Anyone else seem to notice most female main characters in a lot of shows tend to fall into one of three unfortunate categories?
1. Valley Girl
The typical ditzy or extremely girly girl who's into fashion, make-up, and boys. Sometimes they might show some depth, but it's clear their main schtick is the ditzy girl who's all about clothes, boys, or popularity. Serena (Sailor Moon), Clover (Totally Spies), Kimiko (Xiaolin Showdown), and a lot of school comedies feature these types of leads usually.
2. Almost Mary Sue
They're skilled, gifted, and almost without flaw. They can have the "girls can do anything boys can" attitude and always try to prove themselves to the guys, but it's not necessary. The reason why their skills are so much better than most other characters is up for questioning, but usually they'll have one or two flaws just to keep them from being 100% perfect. Usually toted as role-models for girls to show them they can be extremely strong and do anything to the point of being overpowered. Applies to characters like Kim Possible (Kim Possible), Katara (Avatar), and Blossom (Powerpuff Girls)
3. I'm a Girl
This can co-exist in the previous two, but there's also characters who serve no purpose other than being a token female who's importance to the show is not as importance as her gender. This can be used as a token girl in an all or mostly male cast, a classic damsel in distress, or more rarely, as a girl who's character is measured by her figure (less common for kids shows to have characters seducing others, but it happens occosonally) Applies to characters like Supergirl (Superman: TAS), Sakura (Naruto) and a lot of other girls in action shows.
There's very few well-written female characters out there I can think of, honestly, and it puzzles me why that is. Will, from W.I.T.C.H.: The Animated Series, is, in my mind, one of, if the not the best example of a female main character who's gender is irrelevant in a kids cartoon I can think of). It can't be that hard to just write a good character, then just make them a female, can it?
I'd rather this not turn this primarily into a list thread, but if people can name a few good female main characters then it would be nice to showcase them a bit. I'd also like to discuss why these stereotypes exist so prevalently in the industry, though. Is it the writer's fault? The executive's? The network's? Where would you say the root of the problem lies?
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