Female-led media doesn’t have the luxury of standing on its own merits. It has the added burden of proving that media featuring or marketed towards women is viable. This is doubly true of media traditionally marketed towards men, such as comics and science fiction. There is a culture of seeing failed or under-performing comics, movies, etc. as “women don’t want this” vs. “this wasn’t marketed properly” or “this was just crap”.
What’s a girl to do? Should I spend my money on crap and hope that it encourages companies to make more female-led offerings? Or do I hold out for something good that features women which might never come because no one bought the terrible things that were already out? Why do I have to beg and scream for some company to want to take my money in the first place? And why should I even have to worry about this?
I haven’t got any answers or advice. I don’t even have any consistency. There are plenty of shows, movies, books, and comics that I don’t bother with because they don’t interest me. There are even more that I avoid because what I have seen has been plain bad. But every time I see a sci-fi show, superhero movie, or comic that has a female lead or female dominated cast that looks terrible I wonder if I should watch/read it just so maybe, just maybe better media will follow.
Seen any female-led superhero movies recently? No, you haven’t because Catwoman and Elektra bombed. These movies were shit, but that’s not what the take home was for those execs. They decided that no one wants to see a woman as the main hero.
(…And this is why we never got Whedon’s Wonder Woman.)
It’s the same thing for TV and comics. If a female-led property fails, it is assumed that no one wants to see a woman or women in sci-fi or action. No thought is given to the quality of the property or marketing, which is insulting to the half of the population that isn’t male.
Actually, it’s insulting to everyone.
