I’ve long been a fan of Caitlin Moran’s writing. Caitlin was one of the first people I’d seen use a conjunction at the start of a sentence. At Primary School, I’d been taught not to, it was quite the revelation.
Unsurprisingly, I’m also a fan of How To Build A Girl. Not only did it make me laugh out loud, but I loved the main character, Johanna Morrigan, too. Johanna is 14 years old and begins the process of reinventing herself, new name (Dolly Wilde) included.
What I appreciate so much about Johanna/Dolly is how normal she is. She isn’t perfect and, appropriately, it’s the demand to be perfect, that can make being a teenage girl such a challenge.
I’m not suggesting that one character will suddenly solve all the problems associated with being an adolescent female, but I don’t think many female characters help the situation.
Last year, a report from The Children’s Society, showed that the number of teenage girls with mental health problems has increased. Sadly, this wasn’t a surprise, but one finding did offer an explanation, that I don’t believe has been explored enough. Gender stereotypes were found to have a negative impact on teenage girls’ mental health.
When I read this fact, it was as if the final missing piece had fallen into place. I’ve always had a tendency towards perfectionism. I once took a test where a score of 20 meant you were a ‘Neurotic Perfectionist’. I got 23. As a teenager, this perfectionism led to anxiety over exams, my appearance, my social life and pretty much everything. Obviously, this level of anxiety was quite stressful, but I couldn’t make sense of it at the time.
This type of experience is not unique. The pressure on young girls to look perfect and have equally perfect lives is well-documented. What isn’t talked about as much, is the pressure to have a perfect personality.
While I fully agree that we need to address the issues around body image and materialism, it seems hypocritical to tell teenage girls that there is more to life than looks and possessions, and then focus on those pressures alone.
If you think that society only expects females to ‘look’ pretty and princess-like, then I have bad news. It expects us to act like that too. You only have to watch the treatment of females in the public eye, like singers and politicians, to see that women who don’t fit the gender stereotype of being ‘sweet’ and ‘ladylike’ are, at best, viewed with suspicion.
From when I was a little girl, I felt pressure to appear sweet and I felt I was failing miserably. I’d look at other girls and think, “They seem so calm and polite. I bet they never roll their eyes, or mutter sarcastically when a complete stranger tells them to smile”.
Naturally, we then want to question where these gender stereotypes come from. I wouldn’t lay the blame solely on unrealistic female characters, they are the symptom of an existing problem. Yet, how females are depicted in books, and on stage and screen, helps to reinforce those stereotypes.
Throughout history, female characters have tended to be very quiet, nice, ‘good’, and therefore not very human. If we think of a female character, let’s say Cinderella, for example. She is forced to wait on her cruel stepmother and stepsisters, doing chores all day, with no life of her own. All this time, Cinders doesn’t ever complain and, in some versions, even invites her stepsisters to live in the Royal Palace with her at the end.
Were Cinderella an actual person, chances are, she would have snapped at some point. There would have been a day when she would have shouted back at her stepfamily, or not cleaned the kitchen properly. Some people would point out that realism is not really the point of a story featuring pumpkins turning into carriages.
Still, as the great Stan Lee once said, “Just because something’s for fun, doesn’t mean we have to blanket our brains while we read it”. Fairy Tales were originally written for adults, in order to teach a moral lesson. Every story, however fantastical, has a message. The message from many female characters is that you must be quiet and you have to be sweet.
Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t be loving and try to be kind. Just, the idea that girls have to act a certain way and appear happy all the time, is not healthy. If you’re smiling on the outside, but in your head you’re kicking someone in the shins, I’d venture you haven’t really dealt with your feelings. No, you don’t want to hurt people or be reckless, but if you bury all negative emotions, they will come out eventually, and in a far more dramatic way.
I grew up with a fear of seeming mean or aggressive if I spoke out about anything. Ironically, it’s difficult to be compassionate and kind if you’re scared to speak up. It’s hard to point out an injustice if you’re worried about sounding ‘shrill’.
There have been attempts to counter these wallflower characters with females who are deemed to be strong and powerful. However, these characters are no more realistic. They’re always right and are able to find time to have perfect winged eyeliner, while fighting a team of top assassins. They’re still perfect, they’re just louder.
That’s why I don’t join the calls for more strong female characters. Instead, I want more flawed female characters. Females that are just normal. So, thank you Caitlin Moran, for creating Johanna Morrigan. You ‘built a girl’ and she’s actually human.