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“Written By A Man”: Women Are Calling Out 30 Unrealistic Female Character Tropes They See In Books And Movies
The perfect suburban '50s housewife. The wholesome girl next door. And, of course, the bimbo. I think it's safe to say we've seen one too many of these tropes on the big screen.
Interested in finding out which productions have resorted to them (and other similar ones), Reddit user Mikess314 made a post on r/AskWomen, saying: "What movie featuring female characters was clearly made without a single woman being involved?"
Turns out, people think there's no shortage of them. Continue scrolling to check out how everyone responded.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Jurrasic World. Let's please stop it with 'frigid, stuck up corporate woman taken down a peg by rough and tumble guy with big heart and then falls in love with him'. Please, I'm begging everyone in Hollywood. Stop this madness.
RELATED:
#2
Harley Quinn’s dumb outfit in Suicide Squad. No woman is going to dress like that for anything physical. Those short shorts would ride up your bum and you’d break your ankle in the stilettos.
There’s a huge difference with the outfits in Birds of Prey which was written, directed and produced by women. High rise denim shorts, sports bra and a chunky wedge (or trainers I think?) is a way better outfit for causing mayhem.
#3
Almost every female super heroes. What woman in her right mind would go into battle breast out, legs bare, hair flying all over the place in full nails and makeup? It doesn’t matter if it’s a tv program, a movie, anime, live action, cartoon, etc…
#4
Not a movie, but the episode of Game of Thrones where Gillie decides to take Sam's virginity 5 seconds after he saves her from being r**ed and we all know that nothing makes a woman hotter than almost being r**ed by gruesome strangers. Oh, wait, no, it's just that a bunch of dudes decided that Sam deserved a "prize" for his heroic acts and so they wrote in the woman's vagina as the prize without putting any thought into what an actual human female would do in that situation.
This one is especially bad because in a previous season there was a well-written scene where a female character specifically states "A woman who has just escaped a r**e won't want to have sex immediately after. You should have known you were being set up because of that."
So not only where there no women involved in the new scene, there was no one who bothered to read what was actually written in previous seasons. The latter is almost more offensive LOL.
Nupraptor 2 years ago (edited)
The scene where Jaime tells Tyrion that he should have known he was being set up is straight from the books. The scene where Gilly takes Sam's virginity was made up for the show. It's just another example of how the showrunners simply could not match the writing quality of the books. Everything after Season 3 is just middling fan fiction.
#5
Movies where women are running for their lives in high heels.
Movies where prostitutes easily fall in love with their johns
Movies that get basic female anatomy wrong.
And to be specific, Star Wars: The Revenge Of The Sith when Padme “loses the will to live” after having 2 beautiful, healthy babies, because shes so sad about losing Anakin.
Yeah, because as we know, Mothers are never motivated by their children and don’t really want to protect them. If they’re boyfriend has a tantrum, they just lay down and die.
#6
Any birth scene where the mother is just a little sweaty but totally glowing and happy and wide awake after a 20-hour labor, and looks like she was never pregnant at all as soon as they leave the hospital.
Serial pacifist 2 years ago
Also, a number of kids' shows presumably tailored for girls (stuff like Instant Mom on Nick), and tv sitcoms for that matter, in which the mother is constantly wearing high heels at home, makeup, the whole armor..., while the guys are are laid back in their pajamas and slippers. I am a guy but that is so idiotic and sexist.
#7
Another one: when Jennifer Lawrence dyes her hair platinum blonde with boxed hair dye in Red Sparrow. As any fake blonde will tell you it’s a really time consuming and tricky process. Not something you do in 10 minutes in a bathroom.
Pretty sure any Cosmo Girl could tell you that
#8
Books where women are incredibly aware of what their boobs are doing and how they feel all the time....
#9
Books where the female characters never interact with each other or it’s always negative/catty/competitive.
#10
In Age of Ultron where Black Widow is talking about how she's a monster but not because she's an assassin — just because she's infertile. WTF?
#11
There’s a line in a book about a lady taking so long to pee because the pee gets lost in her confusing lady maze inside.
