In A Visual Medium Especially, A Large Part Of A Character Is How They Look. Like, Looks Can Be Deceiving

In a visual medium especially, a large part of a character is how they look. Like, looks can be deceiving and aren’t everything about a character, obviously, but ALSO: by making a character look a certain way (especially in the character’s daily life) the creator is (whether they know it or not) saying that that character is (usually) choosing to look a certain way.

Clothes, accessories, make-up, and hair can suggest any number of things about a person’s character. It can be a very useful tool in any story. Personal presentation can suggest things about a character’s gender, profession, religion, sexuality, personal wealth, native culture, and personality (and more).

Which is, I think, why a lot of female characters are sort of… I don’t want to say “broken”… but their execution has ruined their concept? (This isn’t exclusive to female characters, male characters can also suffer from unsupported unrealistic appearances, but female characters definitely suffer more.)

You have these female characters who are supposed to be relatable, realistic women, right? But you look at their perfectly curled-and-styled, super long hair and you see hours of hair-care. And you look at their perfectly made-up faces and you see at least a dozen different make-up products and at least a half-hour in the bathroom every morning. And you look at their figures and you see a strict diet and hours in the gym every week, and you see shaving or waxing, and you see well-maintained mani-pedis. And you look at their outfits and you see designer names and special tailoring, and an enormous closet somewhere in their apartment to store all this, and someone who has the time and energy for perfectly done, sorted, and ironed laundry (and is obviously not doing anything remotely physical or dangerous in those heels).

Which would be fine if that was an intentional visual statement about the character! There are women who put that sort of time/energy/money into their appearance! There are magical and non-human characters (male and female and neither) who can just snap their fingers to look perfect, and I buy it no problem! I get that!

But this gets done even with female characters who are supposed to be absent-minded workaholics, poor working single mothers, nerdy shut-ins, take-no-shit tomboys, post-apocalyptic survivors, and even faux-medieval warriors who shouldn’t have the time or resources for that level of personal grooming! And even with aliens and non-humans who shouldn’t know to decide to care!

So you have these “everyday” women with busy lives, but who somehow manage to keep an unrealistic level of personal grooming in absurd situations, and they… become visually unreal. Especially when (even if they are canonically said to care about maintaining a certain appearance) they’re often never shown putting in ANY of the time or effort it would take to manage their appearance (show me their skincare routine, show me them at the gym, show me them doing laundry)! They look like they stepped out of a magazine (often so “perfect” that they’re frankly bland, actually), but it’s not factored into their personality or background or their lives?

“I don’t wear make-up,” says the female character who is played by an actress very obviously done-up with eyeliner. “I don’t wear make-up,” says the female character who is drawn as though she is permanently wearing lipstick. There are no bad hair days and no laundry days and no moments of imperfection. What the character might be saying is immediately invalidated by the visuals.

These female characters don’t feel like women so much as they feel like impossible creatures the creator has pretending to be pretty women. They feel fake. They feel like their purpose by the creator is to pander to pervs and unrealistic beauty standards. Especially when they’re sent into combat situations with skintight/revealing outfits with no support and loose hair that’s a blatant liability (and the creators even make them bleed prettily sometimes which is related but different conversation). It’s a stark announcement (intentional or not, knowingly done or not) of the creator’s ignorance and apathy towards women and the choices involved in female self-presentation.

And it makes it… difficult… for me personally to relate to certain female characters sometimes, even when I care about these female characters and WANT to care about these female characters. Their character design is, by their visual appearance and lack of narrative support for that appearance, broken. They’re not grounded in any reality. The suspension of disbelief required can be… a lot.

Useful Writing Resources

This is an extensive list of resources for every problem you could come across while writing/planning/editing your novel. Use it well;)

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Planning/outlining Your Work

