Why are strong female characters so rare?

Why are strong female characters so rare?

art reflects reality

Because it's easier to come up with an image of a strong female character first and then write a story about it than it is to create a world and situation first that naturally lends itself to a strong female character. The latter is usually much more interesting and compelling though

oh shit women on suicide watch

No female audience wants a strong woman character. Female audiences want to see a female protagonist:
1 - whine, but everyone agrees with her.
2 - get a hot guy to do everything for her, but she gets the credit.
3 - suffer. Women like nothing better than seeing a different woman suffer. There is more information about female sexuality in the opening sequence of "Jaws" than in the entirety of the "Sex And The City" franchise.

Usually written by a man whose idea of a "badass" or strong woman is to simply have them act "like one of the boys". I think my biggest peeves with flicks is when the "strong female character" is introduced and she's just instantly an asshole or sassy in a shitty way to make her seem tough and often ends up being incredibly unlikeable at first

what doesn't help is the actresses often seem to not get much direction with their character apart from "you are tough". some flicks do really well though, Emily Blunt was convincing in Edge of Tomorrow, same as OPs one

Who are some examples of true strong female characters?

Best strong female character ever has been Xena Warrior Princess.

Sex and the city was originally going to be about gay men, so it's more about how gay men see women.

define "stronk"

Qualities in gay men and shallow women tend to overlap.

Thing is, traditionally feminine "strong" characters aren't what feminists want to see, they are an expression of patriarchy, don't you know.

Bitter virgin detected? Bitter virgin detected.

Cold Mountain is one of the best movies regarding a realistic portrayal of both strong male and female characters...

So Wes Craven type movies are enormously popular with female audiences because of self-hatred, structurally induced, from the Patriarchy? Or because female audiences voluntarily paying money to see slasher stuff honestly enjoy that?
And no author I am familiar with considered deSade to be either bitter or a virgin.

Miranda is pretty much the only character who suffers perpetually, and she brings most of it on herself.

Freddy fucks up more guys than girls....also the girls usually figure out how to beat him.

This. I was really impressed by the Bride in Kill Bill as a truly strong female. Think about her attributes in terms of how an audience of Stacies would see them: covered in dirt, humiliated, endures correction from an unforgiving superior in order to eventually improve herself, bad clothes, comically bad car.

Ohohohoh ackshually you mispelled de Sade per se, factotum.

>Ohohohoh ackshually you mispelled de Sade per se, factotum.

(confused)

I made a point. He/they quibbled. I am calling attention to the pointlessness and quotidian irrelevance of his quibble. Argument vs sophistry. He's calling me a rapist, I'm calling him sophomoric. Rapists have more fun.

>bitter virgin detected
More like no argument detected

haha arguments with holes XD

>tfw you'll never lick her hairy pits and suckle on her tiny floppy titties

I don'know...I had a lot of fun as a sophomore.

The only way it can work is if the female is "protecting their young". In which case, anything goes.

A taken style movie with Gina Carano as the main female role is believable to me.

Liiiiiiiike clockwork.

Fuck off neckbeards

>short hair
>punk outfit
>1337 hacker
>cute and badass at same time
Literally perfect.

Hollywood can't show women as strong mothers, so that idea is out.

There are lots of strong female characters. It's just that they're usually villains.

And there's some unwritten rule that they have to die humiliating deaths.

kek what an insecure thread

Oh no I have to leave now because Eleanor Fribbitt said so.

To summarize and reiterate, explain the proffered entertainment product in terms of the limitations of the audience and then the limitations of the producer.
Who is the guaranteed blockbusting audience for a truly strong female character?

Ellen Ripley from Alien and especially Aliens.

In Alien, she was the Final Girl. Sigourney Weaver was a theater actress and a virtual unknown in 1979. The marketing focused more on Tom Skeritt and even John Hurt since they were well-known actors at that point.

She wasn't this badass strong womyn in Alien, but a realistic person who was scared shitless. Despite the Xeno killing the rest of her crew, Ripley was clear-headed enough to blow the Alien out of the airlock, shoot it with the grappling gun because it wasn't going to let go, and activated the shuttle rockets to kill it.

In Aliens, she has massive PTSD, but her maternal instincts takeover when she encounters Newt. Her showdown with the Queen was 2 mama bears going at it; this is why Ripley was able to blow up the main nest and do a throwdown in that powerloader. Ripley's daughter died of old age (remember Ripley was in suspended animation for 55 years) and Newt was her surrogate. She grew a massive pair because she had someone to protect this time.

In fact, the same evolution happens to Sarah Connor in The Terminator and T2. Sarah was an ordinary woman whose life got fucked over by the T-800 tried to assassinate her. She was close to death's door, but like Ripley in Alien, she turned the tables on her attacker. In T2, Connor became more hardcore because she had her son to think about and how she had to make him strong so that humanity could have a future.