So, recently, Jennifer Lawrence claimed that she was the first woman ever to lead an action movie. Uhuh. Right. Let's see. Just off the top of my head you've got Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton, Mila Jovovich, Gina Davis, Uma Thurman, Michelle Rodriguez, Pamela Anderson, Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Hallie Berry, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Cynthia Rothrock, What's her name from Red Sonja. Like, dozens of women who led dozens of action movies, and many of them before Jennifer Lawrence was even born, much less acted in Hunger Games.
But this isn't the stupidity I wanted to talk about. In the video, she said something that really, really rubbed me the wrong way. Something so utterly and completely stupid and wrong that I just had to scream out into the void on the internet about it. She said something like "girls can identify with both male and female heroes, but boys can only identify with male heroes." This one line right here is even more stupid than her claim to be the first female action star ever.
Allow me to give you an example from my own life to illustrate the utter stupidity of that statement.
My all time favorite video game is Final Fantasy 6. It came out in 1994. I was 15 in 1994. I played the hell out of that game. Over, and over, and over again. And many times more over the almost 30 years since. This is a game that is split into two parts. Each part is led by a different protagonist. Both of these protagonists are women. These two characters are also my favorite characters in the game. My two favorite video game characters from my all time favorite video game are women. 15 year old me didn't care. 15 year old me saw an outcast trying to find her place in the world and said, holy crap, it's like this character is me. 15 year old me saw a lone woman standing up to evil in order to save the world even though she thinks she's the only one left alive who can do it, and that all hope is lost, and said, holy crap, I want to be as strong and awesome as her. I want to stand up to the darkness in my life and fight for what is right even if I know I will probably lose. It's not about which jiggly bits a person has. It's about what's in their character. What's in their personality. When they're pushed to the brink, what will they do?
Here's another example. My all time second favorite videogame(s) are the Xenosaga Trilogy. This trilogy is also led by a female protagonist in Shion. Over the course of the story she is beaten down again, and again, and again by the horrors of her past, and the reality of the not too distant extinction of the human race being HER fault. Yet, she still finds the strength to stand back up again. To continue on. To fight, even though she knows she will probably die. To turn her back on the peace that she so desperately wants just so that she can do the right thing, and save what's left to save of humanity. She falls countless times along the way. She even joins the villains at one point in the story because she is so desperate for just one person to love and accept her for who she is. But with the help of her friends she is able to realize why she should continue fighting, and why she should lay down her life if need be, because the needs of the many outweigh her own selfish desires. That is a hugely complex and extremely relatable character that is probably my single favorite video game protagonist of all time. Does it matter to me that she's a woman instead of a man? Are you freaking kidding me? What does that even have to do with anything. She is an amazing character that if I could find even a shred of her strength of character in myself, I would count myself lucky.
So, yeah. I just thought that was both extremely stupid, and, frankly, pretty insulting of her to say. Again. It is not which jiggly bits a person has that makes them an interesting, relatable character to aspire toward. It's who they are inside. What they do when the world pushes them down. How they react when they are the only thing standing between evil, and everyone else. If they will step toward death to save those they care about from it.
I am just sick to death of this narrative of sexism and misogyny that American media keeps beating me over the head with. I'm sick of being told I'm the scum of the earth because man bad for not liking female character. It's not that they're female that makes me dislike them. It's that they're shit characters that make me dislike them. Show me a character even half as strong and relatable as Shion in Xenosaga and we'll talk. Until then, take your idiotic narrative and shove it up your ass, Jennifer.
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