#12
The first few Avengers movies with Scarlet Johansson as Black Widow. It seems like she was just there to be eye candy and not really have much of a character. She has hinted a bit at this, that she put her foot down on a scene where they had her in a cute tennis outfit for no reason. It was nice to see them give her more of a character throughout the series.
#13
Every single movie Megan Fox was ever in. Transformers… oh my god that was rough. Michael Bay practically shoved the camera up her a**hole and just told her to act hot, but then tried to say it was feminist because she… knew about cars? Lol.
Jennifer’s body is a whole other beast. Great movie clearly made by and for women, and the marketing just said “Megan fox is in it, so let’s make it look like it’s just a sex movie with a sexy lady and market it to the COMPLETELY wrong audience.”
Susie Elle 2 years ago
Michael Bay is notoriously known for shoving women into eye-candy roles. Have you seen Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in Transformers? It was gag-worthy.
#14
Revenge of the nerds.
What would a women do if she realized she has been tricked into having sex with another man without her consent?
Keep having sex with him, of course
#15
All the girls in “Spring Breakers” ... written by Harmony Korine. There’s something unsettling about a middle aged guy writing through the eyes of college girls. Vanessa Hudgen’s character says, “Seeing all this money makes my pussy wet”.
#16
IF SHE IS DESCRIBED AS THE “cool girl” F**K THAT F**K THAT F**K THAT!!! NO GIRL EXISTS LIKE THAT. One that is the perfect amount interested in “male things” while still maintaining the PERFECT amount of femininity. Never gets mad. Is never too clingy. That s**t. watch the cool girl monologue from Gone Girl. She explains it perfectly.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
My dad: "You should wear cuter clothes, like your sister." Me: "To change shock absorbers?" ---- real convo, never left my memory. Like, wtf, is it silk or tulle for auto repair?
#17
Look up the bechdel test, it's hilarious watching movies and seeing if they pass. Spoiler alert, mass majority don't.
Mad Dragon 2 years ago
It asks whether a work features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. The requirement that the two women must be named is sometimes added.
#18
Tbh most of my what I thought were said so I'll say the 50 shades series (and there was woman involved if you can believe that)
#19
Not a movie (I know, sorry), but Breaking Bad. Love the series, but every female character is insufferable, and the way Skyler’s character is mishandled is particularly bothersome. She is written like a man’s idea of the nagging overbearing shrew of a wife, and is almost universally hated because of it. Meanwhile, I’ve never understood what exactly people wanted from her. A pregnant woman’s terminally ill husband starts acting shady as f**k...how else would anyone react in that situation? But instead of writing her very understandable suspicion with some depth, they basically said “Pfft. Wives are such a drag, amirite?”. And then she cheats.
This may seem a weird detail to fixate on, but I really hated that they had her smoking during her pregnancy. I assume the intention was to show how badly the situation was affecting her, but considering how unsympathetic they made her overall, it just further poisoned the audience against her.
#20
Barbarella with Jane Fonda. She’s supposed to save the universe but is so helpless all the time and these men have to come and save her and more.
She’s a massive feminist now and has commented that it’s not her proudest work
#21
Twilight
Magentablu 2 years ago (edited)
Wait, is twilight a serious book/movie?? You mean you actually have to take it seriously?? it is not like a parodie, a sattire, a bad joke or the bad example of "how not to" write or something??
#22
There's a film known amongst folks who track down, "so bad it's good" movies (like The Room) called Samurai Cop. There are many, many things wrong with this movie (obviously) but the scene where a nurse flirts with the main character makes me wonder if the director had ever seen a woman flirt, ever.
#24
Unpopular opinion but, Jenny in Forest Gump.
K Witmer 2 years ago
She's only written to move the male character along. She's reduced to her reproductive organs the entire time. It's annoying over done horrible crappy trope to use a woman being raped being murdered tortured giving birth etc only to make the male character seem deeper. Most of the time the woman has no lines and some movies she's just a picture or a flashback can't even see her face.
