For the life of me, I will never ever understand the whiny male bitches who get upset at female protagonists in action movies.
And I’m not speaking from the point of view of ideology.
I’m speaking as a lover of stories, a guy who both produces and consumes them.
When Laurie Strode proved the one person who Michael Myers could not take down; when waitress Sarah Conner found the resources to take down the Terminator; when Ellen Ripley snarled, “Get away from her, you bitch,” I thrilled.
But there’s more.
I love when Katherine Hepburn takes down Charles Bronson in PAT AND MIKE.
I love when Nicole Kidman showed such resourcefulness against Billy Zane in DEAD CALM.
I love when world’s champion blind lady Audrey Hepburn successfully defends herself from a rapist/murderer played by Alan Arkin in WAIT UNTIL DARK.
I love when Kate Nelligan proves more than Nazi Spy Donald Sutherland can handle in EYE OF THE NEEDLE.
I love when Frances McDormand proves tougher than the killer played by Emmett Walsh, at the end of BLOOD SIMPLE.
I love that MAD MAX FURY ROAD is really all about Furiosa, and I love that the eye-candy brides of Immortan Joe are for the most-part as filled with pride and resolve as she is.
I love Beatrix Kiddo, from KILL BILL.
All other factors being equal, I’m predisposed to love movies that come down to the Last Girl Standing. I’m a fan of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies. I really am. One of the things I liked most about the most recent installment, ROGUE NATION, is that it hinged on a femme fatale whose loyalties remained ambiguous for much of the film – and I adored that it was her, and not Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, who got to take on that movie’s iteration of the action-movie trope, the Hulking Unstoppable Thug.
I love the Black Widow.
I love Sydney Bristow from ALIAS.
I don’t like ELEMENTARY much, but I think the two-parter where Joan Watson, and not Sherlock Holmes, took down a female Moriarty was terrific.
I love it in books.
I loved Laurie King’s THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE and some of the follow-up novels, where young Mary Russell proves herself the intellectual equal of Sherlock Holmes.
I adore when Chyna Shepherd spends several hundred pages taking on and ultimately defeating the serial killer Edgler Vess, in Dean Koontz’s INTENSITY.
I love Clarice Starling, not just entering into the abyss, but climbing out, in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
I love Smoky Barrett, the toughest shorter-than-five-foot woman you’ll ever meet, in the novels of Cody McFadyen.
I love it when Lois Lane is tough.
I was moved to make Dejah Shapiro the most formidable person of my Vossoff and Nimmitz stories, Andrea Cort the most formidable person of the series that bears her name, and Fernie What one of the kickass little ten-year-old girls you’ll ever meet in the GUSTAV GLOOM books.
And there’s a screenplay just sold by a friend of mine, all about a tough woman who enters a rotten little town, faces down its evil bastards, and cleans up the joint, against heavy opposition.
Love that.
Why do I love all this? Not because I *prefer* female protagonists, though in some cases I do. I happen to love the quintessentially male heroes James Bond, Jack Reacher, James Kirk, Luther, Virgil Tibbs, Indiana Jones and John McLane too; also, dammit, Sam Spade, many many others.
But by being open to great kickass female protagonists, I have a key life advantage over the whiny male bitches like Gamergaters who get upset when first person shooters feature a female protagonist, Rabid Puppies who get upset when the brave space captain is a woman, and you know, current vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence, who was so offended by the existence of Mulan that he attacked Disney for trying to indoctrinate children with a female action hero.
And that advantage is this: I GET TWICE AS MUCH AWESOMENESS AS THEY DO.
As a storyteller, I learned long ago that putting a resourceful female in a life-threatening situation is a great trick, because even if you’re open to her being Amazing (in either the rise-to-the-occasion or always-knew-she-was sense}, the default reaction of the audience to her predicament is still to feel her vulnerability – and that’s a great dynamic to play with. Honestly, when you’re writing a thriller, a female protagonist is the gift that keeps on giving. But as a member of the audience, that same dynamic works with me. I feel more suspense, I feel more empathy, and I feel more exultation when the heroine comes out the other side intact.
