Confession Of A Rpf Writer

Character study

F1 Testing In Abu Dhabi - Day One (2014)

I’m going to add because I see it so often…

QUIET - adj. making little or no noise

QUITE - adv. to a certain or fairly significant extent or degree; fairly

IT’S NOT ‘PEEKED’ MY INTEREST

OR ‘PEAKED’

BUT PIQUED

‘PIQUED MY INTEREST’

THIS HAS BEEN A CAPSLOCK PSA

Wanna read this later

furiosa vs. tropes for women in action

This is the second in a series of posts about Mad Max: Fury Road. All contain spoilers.

Read Part 1, a general review of the movie, here.

Read part 3, about Max, here.

Mad Max: Fury Road has already inspired some of the most intense fandom I’ve seen, and been part of, in years. I think it’s partially due to the sheer intensity of the sensory and emotional experience the movie delivers. But let’s be honest. A lot of it is due to Furiosa.

The character has already inspired an outpouring of fan art and cosplay. Even among movie fans who aren’t part of those scenes, people who love her REALLY love her. (And I wholeheartedly include myself in this category.) I can’t remember the last time that multiple, grown-ass adults on my Facebook feed had profile pictures referencing a movie character. Several of them–men and women–have this one:

Art by Hugo Dourado.

Why has Furiosa inspired so much passion? I think a lot of it has to do with the way she blows a giant flaming hole in the standard images for women in action films.

While recent years have given us some fantastic action heroines, they tend to be confined within a few set tropes, with remarkably little variation.

Of course, by far the most common trope for women in action is still to be the person being rescued–to be the prize the protagonist, usually a man, gets at the end of the journey. There are whole franchises built around this concept. I think we can all agree that’s boring and not worthy of a blog post.

But even among women characters who have agency in action movies–as protagonists or as villains–there are still some basic patterns that recur again and again. In particular, there are three basic templates that a large majority of female action characters fall into. The point is not that these tropes, in and of themselves, are wrong. It’s that they’re often all there is.

1. The Girl Hero

This is the default trope for YA. Katniss in The Hunger Games, Tris in Divergent…you’ve seen it many times.

Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games

The Girl Hero is virginal (often unusually non-sexual for a teenager). She’s usually small or skinny, sometimes for a logical reason (Katniss grew up starving), sometimes not so much. She seems like an underdog, but proves to be surprisingly good at violence and/or have some unique skill, and through her bravery and grit takes on foes much bigger than she is.

Tris, Divergent

It should be said that plenty of male YA characters share these characteristics–Harry Potter is also small and skinny, a novice in the world of magic, but unusually skilled at a few things. He doesn’t win his battles through physical strength, but through cleverness and bravery. And there’s an understandable appeal in having a scrawny underdog, of any gender, turn out to be a hero, especially in a book or movie geared toward young people. But with a few exceptions (see: Tamora Pierce) the Girl Hero with these qualities is THE template for young women in action/fantasy/sci-fi/speculative fiction.

2. The Sexpot

When the Girl Hero grows up, she can be properly objectified as a different trope, the Sexpot.

Lara Croft: poster girl for this trope

You’ve all seen this trope in the many, many superhero and comic book movies that are currently squirting out of the studio pipeline. She’s that one token woman on the team with four guys.

Yeah, that one.

The Sexpot gets to fight–and sometimes even gets artfully bloody and dirty–but she has to do it in a latex suit and while appearing cool and sleek and having a good hair day. (She has long hair, so she can flip it, and so we’re extra sure she’s a girl.) Her fight style is extra bendy and flippy and maybe when we break out the slow motion. She may use her sexiness as a weapon (a la Black Widow) or it may be just a bonus quality. She can be powerful, but only if we can look at her conventionally attractive body move around in tight clothing while it’s happening.

3. The Ice Queen

The Ice Queen is almost always the trope for female villains. She sits at the top of some kind of power structure–a state or a criminal enterprise–issuing commands to her minions but rarely doing the violence herself. She’s probably got a sharp suit or a uniform and a severe haircut. 

Delacourt, the villain of Elysium.

She’s allowed to be older than 35.

President Coin, Mockingjay

The Ice Queen has institutional power but rarely fights; physicality is the low pursuit of men in her world. She may be smart, crafty and manipulative, but she will not punch you in the face. She’ll snap her fingers and get someone else to do it, although she may sit on the edge of her desk to watch.

Jeanine, the villain of Divergent

Maya, Zero Dark Thirty–an Ice Queen protagonist, sort of

The point here is not that there’s no variation on these themes. And there have been iconic female action characters who stood totally outside them before. Alien’s Ellen Ripley and Linda Hamilton as the original Sarah Connor in Terminator 2, doing pull-ups on her mental hospital bed frame, come to mind as the most obvious.

But it’s striking how often the women that do exist in the thriller, action, sci-fi and speculative fiction film universe fall into one of these three boxes. Which is why any character who doesn’t map onto one of these templates is so exciting.

Here’s Furiosa.

She fights a hell of a lot. She does not flip her hair.

She’s intensely physical, but you never get the sense that her fights are choreographed to perform her sexuality for you. They’re choreographed for her to fucking win.

When Max shows up, they have a knock-down, drag-out fight with each other. Max doesn’t pull any punches. Why? Because he makes no assumptions that she’d be less lethal to him than a man. They beat the shit out of each other in a big, messy, grunty, scrabbly fight.

For significant portions of the movie, Furiosa is driving a truck, which means Charlize Theron is essentially acting from the biceps up. You literally cannot look at her boobs. You have to look at her face.

She gets to be dirty. Really really dirty. This picture alone highlights how weird it is that all the other women above are so clean.

She gets to be ugly and make weird faces in the middle of fighting.

She gets to yell and be angry the way one might be in the middle of a nonstop road battle when you’re full of adrenaline because you’re fighting for your life.

In short, she gets to look like an actual person who is actually fighting, instead of a statue that can do a back walkover with the help of a wire rig.

So it’s hardly surprising that she’s racked up a lot of fans. She takes all the images of clean, pretty, carefully sexualized women we’re used to seeing, even in action, rips them to shreds, sets them on fire and then drives over them with an 18-wheeler.

This is all even more remarkable given that Furiosa is played by an actress who is very feminine-presenting in her everyday life. Charlize Theron is one of the very few actresses who’s been allowed to pick roles where she radically changes her gender presentation.

Here she is in Aeon Flux, playing about the most Sexpot-y character imaginable:

Here she is in Monster:

I think there are a lot more actresses out there who could take on these kinds of transformations, radically altering the way they look, move, and perform their gender, the way male stars do all the time. But the equivalent depth and diversity of roles for women just doesn’t exist in Hollywood right now.

Furiosa’s popularity shows how starved we are for images of women who are actually powerful and physical in the same ways that men get to be in blockbuster after blockbuster after blockbuster. It’s not that all the images of women in action have to look like this–it’s just that we hardly ever see a female fighter who looks this way. Furiosa reminds us that there is so much more out there than we’re getting in terms of what women can do and look like on screen.

@evilpixiea

No, no, no! Don’t stop now! This was going so well! See, I completely see the “relationship” the same way as you do. I ship the mental assault, the sexually one-sided relationship. The way, yes, the culmination of Joker’s erotic obsession would definitely be to be killed by Batman. And while Batman wouldn’t have a sexual drive toward Joker, yes I believe the equivalent of it is how Joker gets under his skin in a way no other villain does. And so it creates a sort of unhealthy relationship.

And in shipping them, I like seeing how deep and dangerous that relationship (because it’s more than simple interactions) can go.

So my ask was really: in a world where maybe the Joker, just like in maybe Snyder’s Death of the Family, takes things dangerously far, and Batman is dangerously strained by it yet will let himself be affected by the dynamics, how would Superman react, in a world where there is a Superbat relationship. How would he react seeing how consumed Batman is by the very destructive dynamics, yet does not pull himself away from it.

I may be rambling and incoherently incapable of putting coherent words to my thoughts, I admit...

(Side note, I’m actually a fan of Troy Baker’s Joker in Origins.. I thought he did a perfect rendition of a younger Joker. Perfectly in tune with Mark’s)

(Can I also add how much I dig Supes’ face when he’s under the Joker’s toxin’s effect in Endgame??)

I don’t think I’ve ever seen much of BatJokes in your work, but I’m going to bring this up.. hope it’s alright.. I consider the relationship between The Joker and The Batman to be heavily sexually charged. There may not be anything physical, but there is sexual tension that creeps on the “mentally sexually charged”... If this would be the case in your worlds, what would Superman’s reaction, and to it via-a-vis Bruce? Extra points for angst..?

Personally, the BatJokes ship has never been one that gels very well with me. That’s not because I don’t think there is sexual energy between them (I very much do) but because I think that energy is very one sided. From my readings of the comics and other media Joker has for a long time has had a very explicit and obvious sexual interest in Batman. Not Bruce. Batman. However, instead of trying to have sex with him he tries to hurt him. For the Joker, intimacy is achieved when he successfully gets under Batman’s skin or (better yet) makes him lose control.

A part of the Joker wants Batman to kill him. That I think would be the climax of his erotic obsession with Batman. He wants to be that person that breaks Batman and unleashes the beast.

Bruce, for his part, I think really truly does hate the Joker. There is no softness, no caveats, or round edges in that feeling. He hates him as much as a person can hate another.

He wishes Joker was dead… which is what makes the dynamic interesting from a hero/villain point of view. Bruce, to uphold his code, needs to not kill. Joker wants Batman to kill him and will continue trying to hurt him until he does.

That is the dramatic tension. That is the push pull. That is what makes the pair so interesting.

However, personally, that also means I don’t really enjoy shipping them. I can’t see Joker ever giving a shit about the parts of Bruce which aren’t Batman and I can’t see Bruce ever not hating Joker with every single fibre of his being.

However, as anyone who has spoken to me on this subject knows, I am fine with people interpreting and building on canon however they see fit. This is what fandom is all about and fandom is a beautiful thing. So, if people see their relationship differently than I do and like to imagine them together or, at the very least, a two way erotic energy, then that’s cool. I am fine with people shipping whatever they want. That’s what makes fandom interesting.

And even if I don’t ship them I still think they have a really interesting hero/villain relationship. One of the best in comics, if not the best.

Some of my favourite Batman vs Joker moments which really (I think) highlight Joker’s fetishisation of the Batman persona and Bruce’s utter hatred mixed with his constant near loss of control are…

The Joker’s POV scenes in Arkham Origins. God, if only they had Mark Hammil it would have been perfect.

The Joker in Scot Snyder’s Death Of The Family.

The Joker in The Dark Knight Returns.

Side note. It’s really interesting that the queer coding of Joker hasn’t gone away yet, don’t you think? Traditionally comic book villains (like Disney villains) were given gender non conformist traits to emphasis how evil and different they were… we’re a little more enlightened in regard to queer folk now and tend not to do that with our villains anymore. Joker’s the exception. He is still very queer in his coding. Everything from the way he moves, the way he puts on his makeup, the way he often wears women’s clothing like high heels, and the language he uses.

I think Joker gets a pass on the whole ‘evil character being queer coded’ because DC has decided to play into the idea of Joker’s fetishisation of Batman. It’s interesting, no?

Anyway, I’m rambling. Sorry. I’ll back out of this post now.

The Artist's Way quote is so interesting! And true! How did you unblock your creativity?

The Artist’s Way always works wonders on me. It puts me back in touch with what I actually feel and what I actually want ❤️ Can’t recommend it enough.

This particular time, these things have shifted the block.

1. Turning the news off. Not just down. Off. Turning it off for good. Covering my eyes, screaming and fleeing the room if anyone turns it back on. Blocking the sites, deleting the apps. This one is non-negotiable for me. I have to centre my life in the quiet and comfortable world that actually exists around me, not the burning global battleground that the media needs us to stay trapped in. (”Things are terrifying! More terrifying by the day! Come read about the latest dangers!… and drive our web traffic figures and advertising profits ever upwards.”)

2. Accepting that procrastination isn’t laziness. It’s fear.

3. Sitting down and asking myself, ready to listen, “What’s frightening you, my small friend? What can I chase away from you? Point at all the scary things and I’ll get them out of here.” Then doing it.

4. Buying myself a set of nice pens shaped like tiny sharks.

5. Getting angry about the things that hurt. All the things, even the tiny throwaway things, even the things from ages ago, even the things my loved ones told me just to forget about. Getting angry at the people who did the hurtful things, then writing a lot of very sweary letters with my shark pens.

6. “My anger deserves my respect,” whenever I remember to say it. Writing it out with my shark pens. “Anger is my friend. Anger points the way.”

7. “I receive your good willingly, universe.” When happiness shows up, get it a sandwich and a comfy seat. 

8. Restocking the pond. Creative minds need raw materials they can turn into creative work: images, sounds, sensations, feelings. Mine’s no different. It takes a while to let myself believe (not just nod like yeah yeah sure, but believe) that pursuing heartfelt interests isn’t selfish. It’s vital to maintaining a healthy flow of passion. I wouldn’t expect someone to bake a cake without using any ingredients.

9. Listening for the sad little inner voice that mumbles, “I want a biscuit.” Getting it a biscuit. (I’m serious about this. We spend live our lives telling ourselves in a hundred different tiny ways each day that we don’t deserve the biscuit, don’t deserve the shark pens, don’t deserve the friends we have, don’t deserve the good things that come our way, don’t deserve to try writing the things we actually really want to write. It builds up and it cripples us. You reverse the spiral by starting with the biscuit.)

10. Piece of paper, pen. (Shark-shaped or otherwise.) “Honestly, I think I…” Twenty times daily. Write fast and don’t think. You’re not writing in blood, it’s ink and you’re allowed to say it, no matter what it is. Good thoughts, bad thoughts. Write them down. Fill in all twenty every single day. You’ll watch yourself writing the same handful over and over, everyday, stronger and stronger, until you let yourself write this one: “Honestly, I think I might do something about that.”

Reblog if you write fic and people can inbox you random-ass questions about your stories, itemized number lists be damned.

The way I understand him so much

"...i'm very bad at describing my own feelings. it's like, feelings are feelings, no?..."

Max congratulating Nico… Max, you get more perfect everyday I swear

the different angles 🥹

The way he’s looking from side to side trying to get some help 🥺

Jeddah GP '25 // Carlos got stuck in his cockpit post-race and a Stake mechanic came to his rescue 😭

Ch. 30 - I Don’t Want to Disappoint You  | Read Here

Title: I Will Be Waiting For You In 1999 Author: D Jun

I want to protect you forever… Because you and I have no other loved ones in this world. The coming-of-age story of two orphans who become best friends. Original Webcomic