The Female Character Flowchart (IMAGE)

The site OverThinkingIt.com has made this fabulous flowchart to see if you in fact have a strong female character in your film or TV show. None of these ladies measure up (which is sad) but the site's take-downs are as hilarious as they are comprehensive.

Here is the must-read piece by mlawski of OverThinkingIt.com that inspired the flowchart. Note to self: Megan Fox is wrong about most things.

(Click the image to see larger version.)

Comments

[WoodsideCraig]

12:59 PM on 10/14/2010

I get so tired of action movie women. They fight hordes off hordes of men, yet get captured by some silly, nonsensical means and turn into whimpering damsels in distress,

or they're the badass hot chick who always dies heroically in the final reel.

Or any one of a number of cardboard characters. I don't find them interesting. Well drawn female characters could bring so much more to some really boring stories.

[freddychef]

07:08 PM on 10/13/2010

is it sad or bizzare that some d-bag in Hollywood in charge of hiring an actress, has this on his wall and is very sucessful?

[Phillygirl 1]

03:26 PM on 10/13/2010

Dang this chart has almost everything. But I think there's a difference in "dumb girl" types, the likable ones and the annoying ones.
But you even patched in the Final Girl, nice job.

[Sano Insano]

01:57 PM on 10/13/2010

It must be hard for men, who go to movies written and directed by men, with diverse male roles written both three dimensional and two dimensional, to see that women don't like the stock, two-dimensional (often stereotypical and shrewy) characters that are written for them. I mean, come on, men already put them in the freaking movie! What more could women want?

[axt113]

01:01 PM on 10/13/2010

I see no Belldandy on the list, very disappointed in the creator

[Uosdwis]

12:20 PM on 10/13/2010

Whoa, whoa- Uhura is "useless girl?" That's a little insulting. They never would've stolen the Enterprise in STIII if not for her locking up "Mr. Adventure!" lol

[Marianne TB]

10:00 AM on 10/13/2010

It is also rare, or non existent, to see anyone who is a woman over 60 playing any role that shows her as strong and amazingly wise . Even tho we are the largest demographic group in the USA. Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Anjelica Huston, have done a few, I will admit , so that is something. I would go to a lot more movies if I saw women I can identify with, brash wild older women (like Julia Child's portrayal by Streep) who take a bite out of life with gusto.

[quivira]

10:57 AM on 10/13/2010

Angelica Huston is under 60.

[tanya1111]

01:36 PM on 10/13/2010

like megan fox in transformers

[Ken Freedom]

01:09 AM on 10/13/2010

The whole idea behind this flowchart just gets on my nerves. It's the sort of whingy quasi-feminist nonsense that just aggravates me (as a writer) when I think about it. I mean seriously, we're supposed to believe that Lady MacBeth isn't a strong female character? If she's not a strong character, then MacBeth himself must also not be a strong character, right? Or what?

Also, the author of this chart stole almost all of their titles (possibly all) from tvtropes.com, and as that site points out: tropes are not bad. A strong character can be seen as an example of many of those tropes.

[RedDogBear]

09:54 AM on 10/13/2010

I know what you mean. I hate those whingy quasi-feminist types. They have no sense of humor at all.

[YouDontWantMeHere]

10:38 AM on 10/13/2010

ya mean it's alls right if i laugh?

[Czoe]

11:55 AM on 10/13/2010

Does "whingy" mean whiny?

[LoreLeo]

07:42 PM on 10/14/2010

That was my first thought - every character fits a trope of some kind, and a secondary character can be as strong as a protagonist.

Speaking of TVtropes.com and quasi-feminists:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StrawFeminist

[Old Army Grunt]

11:32 PM on 10/12/2010

All this and I still don't understand why my wife get mad when I leave the seat up.

[kahalaman]

04:07 AM on 10/13/2010

You have my sympathy. When my ex realized I was always the leaving the seat up for her, she scolded me for doing so. She explained that she didn't have the time or energy to get angry over small things and she would rather have me focus on things that were important to her. I still kept leaving the seat down, but I loved her even more that.

You were probably just intending to be funny, but I thank you for bringing back a good memory of why I'll always be her friend!

[Bellanova]

08:58 AM on 10/13/2010

Wait... If you loved her so much, why is she your ex now? (And I'm guessing you meant to say that you left the seat *down* for her -- unless your ex was really a guy -- and maybe that's why s/he is now ex? It's all confusing to us, simple minds.)

[amara rose]

09:16 PM on 10/12/2010

Ultimate strong female --what about Gloria (the movie with Gena Rowlands NOT Sharon Stone?) That was tough dame!

[billkarwin]

08:50 PM on 10/12/2010

This reminds me of the Bechdel Test. The Bechdel Test is a simple way to gauge the active presence of female characters in Hollywood films and just how well rounded and complete those roles are.

Bechdel Test Movie List
1. It has to have at least two women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something besides a man

http://bechdeltest.com/
http://www.feministfrequency.com/2009/12/the-bechdel-test-for-women-in-movies/

[CoastRaven]

02:13 PM on 10/13/2010

John Sclazi did an interesting couple of blogposts applying this rule to Sci-Fi movies (AMC Blog) and its almost impossible to find a Sci-Fi movie that passes this test... My favorite on his list - "X-Men: the Last Stand (2006) - Several named female characters, two of whom talk briefly about a cure for mutations - although one of the characters is motivated to change her mutant status so she can touch her boyfriend ... I'm calling this a TECHNICAL PASS"

[InedaName]

08:40 PM on 10/12/2010

And this flowchart right here is the reason why I refuse on principle to watch chick flix or rom coms. How could you not know going in that any female characters must fit into one of these categories? To see interesting, complicated female characters you have to watch foreign films (just about anything with Isabelle Huppert) or revisit the 70s; Diary of a Mad Housewife, A Woman Under the Influence, Play It As It Lays, Wanda, Puzzle of a Downfall Child, etc.

[Bellanova]

08:59 AM on 10/13/2010

A resounding *yes* to all you said.

[cybogoblin]

06:56 PM on 10/12/2010

They got the image for Evil Queen wrong. They used a picture of Mom from Futurama who is actually the mother of three sons. She would have made a perfect Evil Matriarch, though.

[KADC]

05:30 PM on 10/13/2010

I was going to say the same thing. Not seeing the start button until later, that's where I both started and subsequently stopped since if the very first item I see is wrong that doesn't bode well for the rest of it.

[Klytemnestra]

06:44 PM on 10/12/2010

Looks like The Chart on the L Word!

[quixoto]

05:27 PM on 10/12/2010

I love it, this is like TV Tropes in a picture form.