✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.
This week’s topic is:
Portrayals of Women in Books
Prompts: We’ve previously talked about underrepresented women and women in STEM in books, but let’s take a look at portrayals of women in books. Do you think portrayals of women have changed over time? Are ambitious women portrayed differently than ambitious men? Are “unlikable” female characters judged more harshly? Are girls and women written more complexly in books today? Share some of your favourite books featuring complex empowered women being unapologetically themselves!
Do you think portrayals of women have changed over time? Are girls and women written more complexly in books today?
I decided to clump these two questions together because I do think portrayals of women have changed over time and that girls and women are written more complexly in books today. I think it might be more obvious in certain genres, especially romance and to an extent also fantasy. Maybe 5-10 years ago you’d see a lot more “Mary Sue” type characters, and while they do still exist, you find them a lot less, especially as main protagonists.
In romances in particular, I find that I enjoy portrayals of women more now than I did before. Leading women are less one-dimensional and have more nuanced character arcs. I also like how there are less women pitted against other women in books these days. You can find much healthier portrayals of relationships between women as friends and even as adversaries or rivals, although again, I’m not saying that negative or unhealthy portrayals are absent.
I don’t know if it’s in the books that I read specifically, but I feel like you can now find more women and girls written as ‘flawed’ characters and it’s not necessarily in a negative way. There’s room to learn and grow from mistakes, but also, showing that these women are human and even if they are still flawed, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Again, I’m not saying those types of portrayals didn’t exist before, but I find it more in the books I read these days and I like that a lot.
Are ambitious women portrayed differently than ambitious men? Are “unlikeable” female characters judged more harshly?
I do think ambitious women and portrayed differently to ambitious men. While ambitious men are portrayed as smart go-getters who know what they want and are generally cheered on for it, women have been portrayed in the negative in relation to ambition. Ambitious women are sharks, they’re ruthless, cruel, and almost inhuman in ways. I think what’s different now is that you start to see ambitious men portrayed differently, and ambitious women portrayed less harshly—or maybe the gap between them is starting to shrink on paper so that doesn’t feel as extreme. When I think of ambitious women or even ambitious women who are not entirely likeable (not because she’s ambitious), and yet who I can’t help but grudgingly respect, I always think of Ayt Mada from The Green Bone Saga. I loathed her but I also highly respected her and I loved how Fonda Lee crafted her complex, compelling, and infuriating character, lol.
I do think unlikeable women characters are still judged more harshly though, and I think that’s particularly so in the romance genre. I do think that romance have evolved a lot in recent years, but I think that flawed or unlikeable women still get judged mush more harshly compared to the men in romances, even if the men are so much worse. I still feel like there’s this need to write women with as few flaws as possible in order to be able to root for them or to be able to say that they “deserve” the man (ew).
Share some of your favourite books featuring complex empowered women being unapologetically themselves!
There are so many, and again, so many more that I’ve been reading lately. Here are some of my favourite books with awesome women in them (not going into specifics or naming names in case some people don’t want to be spoiled in any way, lol)!
Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers who joined the discussion this week! 👇🏽
Yolanda @ Past Midnight
Elle @ Unwrapping Words
Raji @ Worlds Unlike Our Own
Abyssal Librarian
If I’ve missed your post this week, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments, and I’ll add you to this week’s list of community posts ASAP!
Do you think portrayals of women have changed over time? Do you think unlikeable women are judged more harshly? What are some of your favourite books with empowered women in them? I’d love your recommendations!
dinipandareads 
I love this topic and I can’t finish my post for today, but I love all you mentioned. Yes I agree it has changed to some degree, but ambitious women are still portrayed negatively compared to their male characters.
Ayt Mada is such an amazing character, I truly cannot hate her despite all she’s done and in fact respect her cunningness and tenacity. It takes a lot to grab for power and maintain it, and she’s proven herself worthy despite everything. I wonder how the story would be like, if we got the whole Greenbone Saga from her pov. It will be an interesting contrast to the Kauls pov- history written by winner and all.
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I recently finished an ARC that is all about women and friendship. One of the characters has an usual job, one that is often frowned up, when asked why she does it her reply was perfect: Because she likes it and money. I feel that that statement is pretty empowering.
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This is such an interesting prompt! I’m sure there have been changes over time in how women are portrayed in books. However, I took such a long break between reading a ton through middle school and getting back in the habit 5 years ago that I don’t really have firsthand experience noticing any differences. I also don’t pick up books that are a decade or more into their publishing date to be able to compare to what I read now. This topic would be such a good topic for a book or thesis, I bet!
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[…] Let’s Talk Bookish: Portrayals of Women in Books […]
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Excellent topic!
I believe we’re seeing more flawed female characters in books for children and teens. At the same time, I believe we need more dubious and/or antihero female characters (similar to Jamie Lannister and Killmonger–from the Black Panther movie, not the comic).
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I hate it when authors constantly pitch women against each other. On the other hand, I love reading some good female solidarity.
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Brilliant, Dini. I have been thinking about this topic a lot for ages. Once, I joined a group called The Motherhood and Jane Austen where we read all the Jane Austen books
And lately, I have joined an online book club called Literary Wives which I think might interest you.
We definitely need more books about strong women, not nasty women or helpless little mites. We need to give the next generation more hope for their future.
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I do think that women are portrayed as smarter and not so bitchy. I also like that men who are ambitious are often described as climbers and not very nice instead of accepting their behaviour. I find that women in historical fiction are usually portrayed as strong and independent, even though that is not an accurate portrayal of women at that time. Saying that, I like it.
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