In The Princess Bride, the hero not only accuses his love of lying but also threatens to hit her if she does it again. Glorifying their role as princess also glorifies patriarchy. Princesses are technically powerful, but that power is usually granted by their father, the king. If you want to add positive depictions of powerful women, your female characters should be powerful on their own terms. If you do, you’re sending the message that female leadership is scary. Were some of the kings depicted as good leaders despite being part of a sexist system? Did they constantly talk about how women are lowly, or did they simply assume that women would do as they asked? Don’t make your matriarchy over the top. However, think of all the medieval fantasy stories you’ve read with male leadership. Yes, a matriarchy is not a fair system, and men would suffer. Punitive matriarchal leaders: In speculative fiction, matriarchies often have comically exaggerated attitudes towards men.These characters are usually designed to be attractive to a male audience. The femme fatale: Like the Aes Sedai and Bene Gesserit, the femme fatale is a villain with threatening traits that are tied to womanhood.Labeling concerns or direction from women as “nagging” is just another way of casting women who aren’t submissive in a negative light. The overbearing wife: Have you noticed stories often have hen-pecked husbands but not hen-pecked wives? That’s because when the husband leads, it’s considered normal.Powerful and threatening women also appear in these common tropes: Your depiction might not be so overtly sexist, but if you tie an antagonist’s traits to their gender, you’re signing up to send sexist messages, whether you want to or not. In Dune, the Bene Gesserit are a breeding cult: their goal is to breed the perfect man who will surpass them. During the time of the story, male magic has been poisoned, so only women can use magic and join the Aes Sedai. Of course, their power is weaker than male magic. Whereas men gain magic by metaphysically grappling with it, women fill themselves with magic by surrendering to it. In The Wheel of Time, magical energy is segregated by gender. The Wheel of Time and Dune do just the opposite. That’s partly because The Legend of Korra has a well-rounded cast with plenty of positive female figures, but it’s mostly because the power and villainy of these tyrants isn’t tied to womanhood. For instance, in season three and four of The Legend of Korra, the tyrannical queen of the Earth Kingdom is replaced by a tyrannical female dictator. That doesn’t mean that having powerful female villains or incompetent female leaders is always sexist. Ultimately, this sends the message that women should not be leaders. While neither order is 100% bad, they reinforce the stereotype that women are manipulative. The members of this group are often portrayed as man-hating lesbians bent on hunting down the hero. In The Wheel of Time, the largest group within the Aes Sedai is the Red Ajah. Dune opens as Paul is pulled out of bed to be tortured by a powerful Bene Gesserit member. In each story, this order is a menacing presence the male Chosen One must face. Each one has a powerful order that is exclusively women. The Wheel of Time and Dune both depict the latter. In your story, do female leaders feel normal, or are they a threatening deviation from the natural order? While depicting strong women can certainly help a work, what message that work sends about powerful women is more important. Many people mistakenly assume that if a story depicts powerful women, then it empowers them. You can start with these common signs of sexism against women. If you want to prevent sexist tropes from getting into your work, you have to learn about them. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if making a story sexism-free was as easy as not being a misogynist jerk? Unfortunately, living in a patriarchal society means that sexism feels normal to most of us.
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