Luke Cage: When Representation Isn’t Enough
This show’s true strength is its diverse portrayal of African-American subjectivity and morality, amongst both the male and female characters.
Posts by tag
female characters
26 posts
Fiction’s Rise of Female Friendships
Readers are shifting focus from outdated gender expectations and conceptions of identity, and as a result, complex, non-compartmentalized female friendships are blooming in fiction. Books about these friendships are spaces…
Winning the Game of Thrones Like a Girl
The days of testosterone-fueled warmongering are long past. Instead, at the end of Season 6, the queens reign, stronger than ever.
The Beautiful Dead Girl
It’s in the new black sign arching over the entrance that says, ‘Never stop dreaming.’ A harmless cliché, but once you know the history of the place, it reads like…
Unlikable and Unapologetic
Supposedly “unlikable” female characters are often the most complex, humanly flawed, and interesting ones—yet many readers are perturbed by such representations of women. In an excerpt from her collection The…
This Week in Short Fiction: Goodnight, Beautiful Women by Anna Noyes
[Noyes's] stories are nuanced and unapologetic, revealing the shadow sides of women and girls in all their wild and terrible glory.
The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Louise Erdrich
The esteemed author talks about the themes of justice, atonement, and reparation in her fifteenth novel, LaRose, and about the importance of Planned Parenthood to her success.
The Case for Including More Female Scientists in Literature
If female characters are restricted to the roles of artist, dancer, waitress, or barista, their potential to generate fiction that explores existentially rich and original worlds also seems restricted. In…
Crime Girls
NPR explores whether and how putting “girl” in the title of your crime novel will garner favorable comparisons to heavy-hitters like Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on…
Why Some Voices Are “Stronger” than Others in YA Lit
At the School Library Journal, Kelly Jensen examines gender norms and double standards in YA fiction, questioning which female protagonists we refer to as “strong”—and why do not refer to male…
Let’s Talk About Abortion
Book Riot discusses the lack of female protagonists who’ve had abortions in literature: For millions of women, abortion is not a statistic or a political platitude. Although public discourse around…
On the “Novelty” of Strong Women
For the Guardian, Hannah Ellis-Peterson discusses the success of Jessie Burton’s The Miniaturist. Since its debut this summer, the author’s first novel has received acclaim for its strong female characters. However, Burton…