The Disposable Woman: A Trope That Really Needs to Go

Motivation is one of the central parts of a story; if your main character doesn't have any motivation then chances are good you can't really call him a hero. If you're having trouble lighting a fire under your lead's nether regions though, relax, there's a simple way to get it done.

All you have to do is kill a woman who's important to him.

Instructions are on page 24.

A wife, a daughter, a mother (all three if you're time-traveling in Alabama); it doesn't matter who she is as long as she's important to your main character. Her death will act as the springboard for whatever it is your main character needs to do in your story. Maybe that thing is to put on a cape and cowl to prowl the streets at night, maybe it's asking the woman he loves to marry him, or maybe it's throwing his badge out the window to go on a blood-soaked vengeance spree, but whatever it is all you need to do is drill that special lady in your lead's life.

Or is it?

The Disposable Woman

I swear I'll avenge you... you... shit, I knew your name a minute ago...

This trope, appropriately labeled the Disposable Woman (here's the page for it at TV Tropes), is perhaps one of the greatest examples of lazy writing that no one questions. We see it in video games like Final Fantasy VII (it's Vincent Valentine's entire back story), and in comic books like The Punisher and Batman. It's a favorite in action movies like Mel Gibson's Edge of Darkness, and  it's the entire point of the first Deathwish film. The female character in question is not a vibrant, living part of the story that our audience gets to fall in love with. She isn't someone whose death truly affects us. She's typically just a ghostly, haunting reason for whatever is going on; she exists solely as the catalyst for our hero's (and it's always the hero, never the heroine) actions. If we get to see her at all it will be for a brief few flashes until something awful happens to her.

What's The Problem?

To explain what's wrong with this trope I'll give you an example of how it's done right. In Stephen King's novel Bag of Bones we meet up with author Mike Noonan. Mike's life changes dramatically when his wife Jo dies (but she maintains a ghostly presence throughout the book, making her a Lost Lenore rather than a Disposable Woman. In short, we actually see how and why she's important to Mike). Mike goes up to his summer home where he meets and falls in love with a much younger woman named Mattie Devore. This embroils him in her custody battle for her daughter Kyla against her father-in-law. For more than half the book we learn about Mike, Jo, and his new lady love, before a man with a gun shows up and kills Mattie. In a piece of meta-criticism Mike remembers how when he would get stuck writing a story he'd just have a man with a gun come in and kill the woman, something he's horrified by with his lover's blood all over his hands.

That right there is why this trope is such a problem; the shallowness of how it's typically used.

In Bag of Bones we're invested in both of the women that Mike loses. His wife is more than just a convenient reason for him to get out of town, and his new lover's death is something that rocks Mike and the audience to their bones. They're both given depth, and a continued presence in the story. In short the author worked to be dynamic, rather than just relying on a trope crutch to prop up the narrative.

Why Does It Matter?

On a professional level the Disposable Woman is lazy. Just as, if not more lazy, then throwing in a rape scene just to add drama or to spackle over a plot point to your story (more on that here). It's quick shorthand for a motivation that readers have seen a hundred times, and it absolves the writer of doing the hard work of pulling the reader in. For a recent example look at the character of Drax the Destroyer from the film Guardians of the Galaxy. He's a hulking brute who's murdered hundreds of people trying to get to the man who killed his wife and child... but should we feel for him? Is a man (using the term loosely) capable of such wanton brutality someone who was ever a good father? A good husband? Or was he always like this, and the death of his family simply gave him the excuse? We don't know; we're just supposed to take that tragedy at face value and accept that it made Drax who he is now.

Secondly using the Disposable Woman is sending a message to readers. A message that as writers we should really, truly consider before we put it down on paper.

Don't be that guy.

Stories carry messages. If your story is about a modern day knight with a machine gun off to slay the dragon because it kidnapped a princess, then that sends a message. It tells male readers that violence is an acceptable solution to problems, it tells female readers that they shouldn't struggle when taken captive, and it tells dragons they're horribly evil fucks who deserve to be shot.

