Where are my healthy male characters? Male authors and characters have dominated the literary sphere in previous centuries, making it difficult for female authors and characters to have their viewpoints and strengths recognized. But modern feminist literature isn’t balancing the scales, it’s diminishing male characters at the expense of representing both sexes well.
Diminishing the intelligence of male characters to highlight the strengths of female characters doesn’t make female characters look stronger; it actually works against displaying the natural feminine strengths. The same can be said for keeping male characters in stereotypical boxes like the “abusive boyfriend” or the “aggressive father.” Both male and female characters deserve a broad representation in every facet.
Diminishing the intelligence of male characters to highlight the strengths of female characters doesn’t make female characters look stronger; it actually works against displaying the natural feminine strengths. The same can be said for keeping male characters in stereotypical boxes like the “abusive boyfriend” or the “aggressive father.” Both male and female characters deserve a broad representation in every facet.
Stereotyping men as either toxically masculine or as the dumb sidekick makes it hard for young readers to have healthy views of the world and develop their identity through literature. Reading is a way to explore the world through a different pair of eyes, seeing yourself in the role of a hero or adventurer, and giving readers poor examples of literary male and female role models doesn’t create balance between the sexes or change long-held attitudes. Male readers seeing their gender heavily represented as overbearing or dumb doesn’t help with the development of healthy masculinity. For female readers, unhealthy ideas about what men are, especially if they don’t have healthy male role models in their lives, creates unhealthy ideas that can persist much longer than the pages of a book.
The well-loved Harry Potter series makes Hermione look more intelligent by dumbing down Ron. The first few books of the series show Ron as intelligent and knowledgeable, but this fades over the series to make Hermione stand out as the “smart” one of the group. Ron’s intelligence didn’t need to be diminished to show how brilliant Hermione is because it’s possible for Ron to retain his intelligence and for Hermione to have hers independently of the other. A positive example of the sexes being represented well are the characters in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Annabeth isn’t dumbed down to make Percy look more intelligent. On the contrary, she displays high degrees of intelligence that helps Percy in his leadership role. Why isn’t this the case for other stories with female leads and male support characters?
On the other hand, Twilight shows another issue—romanticized toxic masculinity. The book that many girls swoon over has a plethora of abusive and controlling male figures whose behavior is romanticized, setting up many girls to believe that this is what love looks like. Without healthy examples of masculinity to counterbalance the controlling male characters, both male and female readers see unhealthy and abusive behaviors normalized. Literature holds an amazing amount of power in influencing beliefs and values, which is why this representation is not just a preference but a need for authors to consider in their writing.
To truly balance the literary scales, authors have to look beyond reactionary trends or what’s popular in literature. Representation for different sexes is about ensuring that all characters, regardless of gender, are written with depth, thought, and authenticity. Readers young and old need male and female characters that provide healthy role models. Characters should have unique flaws and issues, showing more than what is stereotypically seen in men and women so the true strengths of each gender can be represented in literature. Without imposing on creative freedoms, my suggestion for creating well rounded characters is this: Ask yourself if this character is telling your audience something new about how men and women work together. In striving for originality and authenticity, your characters will naturally begin to break out of trending modern molds and give both genders authentic and healthy representation. Moving past basic portraits of each gender not only produces better examples of men and women, but it also provides literature with a rich tapestry of authentic and unique characters.
By Tavia Crabb, Inscape Staff
Header image by RDNE Stock project, pexels.com
