This is from four years ago, but it has some interesting observations in it. Read it.
--Kim
It's a long one... brace yourself.
Mulan-y Sue: Or How I Almost Agreed with Petulant Fanboys for about a Minute.
So… the wife and I watched the Disney live action Mulan last night. She really liked it. I didn't. Some nice fight choreography, but on the whole…meh. She literally had to tell me to put my phone down at one point. My issues with it, apart from turning Chi back into the Force, and literally stealing lines out of Star Wars was that unlike the original, Mulan was a fully complete, magic martial arts expert who kicks arrows out of mid-air from the start. She didn't work to earn the powers, she was just flawless going in. This is what many a neck bearded internet pundit calls a "Mary Sue".
"Mary Sue" is not a term I like. It feels inherently dismissive, condescending and sexist. After all a lot of these guys who complain about a female protagonist like Rey being too invincible from the start will breathlessly explain why John Wick is the greatest action hero of the modern era in the same breath. But I felt myself really starting to agree. Mulan didn't train for her powers she just had them . As a screenwriter that feels wrong to me. I started to feel like…. Blergh… maybe these guys were actually on to something.
Then I had a revelation, which formed into a theory. Again, I would never presume to say I know how women think or any such nonsense, so feel free to contradict or correct me here, but….
The Heroes journey fantasy for men is always starting at the bottom and coming into your own, so you are the complete bad ass at the end. The heroes journey fantasy for women is to be acknowledged for the power they already possess.
This has real world echoes. Men have always been told to roll up shirt sleeves and work their way to the top, whereas women are struggling to be heard, to not be interrupted, to be taken seriously, to not have their ideas stolen and to have equal pay and opportunity as their male counterparts. We fight for position, they fight for recognition.
So it's no surprise then that the female power fantasy so often centers around ability being recognized rather than acquiring the ability in the first place. Wonder Woman was bad ass from the start. She comes into a world where that isn't recognized and has to kick a few asses to get some respect.
The other example is Captain Marvel. When I saw it, I thought, "Yeah it's pretty good. I would have liked to see it told in a more linear way, I'd be more interested in seeing how she developed" What I didn't realize is that's not the point. The point is she is being gaslighted, held back and controlled. It's not about a classic hero's journey, it's about her breaking free of the constraints that have been placed on her. Brie Larson famously pissed off fanboys when she said "It's not for you." But she was right, it isn't for me. I haven't lived that experience so obviously I'm not going to get it. But it must have resonated because it made over a billion at the Box Office.
Part of the problem with the fanboy community is they can't handle the idea that someone might make a comic book movie that isn't for them. They get online and rant about alienating the fans, review bomb Rotten Tomatoes but in reality it's like they are little boys who want to take their action figures away from their little sister because she "Isn't playing with them right" Well, the little sister is playing with them based on her own feelings experiences and desires. She isn't playing with them for you, she's playing with them for her. That's why when you get female writers, directors, and producers you are going to get more movies from the sister's point of view. It's not for me, and I'm totally okay with that. I don't need everything to be about me. I have Dune coming out in 4 days. I'm gonna be just fine.
It has started me wondering about how we get taught to develop characters and stories in screenwriting. These sometimes seemingly arbitrary rules, The protagonist must change and grow by page XX, after the incident etc. etc. These are based on time tested storytelling structures, but…
Is there inherent bias tilted toward the male point of view baked into story structure? Is the classic heroes journey based off male experience? I mean obviously you can have a female protagonist go on the journey, there are lots of examples of that, but when the story is told with male power fantasies in place, is that becoming increasingly less relevant to what women want to see?
I don't have the answer to any of those questions, but this framing does give me a little insight, and something I will carry with me when creating female protagonists in the future.
But for the record, the animated Mulan was better.
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