The problem with the Disposable Woman is that she sends a message to women just as surely as Rapunzel or Sleeping Beauty does. First off, it tells women that the only role they can have to motivate a story is to die, and that's not the way anyone wants to be represented. Secondly it tends to show women that women only have importance when they're connected to men; mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, daughters, and girlfriends. Even if there are other female characters in the story that stigma is going to be sitting over the hero's motivation.

That is not to say that you can't use the Disposable Woman in your story. The next time that setup occurs to you though, ask yourself if that's the only way. Does your FBI agent's wife have to be murdered before he starts playing hardball with the mafia? Instead, why not have her leave him because he's too dedicated to the case? Why not have him driven half-crazy because he keeps seeing men he knows are guilty go free? Why not give him a particular mad-on against the crime that a particular organization is committing and getting away with?

There's always multiple sources of motivation. If you sidestep the neat and easy way to set up a story you're likely to discover more about your characters, and to create a richer story than you might otherwise have written.


As always thanks for dropping by The Literary Mercenary. Follow me by putting your email in the box on your right hand side, or by going to my Facebook or Tumblr. If you'd like to keep me, and this blog, going then check out my Literary Mercenary gear by clicking the link above, buy a book, make a one time donation by clicking the "Shakespeare Gotta Get Paid, Son" button on the right hand side, or by dropping by my Patreon page and becoming a patron today!

We Are The Dreamers of Dreams: How Authors Impact Readers and Society

Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and think of the most influential piece of art you've been exposed to. It might be a painting, a film, a novel, or a poem. Look at the events in your life, and ask how that piece of art changed the way you look at the world. Did you let go of grudges with your family? Decide to change your career? Did you finally start going to the gym more often? Whatever you did, picture that change in your world view.

Now imagine if that change swept through an entire culture. That's the power authors, as a whole, are wielding.

Your word processor is jammed barrel-first against society's brain pan.

I hear some of you coughing "bullshit". I'd like to point out that William Gibson created the idea of "cyberspace" while writing on a typewriter, Aldous Huxley predicted a world where privacy was a dim memory, and Jules Verne showed us a future where humans traveled above the clouds and beneath the seas. Dozens, if not hundreds, of writers out there have used their stories to present possibilities, ignite imaginations, and to show their readers a world of potential.

What's Wrong With That?

What's wrong with it is that literature is a double-edged sword. It can be used to shine a spotlight on the evils of the world, and it can even motivate people to fight against those evils. "Heart of Darkness" is a prime example. On the other hand literature can also be used to strengthen cultural stereotypes and to enforce the status quo.

Want to try that one more time, real slow, and in English?

All right, let's use specific examples of negative impact here. Maria Nikolajeva, a professor of literature at Cambridge University, put together a conference to discuss how books like Twilight are affecting young adults who read them. A full report of it can be found here, but what happened was that a bunch of academics got together to discuss whether or not a blockbuster book crammed to the gills with conservative, Mormon lessons about how young women should think and act thinly disguised as a sexy, angsty vampire story was affecting how teenagers were seeing the world. The answer; basically, yeah. Take the initial impact and expand it as a thousand knock-offs try to cash in on the fame of the original, and culture has been carpet-bombed with exposure to a given idea. In this case the idea that abusive relationships are, in fact, the most romantic things out there. That's going to lead to problems sooner, rather than later.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

One story may not be able to truly shape a culture. Even runaway successes only have so much force behind them. However, think of the novel that shapes a new genre or sets a trend as the head of a spear. If enough other novels, even ones that aren't seen by many people, follow that same path then you don't have just a single smash; you have a stream from a literary power washer. That kind of thing can upset the balance, or dig in established social norms even deeper. It can also turn vampires into something unrecognizable.

Let's think about women's roles in popular fiction. How common is it for a woman to be the main focus of a story, and not a side character or a love interest who must be alternatively wooed or saved from danger? How often are female characters referred to by their physical attributes? How often are characters who don't fit a cultural standard of beauty given important roles in fiction? The answers to all of these questions are indicative of the relationship between fiction and the culture the stories are a part of.

And that is just the tip of this shit.

