on awesome female characters

[tielan]

miss_haitch has a post called "Why I Love Mary Sue" over at Dreamwidth.

She links to some good posts about the issues that have developed with the term 'Mary Sue' over the last ten years, the way people view and treat original female characters - both as writers and as readers as a result of fear of 'Mary Sue', and how 'Mary Sue' has become a catch-all term for "a female character that is too awesome and should be made less awesome and more 'believable'".

They're good thoughts.

Something popped into my head on the drive to the gym tonight after reading those posts:

We insist that women are smart enough to make their own choices about their lives, their minds, their bodies. We believe we should have all the opportunities of men - both in law and in practise. Yet when it comes to the stories we tell - the narratives that shape our belief in ourselves - we seem to insist on making women less awesome than they are and can be.