I get to enjoy twice as much awesomeness as the whiny male bitches do, because I don’t choke on every moment when a woman gets to do more than just be rescued.
So, no, I didn’t throw a total shit-fit when I found out that Paul Feig was making an all-female GHOSTBUSTERS. I still haven’t seen the movie, but I won’t reveal my deep inadequacy and immaturity by complaining about the very idea at length, on the internet.
I GET TWICE AS MUCH AWESOMENESS IN MY STORY CONSUMPTION AS THOSE WHINY-ASS MALE BITCHES DO.
I’m a lucky guy, that way.
Comment By: Berry Kercheval
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
Didn’t Laurie R. KIng write BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE? Carole Nelson Douglas did write a series with Irene Adler, to be sure.
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
Fixed! I always mix up the authors of those two series.
Comment By: Berry Kercheval
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
Adam-Troy Castro ok, want me to delete the comment? But now I have TWO new writers to check out. Win!
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
No, leave a trail for my fallibility.
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 11:18 am
THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE is a grand stand-alone.
Comment By: Patricia Williams-King
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
The Sick Puppies are a mystery to me……I loved it when Marion Ravenwood Cold cocked Indy!
Comment By: Margaret Alia Denny
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
Great post!
Comment By: Marguerite Reed
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
~headdesk~ and yet using a gendered slur….
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
Marguerite: it’s called irony.
“Whiny-Ass Bitch” is what they’re being, an example of what they think they’re perceiving. You will likely have a hard time finding many cases of me speaking as myself (as opposed as putting words in the mouth of a character), applying that adjective to a woman, in print.
“Assholes,” or whatever, would not have been as effective, in this limited context.
Comment By: Al Sirois
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
About half of my lead characters are women. And there’s nearly always at least one strong woman among the secondary characters.
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
You get the effect I’m talking about? That even if they’re the toughest people in the room, on the page they’re worried about more?
Comment By: Al Sirois
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
Sure.
Comment By: Terri Lynn Coop
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
My main series character is a disgraced female attorney. It also ramps up the tension in the bad guy confrontation scenes. No matter the situation, the risks and dangers are different for women. And in the first book, I made her love interest watch helpless while the threat unfolded.
Comment By: Patricia Williams-King
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
My Toughest woman character is Taniguel, Gene’s wife.
Comment By: David R. Palmer
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
You sure get no argument from Candy and me…
Comment By: Susan Macdonald
July 18th, 2016 at 1:17 pm
I love Candy. Super smart, super tough.
Comment By: David R. Palmer
July 18th, 2016 at 3:17 pm
She and I thank you. Terry says, “How ’bout that…”
Comment By: Barbara Kwasniewski
July 18th, 2016 at 4:18 pm
CANDY, CANDY, CANDY!
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
Related by John Scalzi:
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/07/17/a-short-review-of-ghostbusters-and-a-longer-pummel-of-manboys/
Comment By: Donovan S. Brain
July 18th, 2016 at 1:17 pm
Haven’t seen it. My problem is that it is a reboot instead of continuing the story, and yeah, making them all women seems like a desperation move. I really want this to be a success so there will be more Ghostbuster movies, instead of it being so-so and there’s never going to be another one.
Comment By: Greg Cox
July 18th, 2016 at 1:17 pm
Then again, the original was 30 years ago. Maybe people our age wanted a continuation, but what about modern audiences? I mean, did anybody complain that the 1980s version of THE FLY was a not a continuation of the 1950s version? Ditto for THE THING or INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, etc.
Rebooting a franchise after a quarter-century or so does not strike me as unreasonable. 🙂
Comment By: Mark Shallcross
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
I’ve always been biased towards First Person Shooter gals. When cross questioned about this by my 10 yr old (specifically Warcraft, back when it first came out), I said something about “if I had to look at a [toon, we didnt call them that back then] at a characters ass for 10 hours straight, I might as well enjoy myself. He was totally left in the dark.
Why maybe a girls butt might be worth looking at was the very first “um, when you’re older” remark I ever made.
