A writer can make a lot of mistakes when writing. It's really easy to do, considering that writing only what you know usually results in a pretty dull story. So we branch out. We write about things we don't fully understand and in our efforts to understand, we'll screw something up.
As a writer of fantasy and science fiction, I get a pass on a lot of those things. Because I'm building my own world, it's much easier to design it around lives that I can understand. But there are still plenty of opportunities for screwing up, and perhaps one of the biggest you'll see out there is gender.
As a male writer who has grown up and been influenced by predominantly male writers, it can be really hard to write female characters who do not subscribe to a generic female stereotype. That form of lazy writing is all around us, and from TV to books to Hollywood, it's a massive influence on the fiction that is created in our society. That's why it's so important, for me at least, to identify the characters and the people around me that I can use as a counterpoint to all of the stereotypes.
And of all of those examples, I think that Leia is the first I recognized.
The character of Leia wasn't perfect, and at times you could see where the traditional male-dominated industry wanted to take over (metal bikini, anyone?). But in the hands of Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia was never a stereotype. She was a princess, a beautiful woman with awesome hair, and pretty much the first thing we saw her do was shoot a guy.
Through the original Star Wars trilogy we see her directing troops, planning strategy, fighting, scheming, counseling, and comforting. She's a good friend, a good leader, and a stone cold bad-a. She's never a damsel in distress, even when she's being rescued from prison (twice), and she's never out of control. But she's also a person with feelings, with friends, who can be tender when it's appropriate in between shooting stormtroopers while Luke fumbles around with a wire.
You can keep your John Mclanes and your James Bonds. I've got Princess Leia.
From a very early age it was always clear to me that everyone could do anything according to their abilities, and gender had nothing to do with it. And a huge part of that understanding, I think, came directly from watching Princess Leia save the galaxy, right there between a wookie and a droid.
Wait, who did you think the main characters of that series were?
So I'm going to miss Carrie Fisher. I was looking forward to her reprising that role again for years to come. But she leaves behind her influence in the form of one of the biggest pop-culture phenomenons of all time. She leaves behind an amazing image of strength and humanity for idiots like me to aspire to.
So thanks, Carrie. Thanks for making the world better.
As a writer of fantasy and science fiction, I get a pass on a lot of those things. Because I'm building my own world, it's much easier to design it around lives that I can understand. But there are still plenty of opportunities for screwing up, and perhaps one of the biggest you'll see out there is gender.
As a male writer who has grown up and been influenced by predominantly male writers, it can be really hard to write female characters who do not subscribe to a generic female stereotype. That form of lazy writing is all around us, and from TV to books to Hollywood, it's a massive influence on the fiction that is created in our society. That's why it's so important, for me at least, to identify the characters and the people around me that I can use as a counterpoint to all of the stereotypes.
And of all of those examples, I think that Leia is the first I recognized.
The character of Leia wasn't perfect, and at times you could see where the traditional male-dominated industry wanted to take over (metal bikini, anyone?). But in the hands of Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia was never a stereotype. She was a princess, a beautiful woman with awesome hair, and pretty much the first thing we saw her do was shoot a guy.
Through the original Star Wars trilogy we see her directing troops, planning strategy, fighting, scheming, counseling, and comforting. She's a good friend, a good leader, and a stone cold bad-a. She's never a damsel in distress, even when she's being rescued from prison (twice), and she's never out of control. But she's also a person with feelings, with friends, who can be tender when it's appropriate in between shooting stormtroopers while Luke fumbles around with a wire.
You can keep your John Mclanes and your James Bonds. I've got Princess Leia.
From a very early age it was always clear to me that everyone could do anything according to their abilities, and gender had nothing to do with it. And a huge part of that understanding, I think, came directly from watching Princess Leia save the galaxy, right there between a wookie and a droid.
Wait, who did you think the main characters of that series were?
So I'm going to miss Carrie Fisher. I was looking forward to her reprising that role again for years to come. But she leaves behind her influence in the form of one of the biggest pop-culture phenomenons of all time. She leaves behind an amazing image of strength and humanity for idiots like me to aspire to.
So thanks, Carrie. Thanks for making the world better.
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