Tips on How to Write in a Feminist Way...

1 AVOID TOXIC TROPES:

The first tip is to check yourself as you develop characters for your screenplay. Question whether your character is confirming toxic gendered stereotypes. Are you over-sexualizing them? Are you dumbing them down because of their race or gender? Are the female characters as complex as the male ones?

Not only will these tropes make your screenplay anti-feminist, but they could also make it cliché or unoriginal. I mean, who’s going to be impressed with a character that they have seen repeatedly? Not me! Now, let’s engage and uplift our audience, not bore and degrade them.

Below are some tropes to avoid. Not all toxic, gendered tropes are listed, so make sure to think critically and conduct research about any character you write.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) is quirky, often has dyed hair, and exists in the film to fall in love with and change the male protagonist's life. She’s a dream because no one exists solely to fulfill a man’s life – women are complex human beings just like men, let’s not forget that.
The Spicy Latina is sexy, flirty, and confrontational. Often, this character is only in the film as a sex object. This trope confirms the stereotype that all Latina women are loud and “asking” for sex just by the way they dress. Latina’s deserve representation that is not limited to one trope. Latina characters should be as nuanced as any other.

The Sassy Black Woman is witty, humorous, and motherly. The lead characters go to her for advice and always expect snarky side comments in return. This trope stems from the “Mammy” of the Jim Crow era. The “Mammy” was created to hide the oppression of Black women after slavery, showing that Black housekeepers were playful and having fun with their employers: wealthy White families. This trope pushes ideas from the Jim Crow era into today’s culture. Black women are complex, nuanced people that exist outside of white people’s entertainment. You may think you are just writing a funny side character, but this trope contributes to racist beliefs in real life.

The female Nerdy Virgin is shy, socially awkward, unattractive, and asexual. You will see this character as the bud of a joke until the pretty popular girl gives her a makeover. Suddenly, the football team’s quarterback falls in love! This trope says that women are worthless and unlovable unless they are stereotypically attractive. A lot of times, women are considered a prude or a slut - let’s try to avoid those boxes and acknowledge the intracity of women.

2 WRITE LIKE YOU KNOW HER:

The next tip is to write a female character as if they are a woman close to you in real life – your mom, sister, grandma, favorite teacher, best friend, etc. Remember that this is a real person you are writing about. Use empathy, and put yourself in the character’s shoes. If you are a woman, you could even think of yourself - you of all people know about the complexities of women. Treat your characters as if they are literal human beings, reading over your shoulder as you write their destiny. This tip may seem creepy, but an easy way to write in a more feminist way!

3 READ/WATCH FEMINIST WORKS:

"Good writers borrow, great writers steal." -T.S. Eliot

The quote above is not to say you should literally steal from other writers, but instead to find inspiration from the experts! Even having a small amount of knowledge of feminist theory could help immensely. Once you read some of the recommended texts below, it will be difficult to turn the sociological lens in your brain off – writing feminist screenplays will soon come naturally to you.

Additionally, watching films written by feminists will help you build inspiration for your own screenplays. After, compare the characters and plots to other films you have seen. How does this writer uplift women rather than degrade them? Are there multiple female leads? Are the characters attached to harmful tropes?

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:

The Feminist Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot (2020) by Mikki Kendall
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood
The Poet X (2018) by Elizabeth Acevedo
What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape (2018) by Sohalia Abdulali

FILM RECOMMENDATIONS:

Little Women (2019) written by Greta Gerwig and Sarah Polley
Promising Young Woman (2020) written by Emerald Fennell
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) written by Eliza Hittman
Miss Juneteenth (2020) written by Channing Godfrey Peoples
Frida (2020) written by Clancy Sigal and Diane Lake

4 REMEMBER TO BE INTERSECTIONAL:

"There is no such thing as single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives." -Audre Lorde

As feminist writers, it is important to consider more than just the gender of our characters. Falling under the spell of straight, white feminism can lead to a privileged path of exclusion. Representation of women in film should include women of all different races, sexualities, and classes. Intersectionality contributes to a film industry where all women feel seen, and all little girls see characters that look like them on the big screen.

In addition, we should work to represent non-binary people that do not identify as a man or a woman. Feminism is the idea that all genders should be considered equal, not just men and women.

5 USE THE BECHDEL TEST:

The last tip is to use The Bechdel Test, a tool created by the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel. The test detects misogyny and misrepresentation of women in a text. So, you can use this test on your own screenplay to avoid writing anti-feminist plot lines and/or characters!

The three simple questions are:

1. Does the text have at least two women?
2. Do those two women talk
to each other?
3. Do the women talk about something besides a man?

Make sure to check our other page, The Bechdel Tes t, for more information and the benefits!