Writer's Block: Female Characters

There are always critics making a big deal about female characters. In particular, strong female characters. There are a lot of good points made about this subject, a particularly good essay is over Pub(lishing) Crawl (http://www.publishingcrawl.com/2013/08/28/on-strong-female-characters/) where Erin Bowman talks about why female characters don’t need to be defined by their “strongness”. I recommend checking it out.

Today, though, I want to give you my take on the subject.

Personally, I read a lot of YA books (or hadn’t you noticed?) and the books I read are mostly written by women with female protagonists. My whole life I’ve been surrounded with the idea that girls are as capable as guys except that we can do it in heels. To me it’s completely normal that there are strong female protagonists. I wonder why people have to question them and why critics have to applause them. A character is a character and they’re not defined by their sex. They’re defined by how well they’re portrayed, or written, and that’s how I’ve always looked at them.

Personally, I don’t find many male protagonists in YA culture. When my friend and I do we always get a little excited over the fact that it’s a guy narrator, but we don’t question it.

For me, female characters are normal. I don’t know about you, but I find that the endless questions and debates on the subject are… a little pointless. Of course I’ll root for girl power, but we shouldn’t have to root for it. It should be the norm, just as guy characters are normal, too.