#26
Lara Croft
Magentablu 2 years ago
The worse. She is not badass at all. She is an spoiled entitled brat making tantrums and iresponsibly destroying everything. (Yes, scowling a that terracotta warriors scene, it made me hate Angelina Jolie to this day). She is the average dumb male indiana jones, with big boobs, shorts, heavy make up, guns, big boobs and zero brain or empathy. Did I say big boobs?
#27
I hate movies where women are portrayted as a 'sex' object...
The movie that features female characters but without a single woman involved: Jason Bourne (2016). Its target audiance is clearly men. But there are several female into it. It seems like at every explosion in the movie. There is a women flying into the air with a lot of blood involved.
Susie Elle 2 years ago
Crank. That one scene where Jason Statham forces his girlfriend to have sex with him out in the street where everyone is watching and even though she VERY much objects, he just keeps going (because of the plot) and eventually she starts enjoying it. Like, what?
#29
Although I love the series, Indiana Jones.
#30
Pulp Fiction. Hate to say it.
Actually, I don’t. It’s for sure Pulp Fiction.
What do you think ?
K Witmer 2 years ago
Im tired of rape in movies so sick of it. Watching the queens gambit and I was waiting for the horrific rape scene. Was so frigging happy when that did not happen. 62million people watched that show it just proves a well written female lead movie makes for great viewing too not just the same old stuff over and over.
Monica Michelle 2 years ago
It should never be a part of film. Hot take I know but there are certain crimes we do not show on film because it is too vile this should be one of them. And if it is it should never be a voyeur POV.
Load More Replies...
Miss Marmite 2 years ago
i hate the stereotype that the main female character denys that she likes the male main character the whole film then at the end the male character forcibly kisses her and the woman enjoys it! always pisses me off whenever i see it
Wonderful 2 years ago (edited)
Reminds me of the m.a.s.h. Tv show anytime “Hawkeye” would kiss Margaret “hot lips” they would drag it out while everyone looks away and when done Margaret has a dreamy look on her face and is all hot and ready for more til she is guided away from the area. It happens every time they kiss. Hawkeye forces it on her and she softens in his arms.
Load More Replies...
Jo Choto 2 years ago
This is how we all need to analyse movies: the Bechdel Test. To assess if women have an actual purpose in a film: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. When you watch films with these criteria, you find that at least 75% of Hollywood movies fail the Bechdel test.
Can-I-change-my-name-later? 2 years ago
What about the opposite of that? And if the main characters are guys, what would you think if it didn't have any women? But I see what you're saying for SOME
Load More Replies... K Witmer 2 years ago
Im tired of rape in movies so sick of it. Watching the queens gambit and I was waiting for the horrific rape scene. Was so frigging happy when that did not happen. 62million people watched that show it just proves a well written female lead movie makes for great viewing too not just the same old stuff over and over.
Monica Michelle 2 years ago
It should never be a part of film. Hot take I know but there are certain crimes we do not show on film because it is too vile this should be one of them. And if it is it should never be a voyeur POV.
Load More Replies... Miss Marmite 2 years ago
i hate the stereotype that the main female character denys that she likes the male main character the whole film then at the end the male character forcibly kisses her and the woman enjoys it! always pisses me off whenever i see it
Wonderful 2 years ago (edited)
Reminds me of the m.a.s.h. Tv show anytime “Hawkeye” would kiss Margaret “hot lips” they would drag it out while everyone looks away and when done Margaret has a dreamy look on her face and is all hot and ready for more til she is guided away from the area. It happens every time they kiss. Hawkeye forces it on her and she softens in his arms.
Load More Replies... Jo Choto 2 years ago
This is how we all need to analyse movies: the Bechdel Test. To assess if women have an actual purpose in a film: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. When you watch films with these criteria, you find that at least 75% of Hollywood movies fail the Bechdel test.
Can-I-change-my-name-later? 2 years ago
What about the opposite of that? And if the main characters are guys, what would you think if it didn't have any women? But I see what you're saying for SOME
Load More Replies... You May Like People Are Sharing Modern Movie Tropes That Will Not Age Well, Here Are Their 51 Top Picks People Share 50 TV & Film Clichés That Work In Fiction But Flop In Real Life 38 Overused Movie Lines Screenwriters Should Put To Rest
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