Hollywood heroines are too one-dimensional

My little sister’s favorite Star Wars character is Rey. My sister is six years old and has never seen a full Star Wars movie in her life. But for her, Rey is a cool, female action hero to whom she can relate. Rey’s a character who’s good at fighting and can take care of herself, and my sister thinks that’s awesome. I’ve seen her before with Rey’s signature triple bun hairstyle, and she proudly wears shirts featuring Rey.

And I’m happy that she, and other girls, can grow up with characters like Rey and Black Widow that inspire them and give them windows into the world of fantasy that may have been locked to previous generations.

Recently there’s been an influx of diversity in Hollywood, be it the inclusion of more female heroes or people of color. Even Disney movies, which are notorious for being about a princess in need of saving, are following this trend, with “Moana” (2016) starring a woman of color who is brave and independent, not in need of rescue.

But unfortunately, many of these new Hollywood heroines suffer from a lack of creativity. They’re manufactured to be “strong,” and nothing else.

“The Force Awakens” was the first in a wave of new movies from the Star Wars series, a series which, until now, was dominated by male protagonists. The main character is my sister’s beloved Rey, a scavenger surviving on her own in a desert wasteland, but unfortunately, is characterized by passivity. She has a relatively simple solution to every problem that comes at her and rarely reacts emotionally to them.

Similarly, Black Widow is one of the few female heroes in the Marvel franchise. She hardly has any personality, merely lending her fighting abilities to the plot with only minor complexity; the few times we see her personality, it’s in the context of her relationship with Bruce Banner.

Oscar-winning film “Into the Spider-Verse” faces a similar issue. It features five main male characters, all lovable and interesting, while the only main female character displays a lack of personality beyond not trusting people because of her tragic past — an all too-common character type. When the writers of the movie have displayed that they can write really interesting personalities, it’s disappointing to see the main female of the film written as such a basic character.

Having diversity in media is important. I see myself in Luke Skywalker, and he has been my hero for as long as I can remember, inspiring me to write stories of my own. I love that the increasingly diverse cast of characters in movies is allowing anyone to have a hero like I do. Being able to look at a character and see yourself in the character is incredible, and now people like my sister have that. Nonetheless, I feel that these Hollywood heroines are simply boring.

It feels as though this new wave of female characters gets the short end of the pencil, as more effort is put into writing the male characters. I watch “The Force Awakens” not for the highly skilled Rey, but for Finn, who’s main character arc stems from him being a coward, not strong. In “The Incredibles,” a movie about a family of superheroes struggling wanting to fight crime in a world that rejects them, centers around Bob, a formerly world-famous superhero, being selfish and secretly thinking he’s the best hero. Such complex character traits are far more interesting than Helen, whose most defining trait is being … sassy?

There have been tests that examine depth of female characters, the most famous and widely-used one being the Bechdel Test, which checks if the work features at least two women talking to each other about something besides a man.

I understand the good intentions of the Bechdel Test, but I think it is testing the wrong thing. A movie can have dull female characters with very little motivation whose only purpose is to kick butt.

I think it’s important to have well written, multi-layered characters, as well as characters who deviate from stereotypes; At this point, the “strong” heroine is a stereotype of its own.

There are exceptions to this rule — not all Hollywood heroines are like this. And perhaps we made progress from the days of female characters whose only purpose is to kiss the studly prince, but we’ve only moved on to even more cliches. I see so many male characters in Hollywood achieve complexity and interesting arcs, while many female characters are relegated to being symbols of perfect strength. Why can’t we have complex female characters for young girls to look up to? We don’t need to show younger girls that they need to be perfect or strong, just that they need to be people.