How To Outline ***

Zigzag Method : Creating Plots

How to Plot a Romance Novel

Seven Great Sources of Conflict for Romances

Let’s talk about brainstorming

Writing Something With Meaning ***

Past Or Present Tense? : How To Decide

Writing Your Work

How To Write A Fabulous Chapter #1 ***

How to Build a Romance Thread in Your Story

The Big Book Of Writing Sex ***

6 Ways to Get Your Readers Shipping Like Crazy

Romance Writing Tips ***

20 Tips for Writing Lovable Romance Novel Heroes

7 Ways To Speed Up Your Writing ***

80+ Barriers to Love: A List of Ideas to Keep Romantic Tension High

9 Romance Writing Mistakes to Avoid

Removing the Creeps From Romance

19 Ways to Write Better Dialogue ***

50 Things Your Characters Can Do WHILE They Talk ***

How To Write Action And Fight Scenes

10 Steps To Write Arguments

9 Ways To Write Body Language

Writing Good Kissing Scenes

Writing Murders

Create And Control Tone ***

Tips for Writing Ghost Stories

Incorporating Flashbacks

12 Tips To Avoid Overwriting ***

Characters

Behind the Name

Top Baby Names

Looking for a name that means a certain thing? ***

7 Rules of Picking Names

Most Common Surnames ***

Minor Character Development

Writing Antagonists, Antiheroes and Villains

Characters With Enhanced Senses

5 Tips to Help You Introduce Characters

How Do You Describe a Character?

How To Write Child Characters

36 Core Values For Building Character

Questions To Answer When Creating Characters ***

4 Ways to Make Readers Instantly Loathe Your Character Descriptions

5 Ways to Keep Characters Consistent

Character Archetypes

25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters

Building Platonic Relationships Between Female Characters

9 Simple and Powerful Ways to Write Body Language

33 Ways To Write Stronger Characters

Conveying Character Emotion

How to Make Readers Love an Unlikable Character…

How to Create Powerful Character Combos

How To Describe A Character’s Voice ***

Describing Clothing And Appearance ***

Career Masterpost ***

Creating Your Character’s Personality ***

Character Flaws ***

Editing

DON’T EDIT>>> REWRITE THE WHOLE THING FIRST

Ultimate Guide To Editing Each Aspect Of Your Work ***

Why You Would Read Your Novel Out Loud ***

Grammar and Punctuation ***

How To Write A Captivating First Sentence

10 Things Your Opening Chapter Should Do: A Check-List for Self-Editing ***

Saving Your Story: Finding Where It Went Wrong

How To Condense Without Losing Anything

The Stages Of Editing

Dialogue/Description Balance

3 Proofreading Tips

The Short Story Form

Chapter & Novel Lengths

Anatomy Of A Novel : Chapters and Parts ***

How To Write Chapter After Chapter Until You Have A Book ***

Where Chapter #2 Should Start

Step By Step Guide To Editing Your Draft

Writing Tool: CTRL-F (How And Why You Should Use It) ***

How To Kill A Character

25 Steps To Edit The Unmerciful Suck Out Of Your Story

5 Ways To Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive ***

Setting

{Setting} How To Describe Setting In Your Stories ***

20 Questions To Enhance Setting

How To Bring Your Setting To Life

Miscellaneous Resources You Can Use In Between

How to Write from a Guy’s POV

The Emotional Wounds Thesaurus

Text To Speech Reader

Compare Character Heights

A Visual Dictionary of Tops

Writers Helping Writers

7 Tricks To Imrove Your Writing Overnight

Work Out/ Word Count : Exercise Between Writing ***

Most Important Writing Tips ***

Let’s talk about diversity in novels

Letting Go Of Your Story

Keeping A Healthy Writing Schedule And Avoiding Procrastination ***

How To Create A Good Book Cover

Write or Die

Tip of my Tongue

Character Traits Form

Online Thesaurus

Writing Sketchy/Medical/Law

Coma: Types, Causes, etc

Tips for writing blood loss

Gunshot Wound Care

Examples of Hospital Forms

Common Legal Questions

The Writer’s Forensics Blog

Brain Injury Legal Guide

Types of Surgical Operations

Types of Mental Health Problems

A Day in the Life of a Mental Hospital Patient

Global Black Market Information ***

Crime Scene Science

Examining Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Writers’ Block Help/ Productivity

Story Plot Generator

@aveeragemusings ‘ Cure To Writers’ Block ***

50 Romance Plot Ideas

Reading Like A Writer ***

Defeat Writers’ Block

Writing In A Bad Mood ***

Writers Block

When You’ve Lost Motivation To Write A Novel ***

What To Do When The Words Won’t Flow ***

9 Ways To Be A More Productive Writer

“I Cannot Write A Good Sentence Today” (How To Get Over It) ***

Real Writing Advice ***

Info You Need To Know & Words You Didn’t Think Of

A Writer’s Thesaurus ***

Words To Describe… ***

Words & Phrases To Use In Your Sex Scenes ***

Colors (An Extensive List Of Colors)

