Strength and Heroines

For a long goddamn time, women did not get their due in life or in literature. Damsels in distress abounded. Oppression was (and still is today to varying degrees) a real problem.

In the past few years, there have been quite a few stories that have heroines who do more than fall in love with the hero and get themselves into trouble. Which, don't get me wrong, is a great thing. The Hunger Games, Divergent, Game of Thrones, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are just a few. Each of these has a female character who plays a major role and breaks the damsel in distress stereotype. They are strong female characters.

But it seems to me (that means this is MY OPINION which I am entitled to just as you are entitled to yours) that this is not the best way to describe female characters.

What makes a character strong? Do I mean 'strong' as in physically, mentally, emotionally, or written well? 

Good characters, again in my opinion, do not necessarily have to be 'strong' in any way except that they are written well. When it comes to female characters especially, it is difficult to have them fail at anything (physically, mentally, emotionally) because then the writer runs the risk of having them appear 'weak'. And that is not something people are in the mood to accept about a female character right now.

Real people aren't always 'strong'. They aren't able to continuously defy expectations with their physical strength. They don't always have the answer right away. They break down and cry when terrible things happen.

Before a character is strong, they should be believable. We should be able to look at them, imagine them, and relate to them. We should root for them even when they fail, we should cry when they cry. We should feel for them before we admire them for their strength.

My character does not have her shit together. She's seventeen. What seventeen year old actually has their shit together? How many adults really have their shit together? 

She's smart but she has to think and she makes mistakes. Lord, does she make mistakes. She has a heart that can be and has been and will be broken. She will fall down and she will fail and I am not afraid for her. 

I will also not describe her as being strong. She is brave and she is selfish and she is afraid and she is selfless and she is generous and she is uncertain of herself. Tell me if you haven't been every one of those things. 

Her strength is not the absence of weakness and the darker places in her heart but rather her ability to keep in the lighter places in spite of the darkness.