Comment By: Donovan S. Brain
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
My relative was upset back in the day because her kid was playing TOMB RAIDER and she saw it as T & A. I told her it was the most advanced game avatar ever, capable of shooting with both hands while somersaulting, and to play the game you have to play a girl. Got it? She did.
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
As an experiment, I have tried various other dismissive nouns instead of “bitches.”
The closest I have come to having the same impact, here, is nudnik.
Comment By: Alison Spencer
July 18th, 2016 at 11:18 am
No, “bitches” is what hits the mark. While still having some female associations, I think it’s a crossover word that has come to address behavior and attitude regardless of gender.
Comment By: Donovan S. Brain
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
I always liked nudnik. You don’t hear that much anymore.
Comment By: Susan Shwartz
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
Yutz
Comment By: Barbara Kwasniewski
July 18th, 2016 at 4:18 pm
Not the same, in my opinion. Nudnik feels much milder.
Comment By: Patricia Williams-King
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
Since we’re using Yiddish words…..what about PUTZ ?
Comment By: Al Sirois
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
That’s not *very* close, is it.
Comment By: Al Sirois
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
I suggest “yutz” or “gagootz.”
Comment By: Arlene Wicks Allen
July 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
Word.
Comment By: David Vineyard
July 18th, 2016 at 11:18 am
Modesty Blaise convinced me in the sixties.
Comment By: Peter Ravn Rasmussen
July 18th, 2016 at 12:17 pm
Ditto. I was exposed to Modesty Blaise early enough that I never had the chance to form the pernicious women-can’t-do-that idea.
Comment By: Barbara Kwasniewski
July 18th, 2016 at 4:18 pm
Emma Peel.
Comment By: Kiffin Eckert
July 18th, 2016 at 11:18 am
He don’t look at me. In my first novel the leading lady killed the villain and saved three men.
Comment By: Michael Harper
July 18th, 2016 at 11:18 am
Near the end of “Serenity”, when they think River has been killed by the Reavers, and the door opens… I half expected to see her hurt or dying. To see her triumphant, dripping blood that’s not hers, made me cheer, even if I did expect it. The Gsmergators and Puppies can go fuck them selves. GRRRRL POWER!
Comment By: Edward Foy
July 18th, 2016 at 8:17 pm
I’m not sure if you hit the s instead the a accidentally or on purpose, but Gsmergators really works.
Comment By: Charles Mohapel
July 18th, 2016 at 12:17 pm
I would so love to see Moron Mike Pence argue against strong female characters in “Game of Thrones” like Cersei Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Ellaria Sand, and the Sand Snakes with George R.R. Martin. I would record the verbal dismemberment and put it on YouTube for the World’s edification and entertainment. 😉
Comment By: Cliff Adams
July 18th, 2016 at 12:17 pm
When I first started watching the TV series “Mad Men” I thought little of the female characters… the secretaries, the one new account exec, the wives. All were in their own ways, powerless in the male dominated world. Yet as each grew in importance, at least one became annoying, until the truth appeared. Discovering how many writers and producers were women, I realized the “Mad Men” were mad about how weak they were and how subjugation was a sign of weakness not power.
When “Mad Men” is viewed as the women’s view of the so called man’s world, it become far more powerful and dramatic.
Most of the heroes in my life have been women.
Comment By: Susan Shwartz
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
Mike Pence got ticked off about Mulan? There was an historical princess who did just that, and Pence has a pence sized… Wanna bet?
Comment By: Sharane Carr
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
When did Pence get ticked off about Mulan?
Comment By: Greg Cox
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
He wrote an editorial condemning it when the movie first came out, so 1998 . . . .
Comment By: Sharane Carr
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
Holy… well, we do know he has a problem with strong women, even animated cartoon women.
Comment By: Greg Cox
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mister-ill-make-a-man-out-of-you?utm_term=.vlBPLRW2M#.obQg7LYz4
Comment By: Susan Macdonald
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
Disney didn’t create Mulan. It’s an ancient Chinese folk tale, as well known in China as Cinderella is here.