List Of Kinks & Fetishes ***

List Of Elemental Abilities

inkarnate.com : World Creator And Map Maker For Your Imaginary Setting

Body Language Phrases

List Of Legendary Creatures

How To Write Magic

Hairstyle References

Hemingway : Writing Checker

Body Types: Words To Describe Bodies and How They Move Around

Poisonous Herbs and Plants ***

The Psychology of Color

The Meaning behind Rose color

Types of Swords

Color Symbolism

How a handgun works

How to Write a Eulogy

Types of Crying

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes ***

Superstitions and More

The 12 Common Archetypes

Language of Flowers

12 Realistic Woman Body Shapes

Using Feedback And Reviews

Turning Negative Reviews Into Positive Ones ***

Proofreading Marks : Easy Symbols To Make Reviewing/Feedback Easier ***

Authonomy Teen Ink Figment Fiction Press ReviewFuse

These Are Trusted Critique Sites ;)

CHOOSE

YOUR

MC

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rulingtheworldistoomuchwork

8 months ago

Dont Skip,,please help my sons !!🇵🇸🍉

Hello! I am motaz from Gaza.

My house was destroyed and I lost my job and everything we had in this country. I feel great pain writing for you, as I have to start this campaign to save myself and my people from this human disaster. We live in harsh conditions, and we only have hope after being displaced several times from our home. Now, we are fighting for the most basic necessities to survive - drinking food and water.. Imagine with me that you wake up every day and don't know how to get a meal for your kids. Imagine the anxiety that grips you as you try so hard to protect your family from hunger and thirst. This is our daily reality. Your donation, no matter how small, can have a great impact. It can provide us with a meal, a clean water bottle, or a moment of safety under these difficult conditions. Every donation brings with it a ray of hope, alleviates our suffering and gives us strength to face a new day. Please donate and support the resilience of the Gazan people, especially citizens in the north of the Gaza Strip, and share this campaign with your friends and families. Together, we can make a difference and help my family get through this ordeal. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity and support. My warm greetings. Motaz

I want to save the lives of my family and escape death.

I hope you will help by donating and reblog

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rulingtheworldistoomuchwork

2 months ago

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rulingtheworldistoomuchwork

2 years ago

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rulingtheworldistoomuchwork

3 years ago

I SUPER LOVE TIM AND CASSANDRA BECAUSE:

they went from stranger (hell yeah Timothy avoid Cass because he felt intimidated by Cass’ assassin background) to friends

Cass is always ready to rescue help Timothy

she took care of Tim and worried about him, not only because the big brood Bat told her so but she did it on her own accord too

while Tim took care of her too, they took care of each other and I love it so much

CASSANDRA IS TIM’S FAMILY. I REPEAT CASSANDRA IS ONE OF TIM’S PRECIOUS FAMILY

TIM WON’T LET GO, HE WON’T LET CASS GO. SHE’S FAMILY.

AND TIM IS A DEAR PERSON FOR CASSANDRA TOO. SHE EVEN ASKED TIM TO JOIN HER BECAUSE IT WAS HER DREAM. CASS WON’T LET TIM UNDER THE BAT BECAUSE SHE THOUGHT THE BAT WILL USE HIM LIKE HOW CAIN USED HER. CASSANDRA WILL MISS TIM

AND TIM WILL MISS HER TOO.

EVEN WHEN CASS BEING A VILLAIN (brainwashed by Deathstroke), TIM WON’T LET ANYONE HURT HER

AND AFTER SHE CAME BACK, TIM IS THE ONE WHO STILL TRUSTS HER AND DEFENDS HER, WHEN NIGHTWING CLEARLY SHOWS HIS DISTRUST.

EVEN THE BIG (A**HOLE) BROODING BAT DOUBTS HER WHEN SHE WENT MISSING, TIM STILL TRUSTS AND DEFENDS HER. TIM BELIEVE HER.

HAVE I SAID THAT TIM ALWAYS BELIEVE HER AND DEFEND HER? YES, I HAVE AND HE DOES.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, THE PEAK OF IT: CASS LEFT GOTHAM BUT TIM STILL REMINDS HER THAT SHE WILL ALWAYS BE HIS FAMILY, THAT HE ALWAYS GOT CASS’ BACK. HE GIVES HER HER NEW PERSONA (which the main reason I love Black Bat so much, because there is a beautiful history behind it).

THIS IS THE END OF MY ESSAY, PLEASE LOVE THEM.

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rulingtheworldistoomuchwork

1 year ago

Happiness Will Come To You.

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