You can expound on these questions for all sorts of social issues. How are homosexual characters treated in a story? Are persons with a trans-identity featured in a positive way, or even featured at all? Are inter-racial pairings common in a story, or are they so radical that they must become the story? Are characters from ethnic minorities shown in strong roles, or are they simply used as lackeys? Alternatively are characters from the dominant cultural ethnicity shown as being better at activities that typically belong to an ethnic minority (swordplay, martial arts, music, etc.)? All of this, and more, can make an impact.

These stories will then go on to shape the generations that read and watch them. If all the heroes are white men, the message in that is that other genders or ethnicities simply aren't hero material. If women are pushed to the side and turned into damsels in distress, sex objects, or both, then the message to girls is that you are someone else's happy ending rather than someone in control of her own story. Even if a writer didn't mean to send that kind of message, and he or she is just going off experience and cultural cues, the story will still be broadcasting this subtext.

But I Just Want to Tell a Good Story!

You're preaching to the choir, friend of mine. Personally I'd just like to write stories about Western gun hands taking on towns full of vampires, or alien-human hybrid super soldiers uncovering government plots. But as writers we have to ask ourselves "why?" whenever we choose to make a decision with our stories. Only by doing our very best to present realistic characters in believable stories which reflect authentic worlds and cultures can we use our impacts for the greatest good. Of course it's also possible to write stories which reflect nothing more than crass stereotypes which supplant real research with appeals to the audience's basest prejudices. After all, that's part of how "50 Shades of Grey" got so damnably famous.

As always, thanks for dropping in on the Literary Mercenary. If you'd like to keep us running feel free to donate on the button in the upper right hand corner, or check us out at our Patreon page. If you'd like to stay up to the minute with our updates, just follow us on Facebook or Tumblr. Lastly, if you're really curious about that hybrid super soldier thing, go check out Heart of the Myrmidon at Amazon here.

How to Write a Strong Female Character

So you've decided to write a strong female character. Maybe she's your lead, maybe she's a secondary, or maybe she's the villain. Whatever role she fills, you want to make absolutely sure your best foot goes forward as a writer as you create a woman the likes of which no one will soon forget. The road ahead is paved with good intentions folks, so I suggest you get your hands on a good map.

Muscular Isn't Strong

If I were to say "She Hulk is a strong female character," would you know why?

Is the word "hulk" a clue?

For those of you who said it's because she can bench press a small tank, you may be missing the point of the lesson here. Jennifer Walters is Bruce Banner's cousin. She wound up with a blood transfusion that gave her many of the same anger-induced hulk powers as Dr. B., and over time she's been worked in as a member of the Avengers who can walk through a hail of bullets and rip apart alien war droids without breaking a sweat.

But you know what else? Jennifer is also a professional criminal defense attorney. She's a woman with great compassion, strength of purpose, and personal ethics. She is also not someone who, even stripped of her powers, will let you walk over her. While being a big green rage monster is certainly impressive, it's the latter characteristics that make her a strong female character. If you want a strong female character you need to examine who she is, what she wants, and how she handles both herself and the world around her. You don't have to be able to sword-fight a kraken or arm-wrestle a giant to be strong.

Aggressive Isn't Strong

There's a trend in fiction for women with attitude. It's not new, and in fact it's wormed it's way into quite a few sections of TV Tropes (stop in and take a look around if you have a few hours to kill). Strong female leads are snarky, rough, standoffish, crude, and more than a little harsh... or at least that's what you'll end up with if you're not careful.

The aggressive/bitch female character has been done to death, and she is roughly half the population of the paranormal romance genre. You've seen her, at least in passing. She's constantly talking down to people, cursing like a sailor doing a stint as an over-the-road trucker, and she's generally seen as rough-and-ready.

Ask yourself this question; if you made this character male, would he been seen as strong, or as just another posturing, preening dick wad?  I'm not saying these characters don't have a right to exist. By all means, write as many socially aggressive and foul-mouthed characters as you want! Just don't delude yourself into thinking that a "take no shit" attitude translates instantly to a pillar of strength. Mostly it just makes the character bitchy, regardless of the gender.

Violent Isn't Strong

This is sort of a sub-section of the "many kinds of strength" mentioned above, but I felt it deserved its own slot. Let me be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a female character who mixes it up with the bad guys. Machine-gun-toting G.I. Janes, mysterious snipers, magic-driven sorceresses, and mutant power-houses are all more than welcome. That said, having the ability to kick the shit out of someone doesn't make you strong.

