Women Are Calling Out Unrealistic Female Characters Written By Men

It seems that Hollywood could use some more amazing female writers.

Stephanie

• Published in Film & TV
• March 15, 2022

It's safe to say that we've all seen our fair share of poorly-written female roles in films. I mean, there's always the wholesome girl next door who can never find love despite looking like a supermodel and being universally loved by everyone.

Then there's the bimbo-type, usually in a horror movie - you know, the one who always opens the door and goes outside when anyone in their right mind would do the opposite! And of course, there's the suburban Stepford wife who appears to have just stepped out of the '50s with her hair and makeup always perfectly in place.

Yep, there are plenty of examples in films, TV shows, and books. So much so that Reddit user u/Mikess314 recently posted on the r/AskWomen subreddit asking, "What movie featuring female characters was clearly made without a single woman being involved?"

As always, the Reddit community had a lot to say, and there were plenty of interesting answers. From Harley Quinn to Black Widow to Anastasia Steele to pretty much every single character played by Megan Fox, we have them all covered.

It seems that Hollywood could use some more amazing female writers! Keep scrolling to take a look at 30 unrealistic female characters written by men.

1. Claire Dearing

"Jurrasic World. Let's please stop it with 'frigid, stuck up corporate woman taken down a peg by rough and tumble guy with a big heart and then falls in love with him.' Please, I'm begging everyone in Hollywood. Stop this madness."

2. Harley Quinn

"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. Every female superhero... ever

"Almost every female superhero. 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. Gilly

"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 were 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."

5. Basically, all the females

"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 she's 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 their boyfriend has a tantrum, they just lay down and die."

6. Dominika Egorova

"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."

7. Females who are overly "boob-aware"

8. All the new mamas

9. The bitchy ones

10. Black Widow

"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. Women with a "lady maze" inside them

12. Black Widow... again

"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 role Megan Fox has ever played

"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.""

14. Betty Childs

15. All the girls in Spring Breakers

"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. The cool girls

17. The bechdel test failures

18. Skyler White

19. Anastasia Steele

"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)."

20. Just... all of Twilight

21. Barbarella

22. Flirty females

23. Every female in American Pie

24. Jenny Curran

25. All of Charlie's Angels

26. Lara Croft... that's all

27. The sex objects

28. Indy's ladies

29. Catwoman

30. Mia Wallace

What's your take on these characters? It's certainly some food for thought.

The film industry has been dominated by men for an eternity, and that becomes obvious when you think about some of these characters and how women are often portrayed. Do you agree that female characters would be more accurately written by women?

Stephanie