In any kind of character development, one of the defining characteristics that builds who an individual is and what they represent is the level of agency they hold. Chris Wendig, on his blog “terribleminds” defines agency as, “a demonstration of the character’s ability to make decisions and affect the story. This character has motivations all her own. She is active more than she is reactive. She pushes on the plot more than the plot pushes on her. Even better, the plot exists as a direct result of the character’s actions.” Chris Barker, author of “Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice” expands this definition by also stating this concept has also been associated with “free will, action, creativity, originality, and very possibility of change through the actions of free agents” (240). This concept centers on a character’s ability to CHOOSE, and the freedom to then enable that action. The presence or absence of this agency within a character is an essential component of their identity construction and the way viewers understand their influence in a story.
I specifically want to evaluate how we see agency within strong female leads. Writing women with power is hardly a new concept, however, over the past couple decades this has become a new norm within the media that unfortunately has proved to be hardly progressive. Writing strong women who’ve been “granted agency” and tenacity should have been huge for women’s representation and image within the media. Finally, we see women who are more than beautiful, but who are also brave, intelligent, and competitive. Right? Within her article “I Hate Strong Female Characters,” Sophia McDougall argues, “female character portrayals have gone from one kind of flat to another. They’ve gone from being flat damsels who are placed in fiction to perpetuate the male narrative to ‘strong’ women who are flat because they’re not allowed to be anything except strong.” More often than not, these days writing “strong” female characters related to physical vigor rather than agency or any greater sense of power. The next issue we find to be present across the board is that the majority, if not all, of their agency if they have any is centered around a man. If you were to eliminate the men from the story lines, these women would be left without much purpose. Very rarely do we see female protagonists whose central plot line is void of a romantic relationship or the obtainment of a male counterpart. The question then follows, how much agency does this actually grant these women?
The ever lovely Alison Bechdel popularized the “Bechdel test” which has been used to look at the way female characters are developed within a work of fiction. To pass this assessment, the work must have at least one scene that possesses “(1) at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man.” While this may seem to be a simple test, an unbelievable number of works of fiction (especially our blockbuster films) fail it on a regular basis (Check out this list!). While the Bechdel test is not without its flaws, it does illuminate just how prevalent this issue is.
It’s easy to say, “Well sure, a woman can pursue a relationship and still be granted agency and make decisions for herself outside of how it pertains to a counterpart.” Sure. It happens all the time…right? Take a second to think about your favorite empowered female leads; is the conclusion of their narrative centered on something other than a man? Or , at the very least, do they pass the Bechdel test? Strong female characters, in movies particularly, are often either portrayed as deeply sexualized violent accessories to the men in the story, or as witchy and independent yet never fully complete until they’ve obtained a paramour.
Katniss Everdeen within the popularized series The Hunger Games is arguably one of our more well written female leads. Within the books, Suzanne Collins paints in broad strokes to make Katniss deeply impacting, fierce, and full of agency—all while leaving her fully woman (as we socially construct it). This means she is both physically tough and thoroughly nurturing and empathetic. Her relationships with the two male leads of the story, Peeta and Gale, are very much a part of who she is and her relation to the story, however, if you were to eliminate them from the plot, Katniss would still have a higher purpose. When Collin’s work was adapted to the big screen, many would argue our beloved protagonist’s focus shifted. The love triangle between our main characters became the biggest hook. The fact that she was singlehandedly leading a massive political revolution remained the bottom line, but the rhetoric that surrounded the fandom became “Team Peeta or Gale?” While Katniss remains an authentic empowered female protagonist, this disfiguration of priorities and representation is a clear display of how the media attempts to morph even truly strong independent women into distilled accessories.
Unfortunately, “strong” female leads often does not translate to women with agency. What does this then do to the way we understand the identity of women within the media? Barker states, “Identities are understood to be a question both of agency (the individual constructs a project) and of social determination (our projects are socially constructed and social identities ascribed to us)” (239). The majority of our empowered female leads are doing little for the progression of women’s place within the media. This is highly discouraging, to say the very least. The only way we can move beyond this is to write more characters like “The Girl on Fire,” Miss Katniss Everdeen, and to not allow other media sources to distort their ambitions. Chris Wendig within his article quoted Kirsten Thompson saying, “A female character who kicks ass, but does nothing else has little more agency than the one who exists to be rescued by a man.” It’s important to remember that toughness and physical ability relates little to matters of choice. Through granting our female characters comparable agency as we do to our males, we can help develop women’s identity within the media and take yet another progressive step towards equality.
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