Female Protagonists?
- Thread starter Crystal
- Start date
Whoever said that about young boys... I'm assuming they meant young young boys. I've never babysat a boy who was willing to play Mario Kart or similar games as a female character.
I'm just going to second what everyone else has said about not emphasizing the fact that she has boobies so much when you're working through her character design. I'm very frequently mistaken for a dude when I'm on the intertubes, which I find totally understandable. When separated from my body, what is there about my speech that marks me as female? Not a whole lot.
In fact, my gender studies professor really enjoys biting people's heads off for saying things like "women are more emotional." I have to say I almost agree -- what does that even mean? More emotional? Do they have more emotions? Or do they just act on them more? And really, all women?
In short: stop worrying. Just make her a person, and she'll probably be fine.
Further reading:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oc ... nder.books (It's an opinion, but one I agree with, with interesting backing and references to scholarly sources.)
Another interesting thing that I always consider in my games is the "Bechdel Test." I'm pretty sure this originated in popular culture, so it's not a scholarly test, but it's fun to see if your story "passes". It runs something like this: to pass, your story has to have at least two women in it who talk to each other about something besides a man.
Thinking about if this applies to your novel, game, or whatever is kind of fun. I'm not saying that all games should or can be expected to pass this test (lots of great games, books, and movies don't), but it's kind of a neat thing to look at. If your game doesn't pass this test, why doesn't it?
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... echdelTest
I'm just going to second what everyone else has said about not emphasizing the fact that she has boobies so much when you're working through her character design. I'm very frequently mistaken for a dude when I'm on the intertubes, which I find totally understandable. When separated from my body, what is there about my speech that marks me as female? Not a whole lot.
In fact, my gender studies professor really enjoys biting people's heads off for saying things like "women are more emotional." I have to say I almost agree -- what does that even mean? More emotional? Do they have more emotions? Or do they just act on them more? And really, all women?
In short: stop worrying. Just make her a person, and she'll probably be fine.
Further reading:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oc ... nder.books (It's an opinion, but one I agree with, with interesting backing and references to scholarly sources.)
Another interesting thing that I always consider in my games is the "Bechdel Test." I'm pretty sure this originated in popular culture, so it's not a scholarly test, but it's fun to see if your story "passes". It runs something like this: to pass, your story has to have at least two women in it who talk to each other about something besides a man.
Thinking about if this applies to your novel, game, or whatever is kind of fun. I'm not saying that all games should or can be expected to pass this test (lots of great games, books, and movies don't), but it's kind of a neat thing to look at. If your game doesn't pass this test, why doesn't it?
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... echdelTest
Case in point it is very easy for a story to be utterly anti-feminist and even outright mysogonistic and still pass the bechdel test. It's more a joke about how pervasive it is in pop fiction for women's lives to kind of revolve around men than it is really a measurement that tries to gauge women's overall representation in a work.
I have speaken with some RPG player boys long years ago. They sayd, they cant realy imagine themself to the hero's place, if the hero is female.
If the heros are females and the enemies are males, that can cause a lot of boys will not play the game, they will feel bad.
But if the situation is reverse, there will be no problem for the boy players, i dunno, maybee the girls will have problem with this. But maybee a lot of girls accustomed this situation, female enemies are very popular.
If in the game, the most heros are female, and the enemies also female, also the boys and girls will enjoy to play the game. I suggest this. I also will do this in my next game probably.
If the heros are females and the enemies are males, that can cause a lot of boys will not play the game, they will feel bad.
But if the situation is reverse, there will be no problem for the boy players, i dunno, maybee the girls will have problem with this. But maybee a lot of girls accustomed this situation, female enemies are very popular.
If in the game, the most heros are female, and the enemies also female, also the boys and girls will enjoy to play the game. I suggest this. I also will do this in my next game probably.
Mystic Mage
Member
Hmm, well, I have a twin sister and I'm a guy so I always wanted a two-player game that had a girl main along with a boy main. As I grew up I noticed the lack of girl main characters and always thought it was a slight on the game developer's part. I have no problem playing a female main because I want to know the character's story and it is interesting no matter whether the main be male or female.
Just to note, ah, there's not many black, mexican, irish, asian, etc. main characters either. Can you count the Japanese game characters as asian of any type? I don't think so. I guess only if they look very J-Pop (Devil May Cry) maybe but they have few other defining characteristics. This is also a slight on the game developer's part. I'm not saying this in that there HAS to be a certain race as main, but more so that there are many games where a different race would fit just as well as a white person, but for some reason they just don't do it.
I digress. Some of the best advice you had on here was to make a character who happens to be female instead of focusing on a "female character" specifically. Make her well-rounded, multifaceted, and human (unless she is not human of course but you still have to have qualities humans are able to relate to or else you lose the audience.) Flaws are great. Strengths are too. What about quirks? How does she perceive the world around her? What are her goals and aspirations? What affects her easily, and what does she work well with despite stresses?
Just to note, ah, there's not many black, mexican, irish, asian, etc. main characters either. Can you count the Japanese game characters as asian of any type? I don't think so. I guess only if they look very J-Pop (Devil May Cry) maybe but they have few other defining characteristics. This is also a slight on the game developer's part. I'm not saying this in that there HAS to be a certain race as main, but more so that there are many games where a different race would fit just as well as a white person, but for some reason they just don't do it.
I digress. Some of the best advice you had on here was to make a character who happens to be female instead of focusing on a "female character" specifically. Make her well-rounded, multifaceted, and human (unless she is not human of course but you still have to have qualities humans are able to relate to or else you lose the audience.) Flaws are great. Strengths are too. What about quirks? How does she perceive the world around her? What are her goals and aspirations? What affects her easily, and what does she work well with despite stresses?
Eventing_Guy
Awesome Bro
As long as I KNOW what gender a character is... things are fine. :haha: