What kinds of female characters do you wish were more prominent in fictional media?
June 16, 2025
Includes novels, movies, tv shows and stage productions
26 comments
Characters where finding romantic love is not the most important thing in their life.
Women who experience personal growth and learn to make boundaries. Women who reject the main love interest due to self respect
I wanna see more women who don’t have it all figured out. Just trying, failing, growing. Now every female lead needs to be perfect or a love interest. Let her be chaotic and human.
Middle age and elder women, especially in fantasy and SF.
Elder women who are not just witches or supporting gramdmas, but also main characters, having adventures, exploring thier souls, having a story.
I was thinking about what cosplay could I make if I was 50+ and there is almost no choice.
losers, for a lack of better words.
women that haven’t found their place or role in the world yet (or maybe don’t want to), who haven’t figured it out yet.
Childfree women that never change their minds and have babies because they “found the right guy,” and/or actually have abortions without shame if the accidentally get pregnant.
People who look natural. If you watch movies from the 80s and 90s it’s almost startling, in a refreshing way, to see people have age appropriate wrinkles, bodies that haven’t been modified so much that they no longer resemble themselves, etc.
Don’t get me wrong – people are free to do whatever they want with their own bodies. But not everyone does that, either because they don’t want to or can’t. I’d like to see that more in all media.
At this point, people think a woman has let herself go if she has very normal lines on her face or gray hairs in her 40s or 50s.
I like weird/eccentric female characters like Luna Lovegood from HP. People talk about manic pixie dream girls but I feel like manic pixie dream girls are always love interests, I like when there’s a weird female character but she’s supporting cast instead of having to fix a male character.
I also like female characters that are really unabashedly haughty/mean like Sailor Mars and Weiss Schnee. That archetype was more popular in girls’ media 20+ years ago but has seemed to fade away with time in favor of saccharine or very passive female characters.
The happily single, childless woman that is not interested in dating.
Messy morally grey women who just get to exist as they are.
– more maincharacters that arent the shy misunderstood girl with the loud friend
– less insecure ones, but also not the obnoxious ones like in kissing booth that you can barely watch
– more women above 27!!! right now nicole kidman angelina jolie and like two others are carrying this on their own and only given mainroles cause they’re the top 4 famous ones and probably had hella surgery (no shade) and everyone else is sidelined to do roles like “someone’s mum, sometimes even though they could barely actually be the mom”
– more big women too, small or tall slim or heavy, goes for men as well
– and more women that don’t have that nose, especially as not the villain
– if its actionmovies: first of all let them dress, let them wear sth that fits the job. second, don’t just get one woman to have a woman, let there be two, and let their skills be simular to the guys. you don’t need to make them passive the whole movie and then there’s that one scene where you’re like hah,feminism and suddenly sth they do saves the day, just start by every mainhero having simular screentime and go from there, don’t always make them being women their thing
Dark outside soft inside characters like Wednesday Addams , jade from victorious
I’d like to see more realistic depictions of strong women. Not women with magical/super-powers, but realistic strength…strong in character, strong in mind. Persistence and perseverance.
I wanna see more women who are strong in quiet ways: leaders, problem-solvers, survivors… without needing to be loud or aggressive. Just capable, resilient and real.
Women that suck. I’m tired of seeing women in action movies being ridiculously good at something they’re trying for the first time. I can’t relate to that.
More characters like fleabag omg PLZ IM ON MY KNEES.
I need desperately flawed female characters with that kind of raw and unfiltered inner monologue.
UGH I NEED MORE REAL WOMEN. no one understands fleabag like i do.
When two characters are seemingly polar opposites but actually have a lot in common when they get to know eachother;
Like a preppy girl and goth girl, or the popular girl and dorky girl,
Because people are more than just their stereotypes and it’s okay to hangout with people who don’t necessarily fit into your “clique” and we should still be kind to people even if they look and act differently to us etc!!
I’d like to read about a more grounded woman. Most books I read have female protagonists and the one thing I’ve noticed is their internal monologue is rife with insecurity and being practically oblivious to everything around them. I don’t need a badass butt kicking taking names kind of protagonist, just a well rounded woman who has a good head on her shoulders and doesn’t constantly doubt herself.
Woman who are strong, but feminine.
The kind that don’t drop at a man’s feet just so they can get married. Im so sick of whiny female characters who bend over backwards just to say they have a man.
Over 20’s mavericks with charisma, no face work. (Debra Winger just jumped into mind). She saves the day.
Female assassins.
A female MC that’s not a teenager omg I’m so tired of the MC finding “love” with some much older man and she has all this power and she’s like 16. Please can they at least be 25 so they have some life exp. I love fourth wing series for that fact that violet isn’t 16. Her relationships are still really annoying in the sense they can’t seem to learn to communicate across three books so far but that’s beside the point 😂 maybe it’s because I’m 30 now but it drives me crazy when the main character is 15-17 has the coolest power finds love (usually he’s 100s if not at least a few decades older ) like let her grow a bit
Strong imperfect older woman who are trying to do something and succeeding that isn’t finding love
Women leads in Sci-fi and Fantasy who aren’t the chosen ones or super special unique one of a kinds. Just a normal woman doing her best and struggling along, or excelling because she put the work in or used her brain.
Black women and other WOCs that aren’t reduced to standard archetypes.
Also, less of descriptions based on eye color and hair color. Who cares – what value does it add to the story. Someone is not more inherently valuable due to their hair and eye color.
26 comments
Characters where finding romantic love is not the most important thing in their life.
Women who experience personal growth and learn to make boundaries. Women who reject the main love interest due to self respect
I wanna see more women who don’t have it all figured out. Just trying, failing, growing. Now every female lead needs to be perfect or a love interest. Let her be chaotic and human.
Middle age and elder women, especially in fantasy and SF.
Elder women who are not just witches or supporting gramdmas, but also main characters, having adventures, exploring thier souls, having a story.
I was thinking about what cosplay could I make if I was 50+ and there is almost no choice.
losers, for a lack of better words.
women that haven’t found their place or role in the world yet (or maybe don’t want to), who haven’t figured it out yet.
Childfree women that never change their minds and have babies because they “found the right guy,” and/or actually have abortions without shame if the accidentally get pregnant.
People who look natural. If you watch movies from the 80s and 90s it’s almost startling, in a refreshing way, to see people have age appropriate wrinkles, bodies that haven’t been modified so much that they no longer resemble themselves, etc.
Don’t get me wrong – people are free to do whatever they want with their own bodies. But not everyone does that, either because they don’t want to or can’t. I’d like to see that more in all media.
At this point, people think a woman has let herself go if she has very normal lines on her face or gray hairs in her 40s or 50s.
I like weird/eccentric female characters like Luna Lovegood from HP. People talk about manic pixie dream girls but I feel like manic pixie dream girls are always love interests, I like when there’s a weird female character but she’s supporting cast instead of having to fix a male character.
I also like female characters that are really unabashedly haughty/mean like Sailor Mars and Weiss Schnee. That archetype was more popular in girls’ media 20+ years ago but has seemed to fade away with time in favor of saccharine or very passive female characters.
The happily single, childless woman that is not interested in dating.
Messy morally grey women who just get to exist as they are.
– more maincharacters that arent the shy misunderstood girl with the loud friend
– less insecure ones, but also not the obnoxious ones like in kissing booth that you can barely watch
– more women above 27!!! right now nicole kidman angelina jolie and like two others are carrying this on their own and only given mainroles cause they’re the top 4 famous ones and probably had hella surgery (no shade) and everyone else is sidelined to do roles like “someone’s mum, sometimes even though they could barely actually be the mom”
– more big women too, small or tall slim or heavy, goes for men as well
– and more women that don’t have that nose, especially as not the villain
– if its actionmovies: first of all let them dress, let them wear sth that fits the job. second, don’t just get one woman to have a woman, let there be two, and let their skills be simular to the guys. you don’t need to make them passive the whole movie and then there’s that one scene where you’re like hah,feminism and suddenly sth they do saves the day, just start by every mainhero having simular screentime and go from there, don’t always make them being women their thing
Dark outside soft inside characters like Wednesday Addams , jade from victorious
I’d like to see more realistic depictions of strong women. Not women with magical/super-powers, but realistic strength…strong in character, strong in mind. Persistence and perseverance.
I wanna see more women who are strong in quiet ways: leaders, problem-solvers, survivors… without needing to be loud or aggressive. Just capable, resilient and real.
Women that suck. I’m tired of seeing women in action movies being ridiculously good at something they’re trying for the first time. I can’t relate to that.
More characters like fleabag omg PLZ IM ON MY KNEES.
I need desperately flawed female characters with that kind of raw and unfiltered inner monologue.
UGH I NEED MORE REAL WOMEN. no one understands fleabag like i do.
When two characters are seemingly polar opposites but actually have a lot in common when they get to know eachother;
Like a preppy girl and goth girl, or the popular girl and dorky girl,
Because people are more than just their stereotypes and it’s okay to hangout with people who don’t necessarily fit into your “clique” and we should still be kind to people even if they look and act differently to us etc!!
I’d like to read about a more grounded woman. Most books I read have female protagonists and the one thing I’ve noticed is their internal monologue is rife with insecurity and being practically oblivious to everything around them. I don’t need a badass butt kicking taking names kind of protagonist, just a well rounded woman who has a good head on her shoulders and doesn’t constantly doubt herself.
Woman who are strong, but feminine.
The kind that don’t drop at a man’s feet just so they can get married. Im so sick of whiny female characters who bend over backwards just to say they have a man.
Over 20’s mavericks with charisma, no face work. (Debra Winger just jumped into mind). She saves the day.
Female assassins.
A female MC that’s not a teenager omg I’m so tired of the MC finding “love” with some much older man and she has all this power and she’s like 16. Please can they at least be 25 so they have some life exp. I love fourth wing series for that fact that violet isn’t 16. Her relationships are still really annoying in the sense they can’t seem to learn to communicate across three books so far but that’s beside the point 😂 maybe it’s because I’m 30 now but it drives me crazy when the main character is 15-17 has the coolest power finds love (usually he’s 100s if not at least a few decades older ) like let her grow a bit
Strong imperfect older woman who are trying to do something and succeeding that isn’t finding love
Women leads in Sci-fi and Fantasy who aren’t the chosen ones or super special unique one of a kinds. Just a normal woman doing her best and struggling along, or excelling because she put the work in or used her brain.
Black women and other WOCs that aren’t reduced to standard archetypes.
Also, less of descriptions based on eye color and hair color. Who cares – what value does it add to the story. Someone is not more inherently valuable due to their hair and eye color.