8 Female TV And Movie Characters That Were Almost Certainly Written By A Man, And 8 Others That Were Written By A Woman
As "women written by men" and "men written by women" trends have started important conversations on social media platforms, especially TikTok and Twitter, here's a look at how men and women create female leads.
Content warning: There are mentions of sexual assault, rape, and pregnancy below.
1.Dominika in Red Sparrow was clearly written by a man.
2.While Aimee in Sex Education was clearly written by a woman.
3.Women from The Big Bang Theory are written very poorly, by men of course.
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Most of the women in the series are written very poorly. To start, Penny's whole storyline in the show was to just bring Leonard out of his shell. Throughout the series, she had made it clear that she didn't want to have children, but in the finale, it is revealed that she is pregnant and happy about it. This resonated with the society that keeps telling child-free women that they will "change their mind." And then, the same happens with Bernadette. And finally, Amy — an intelligent, independent woman — is made to be a sex-crazy maverick.
4.Orange Is the New Black was created by a woman, and it shows.
5.Bethany in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle proves men are oblivious of women and their relationship with their boobs.
Columbia Pictures / Via tenor.com
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was co-written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinkner. In the scene where Bethany gets her body back, she grabs her boobs and goes, "I missed you." One thing I would like to tell male writers is that we aren't as obsessed with our boobs as much as men think we are.
6.Room, created by women, has a credible female survival thriller character.
7.Women in Fullmetal Alchemist screams written by a woman.
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Fullmetal Alchemist, based on the manga of the same name written by Hiromu Arakawa, follows the adventures of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, in their quest for the Philosopher's stone. Even though the central characters are men, this anime has well-developed female characters, like Winry Rockbell and Nina Tucker, who stand alone in the show.
8.On the other hand, Karin Uzumaki in Naruto was written by a man.
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Masashi Kishimoto wrote Karin's entire personality centred around Sasuke. Here is a whole Reddit thread posted by u/Godothedoggo explaining how and why, Karin Uzumaki is a poorly written character.
9.Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad was written by a man...
10....while her character in Birds of Prey was written by a woman — and it shows.
11.Women in Spring Breakers, including Candy and Faith, are written so poorly that I feel secondhand embarrassment for the writer.
Warner Bros. / Via tenor.com
Most of the female characters in this movie were poorly written by Harmony Korine. In a scene, Vanessa Hudgen's character Candy says, "Seeing all this money makes my p*ssy wet." Hmm... *eye roll*
12.The women in Jane the Virgin were 100% written by a woman.
13.The labor scene in Nine Months goes without saying that it was written by a man.
14.In contrast, the realistic labor scene in Look Who's Talking is gold.
15.Jenny in Forrest Gump is basically just there in the movie.
The Tisch Company / Via tenor.com
Written by Eric Roth, Jenny in Forrest Gump is the classic "manic pixie dream girl." As first defined by Nathan Rabin, this woman "exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries." In this case, Jenny is there only to make Forrest a better person.