No, no, no, no... a thousand times no!

This archetype, which I recently found out thanks to Tumblr (follow me there if you're of a mind) is referred to as the fighting fucktoy. You couldn't have avoided this one if you were sitting under a rock with your eyes closed and your thumbs in your ears. In movies she's Elektra, Catwoman (the Halle Berry version anyway), Alice (of Resident Evil fame), and the list goes on and on. She's a one-woman weapon, covered in guns, resistant to damage, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound and beat a horde of ninjas to death with her bare hands. So why isn't she strong?

The reason is that it isn't about her; it's about the male audience viewing her. All you need as proof of that is what she's wearing. If a woman was a dedicated vampire hunter she would, I guaran-goddamn-tee you, be wearing body armor. She wouldn't have a bare throat, much less a bare midriff. She would have sensible boots, probably with steel toes, and none of this stiletto-spike nonsense. Do you know why? Because if she were this kind of hardened warrior, even if she were indestructible for some reason or other, she would not go into the field in fetish gear. It's impractical, and it goes directly against the grain of the sort of character that's being portrayed.

There's a lot wrapped up in this, from endless arguments about boob armor (yes they exist), to why female superheroes dress so skimpily, to just how much attention should be paid to a female character's outfit during a fight scene. So, I'll cut through all of that and just say this instead. If you are writing a woman warrior, switch her gender. If she looks, sounds, or acts ridiculous, chances are it's because you tried to make her strong and sexy, but failed at both.

Sexy Isn't Strong

Feminine wiles have been used in stories ever since oral history. Whether it's the Black Widow seducing secrets out of world leaders, or the exotic dancer who dangles men like plot points from her fingers, sexuality and the embracing thereof is supposed to be a sign that a character is strong. It's not. It just means she's sexy.

In all fairness, there are worse things to be.

Sex and sexuality is an important part of who a character is and what she does. If she uses sex as a weapon or a tool, then that is a part of her character. If she's promiscuous, then that is also all right. She could also be a temple virgin, a medieval nun, or a happily married housewife. Sex doesn't make you strong either by its presence or its absence.

Masculine Isn't Strong

I'm not even going to grace this section with a picture. There's this idea that in order to be strong, a female character can't be feminine. This is hypocrisy at its finest. An author who falls into this trap strips away anything feminine from a character; she won't use makeup, she'll dress in masculine clothing, she'll use blunt language, and in many circumstances she'll even approach sex from a more traditional masculine perspective. Often the mysteries of the feminine confuse her, such as getting her hair cut at a stylist, wearing dresses, or the finer arts of seduction. This is not inherently wrong, as there are occasions where a woman might not have been exposed to these aspects of culture. It doesn't make a character strong, and if taken to extremes it can make your character seem outright ridiculous.

The Secret of Strength

Okay, so now we've covered what a strong female character isn't. So how do you do it? Start by listening to this man.

Who were you expecting?

I am not saying here that George R. R. Martin is the greatest writer who ever lived. Nor am I saying that you should imitate everything he does. However, to paraphrase him, when George was asked how he writes strong female leads his response amounted to, "I was always had the weird notion that women are people."

There you go.

The idea of a strong female character is flawed premise; simply write a strong character. That character should not be wholly defined by gender anymore than he or she is defined by ethnicity, profession, familial upbringing, or anything else. These and a thousand other things will shape the character into who he or she is, but no one factor should be given the absolute power to define everything else.

Writing strong characters isn't easy; if it was then everyone would be doing it. But much like getting six-pack abs or winning a golden globe award, there are no short cuts. You have to practice, research, and constantly ask yourself who your characters really are. Only then will you be able to create real, believable characters regardless of their genders.


As always, thanks for popping in on the Literary Mercenary. If you'd like to follow more of my writing then fan my Facebook page, or check me out on Goodreads. For those gamers in the audience my blog Improved Initiative tackles a wide variety of roleplaying game issues, offering tips and tricks to make your game that much better. Please spread the word, and remember, this page runs on your ad clicks!