My frustration with "Strong Female" Characters

[pineapplebunnybounce]

But even if a girl doesn't fit into the female gender roles, she's still a girl. Doesn't make her a "man with boobs", not trying to read too much into what you said, but a lot of people do think that if girls don't fit into gender roles, well, you're just like a man aren't you. But that's not true. Personally, I can't stand kids. I can't stand doing housework or cooking. I don't like chatting on the phone for hours. I don't like romance novels or movies. I don't like taking care of people, it's not in me. I don't freak out about bugs. I don't scream. But I like shoes, I dress nice, I like makeup. But my life is planned around my career so to speak. Doesn't make me more like a man, I'm just not what you expected to find in a girl. The problem isn't with me, it's that you have been fed the wrong information about girls. Girls like us were fairly underrepresented in the past few decades, the amount of people I've met that flat out refuse to believe that I never want to have children is astounding. But the fact is, I know many girls who have the same attitude as I do about children.

People are complex, gender roles are cookie cutters. The truth is most men and women do not fit into gender roles perfectly, sometimes they try to appear as if they do, but it wouldn't make any sense if we all did. What qualifies as "strong" is pretty stereotypical for men as well. It's always this guy, with some army training, good looking, fairly big, you know the type.

The ability to create a character that is "real" and believable and relatable is what separates the good stuff from the bad stuff. There are plenty of books that don't put as much work into their characters as they do the plot, I've never really liked those. It's forgettable. But there'll always be bad stuff going around, just avoid it.