Comment By: Sharane Carr
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
Aside from the fact Pence has a problem with strong women, and probably has a problem acknowledging any culture not “Murican”, I’m going to assume he’s never heard of Molly Pitcher.
Comment By: Connie Hirsch
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
Sharane Carr I’m not sure anybody outside of NJ has heard about Molly.
Comment By: Patricia Williams-King
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
Has any one mentioned this to Harlan Ellison? He would chew up the Puppies and spit out the bones.
Comment By: Nadine Brooks Taylor
July 18th, 2016 at 6:18 pm
Connie Hirsch. Molly Pitcher was in my 4th grade history book in1979.
Comment By: Sharane Carr
July 18th, 2016 at 6:18 pm
Connie Hirsch In the 1960s, she was in ALL the history books that talked about the American Revolution. Molly, or more properly Mary Ludwig Hays, was held up as an example of what a woman could do if she put her mind to it. And I had friends who went to schools all across the continental United States.
Comment By: Connie Hirsch
July 18th, 2016 at 6:18 pm
Huh — and here I thought we learned about it because she was from NJ.
Comment By: Sharane Carr
July 18th, 2016 at 6:18 pm
She was, but like Crispus Attucks, because she isn’t a White Male, the Right Wing has pretty much done all they could to erase her from history.
Comment By: Charles Mohapel
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
Given how *anti-female* Mike Pence acts, I suspect 2 things. 1) He cross-dresses in women’s clothing, underwear at least. Imagine the Granny panties. 2) He goes to a Dominatrix to be abused regularly. 😉
Comment By: Sharane Carr
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
I’m thinking he prefers silky, satin panties. They feel much nicer on the skin that cotton or flannel “granny panties”.
Comment By: Charles Mohapel
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
Sharane Carr, We’ll just have to wait and see. 😉 Overall, what are the chances of my predictions of coming true?
Comment By: Sharane Carr
July 18th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
I don’t go near sucker bets.
Comment By: Charles Mohapel
July 18th, 2016 at 2:18 pm
Sharane Carr, I wasn’t asking you to place a wager, just guess on if and when his dirty laundry comes out like a referee’s red flag on the football field. 😉
Comment By: Sharane Carr
July 18th, 2016 at 2:18 pm
Who knows. And when it does come out, he’ll play the Jesus card, and claim he’s been forgiven. Like all of them, he’s a lying hypocrite.
Comment By: Charles Mohapel
July 18th, 2016 at 2:18 pm
Sharane Carr, Why did my mind suddenly leap forward to St. Peter ROTFLHAO on the ground in front of the Pearly Gates when Pence arrives under the *delusion* that he’s getting into Heaven, then two Valkyrie-like She-Devils take Pence by the elbows and drag him away kicking and screaming like a petulant 2 year old? 😉
Comment By: Steve Timberlake
July 18th, 2016 at 2:18 pm
And if you think Peter guffaws on that occasion, wait until Huckabee gets there!
Comment By: Charles Mohapel
July 18th, 2016 at 2:18 pm
Steve Timberlake, Now imagine if everyone from this week’s Republitard National Freak Show were to line up all at once and try to get in… 😉 The Devil’s Minions would be kept very busy taking them all away afterward. 😉
Comment By: Steve Timberlake
July 18th, 2016 at 3:17 pm
Or The Lord Himself would say “Oh, to hell with them” and banish them to the depths in one large flashy BOOM!
Comment By: Charles Mohapel
July 18th, 2016 at 3:17 pm
Steve Timberlake, I believe that the Good Lord is more patient than that with the *Lower Life Forms*. 😉
Comment By: Steve Timberlake
July 18th, 2016 at 4:18 pm
He’s had a LOT of provocation from that bunch over the centuries.
Comment By: Patricia Williams-King
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
Charles Mohapel What a wonderful image.
Comment By: Charles Mohapel
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
Patricia Williams-King, Thank you. 🙂
Comment By: Josh Olson
July 18th, 2016 at 4:18 pm
Ladies can’t be action heroes. Duh!
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 4:18 pm
Heh.
Comment By: Sharane Carr
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Batgirl, Supergirl… shall I continue?
