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  • The Feminine Superthemes
    by Jem at 13:59 on 28 December 2010
    Following on from yesterday's post on Helen Jacey's "The Woman In The Story" here is more food for thought.

    Before you can write a heroine with the M-factor (Memorability Factor, which, coi-incidentally has nothing to do with being 'nice' and everything to do with being someone your audience will remember long after the story has ended) you need to pin yourself down. What is your take on things - your world view? What is your story going to say about women and their feminine roles? Whatever your own slant, it will affect your themes, characterisation and story.

    "A Feminine Supertheme reflects your conscious and unconscious attitudes about women and gender and shapes all your narrative choices" Jacey maintains.

    She suggests that whenever we see a film - or I would say read a novel - some female heroines resonate with you more strongly than others because they reflect our own beliefs of what a woman is. Others irritate us beyond all measure. It's quite interesting to think of heroines you don't like and ask yourself why not?

    If you're not sure of your own attitude she summarizes the feminine superthemes thus:-

    - Familiar Feminity
    - Feel Good Feminity
    - Fighting Feminity
    - Future Feminity

    1. Familiar Feminity
    If you're a Familiar Feminity writer you have a strong motivation to create women who don't want to change the world. To you feminism has righted some wrongs and improved women's status but is no longer necessary. Your heroine isn't going to question her identity as a woman and neither will your story. At hear she's a family maker. It's a bit like you're saying "I'm not out to change the world I'm just saying how it is" Jacey says.
    You might want to celebrate women's every day lives. You won't want her to be a ballbreaker and you won't want her to suffer too much - and if she does you will make sure she survives.
    Familiar Feminity stories show women getting married, finding husbands, being wives, good mothers or are innocent victims who end up being saved by others.
    If all that sounds a bit wet think films like "The Young Victoria", "Brief Encounter", "Pride and Prejudice", "The Queen".
    Even if life is hard for your heroine for a while, at the end her value system will remain intact.
    2. Feelgood Feminity
    This is for writers who believe that feminism has truly empowered women and that women are now in a position to redefine what it means to be a woman whether in the home or the workplace or in love and other relationships as well as their relationship with money. You might even call yourself post-feminist rather than feminist, which, to you, is a word that always sounds a bit too angry.
    "You could say that FGF gets a kick out of women obsessing about being women" They show ultrafeminine often affluent worlds where fashion, glamour, shopping, cooking, beauty and motherhood are central to a woman's identity. This is why films infused with FGF are often castigated as being shallow. These films/novels have resolutely happy endings and the heroine will always find that whatever has stood in her way on her "journey" is something that can be changed within herself. Think "Sex and The City" , "Confessions of a Sopaholic", "Mistresses", "No ANgels" "The Holiday".
    3. Fighting Feminity
    If you believe Patriarchy still exists then this is what your Fighting Feminity meets head on. If you're interested in heroines embarking on "Women Against the System" journeys head on, then this theme is for you. Think "Bend It Like Beckham", "An Education","Erin Brockovich", "Shirley Valentine" and "Rabbit Proof Fence" where 3 little girls evade institutionalisation at the hands of a cruel man in order to search for the natural mothers.
    Comedies too can reflect this theme - the St Trinian's Films for example
    Men in these stories tend to reflect backward ideas towards feminism and other women, too, can also represent backward attitudes - think "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Mona Lisa Smile" where the heroines take on female persecutirs
    4. Future Feminity
    If you just want to write a good story in which the heroine just happens to be a woman then this is the theme for you. You aspire to write stories where gender issues have been resolved and women don't feel the need to reclaim feminity, obsess about it or get bogged down agonizing about gender issues. It's a hard one because when you have a heroine you will always risk "being a woman" issues. Sci-fi and and utopian films are great films to write if this is your world view.
    Think "Buffy", "Star Trek", CSI. You can also use biopic as a good genre for FF where a woman's life is defined by her passion - "La Vie En Rose" for instance.

    There is also a Fifth Feminity that Jacey mentions. This Fantasy Feminity and this is one where heroines do not thrive, where female characterization remains two dimensional. The audience is usually young and male. The characters are either idealized male fantasies of feminity or projections of misogyny and most women can't relate to them. Women are young and beautiful, either victime or betrayers and exist to be saved or brutalised by men.

    So what kind of Feminity does your writing tend towards?

    More in a couple of days.


  • Re: The Feminine Superthemes
    by Astrea at 18:32 on 28 December 2010

    Hmm. Well, I'm a bit wary of labels, but mine tends towards the FF model - my main character in my NiP is dealing with a lot of 'life stuff' (plus a few little extra little bits just to keep things 'interesting', hehe!). She doesn't want to change the world, but she does want to save her family, and she certainly doesn't expect anyone else to do it for her.

    If there's any feminist theme, I suppose it could be the strength of women in adversity. But as I say, I'm very wary of attaching any sort of overt label to it.

    Anyone else?
  • Re: The Feminine Superthemes
    by Jem at 20:35 on 28 December 2010
    I don't think it's really about attaching a label to your story as much as understanding what your world view is. Personally, in my writing gender is always central. Thus I rarely relate to Future Feminity stories. My own writing for women's mags is bound to be Familiar Feminity but I have a strong leaning towards Fighting Familiarity and as a rule can't abide Feel Good Feminity. The writer herself is aware of labels but has sold many film scripts so knows the way the Film Industry works and is trying to point writers away from creating 2-dimensional female characters and towards creating more complex characters. Hence, if you don't know where you stand before you start writing you aren't going to remain true to your own beliefs. She also mentions heroines who may be one kind of heroine - say Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect who on the surface would appear to be future feminine (she solves the crimes regardless of her gender) but gender is always an issue so really she is a Fighting Feminine.

    I would really recommend this book but it may be it's more suitable to screenplay writers as she is desperate to promote writing female characters who aren't cliches and who are very wishy-washy.

    <Added>

    Fighting Familiarity

    This is obviously mix of the fighting and the familiar!
  • Re: The Feminine Superthemes
    by Astrea at 08:17 on 29 December 2010
    Fighting Familiarity

    This is obviously mix of the fighting and the familiar!


    Oh, I like that - I think my writing definitely fits that one best