(I'm so sorry, but I couldn't resist.)