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
I promise you, Josh knows.
Comment By: Josh Olson
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
I thought the “duh” would have given it away.
Where were all these He Man Lady Haters when Aliens was breaking every box office record?
Comment By: Charles Mohapel
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
Josh Olson, Soiling their diapers. 😉
Comment By: Steve Timberlake
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
Ladies can also be Gods, I’ve been told.
Comment By: Patricia Williams-King
July 18th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
Marion Ravenwood, Leia, Rey, Captain Janeway, Seven of Nine, Not super Heroes….but I wouldn’t start a fight with them.
Comment By: Steve Timberlake
July 18th, 2016 at 6:18 pm
Cordelia Naismith. Ayesha.
Comment By: David Markham
July 18th, 2016 at 5:57 pm
You do appear to be a victim of the successful campaign to turn the complaints about the reboot of Ghostbusters into being *all* about the fact that it stars women. It wasn’t. It was *mostly* about it being a reboot. Just as Gamergate was about journalistic ethics until *it* was successfully spun into being about women in games.
So, congrats, you’ve been duped by a mass media company into taking sides in a battle that didn’t exist until they tried to beat back the bad press their own decision to reboot the series brought them.
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 7:34 pm
This is why you’re wrong.
First, as you will notice, the essay is about a whole shitload of things other than Ghostbusters. The Ghostbusters furor may have been the last straw that prompted the post, but it was certainly not the only straw.
Second of all, to hear immature male voices complaining about wimmen rooning their action movies, you only have to listen. I have read the comment threads. I have seen the tweets. I have had it bloody well said to me. I have seen so much of it from so many quarters — as I’ve said, up to and including Mike Pence, complaining about MULAN — that GHOSTBUSTERS alone is a footnote.
Don’t tell me that I haven’t heard what I’ve heard, read what I’ve read, and encountered what I’ve encountered.
I’ll post what I think of the movie itself when I see it, whether it’s theatrically or on home video.
Until then: If a movie is capable of raping your childhood, you’ve starved your adulthood.
Comment By: Paul Mauser
July 18th, 2016 at 8:17 pm
I can see one thing you left out. You forgot to Poison the Well and say that any female leads that Gamers or Puppies like are REALLY just Men with Tits.
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 8:17 pm
To a commenter on the blog who wanted me to know that none of the GHOSTBUSTERS controversy was ever about wimmen and that I was buying into the narrative of the movie producers:
“This is why youâre wrong.
First, as you will notice, the essay is about a whole shitload of things other than Ghostbusters. The Ghostbusters furor may have been the last straw that prompted the post, but it was certainly not the only straw.
Second of all, to hear immature male voices complaining about wimmen rooning their action movies, you only have to listen. I have read the comment threads. I have seen the tweets. I have had it bloody well said to me. I have seen so much of it from so many quarters â as Iâve said, up to and including Mike Pence, complaining about MULAN â that GHOSTBUSTERS alone is a footnote.
Donât tell me that I havenât heard what Iâve heard, read what Iâve read, and encountered what Iâve encountered.
Iâll post what I think of the movie itself when I see it, whether itâs theatrically or on home video.
Until then: If a movie is capable of raping your childhood, youâve starved your adulthood.”
Comment By: Barbara Chepaitis
July 18th, 2016 at 9:20 pm
Jaguar Addams. Just saying. And when I first got her published, long before there was the Hunger Games or any such thing, my editor at ACE asked me to use my initials instead of my name to hide that I’m a girl. At the time, she said ‘our surveys show that men are reluctant to read powerful female protagonists, and even more reluctant if they know the author is female.’ The battle being fought right now is an old one. We just have to keep going at it until it’s gone.
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
July 18th, 2016 at 9:20 pm
I didn’t realize I was fighting a battle with Andrea. I was trying to make her cool.
Comment By: Sandra Odell
July 18th, 2016 at 9:20 pm
And you did.
Comment By: Autumn Rachel Dryden
July 18th, 2017 at 9:19 am
I just got my daughter to read Intensity. Definitely belongs on the list of kick-ass female heros. Thanks for mentioning it.