Pastels and Butt-kicking

"She wasn't looking for a knight, she was looking for a sword." ~Atticus

In our culture boys and girls are asked to choose between a masculine or feminine way to act, dress, or speak. They are rarely ever introduced to the idea that its ok to kick butt while wearing pastels. If we change these tropes in our literature then we change them in our culture.

There are four different stereotypes for main characters, two for female, and two for male.

For female characters you can have the gun slinging, butt kicking, heroine who doesn't seem to have anything to lose. Or the timid, book loving, femme fatal who has no idea what she's getting herself into. 

For male characters you have the macho, gun loving, hero who also doesn't seem to have anything to lose. Or the stuttering, klutzy, geek who built something he shouldn't, or quite possibly ended up here by accident. 

We're never told if Tris Prior had a passion for knitting or if Katniss Everdeen wanted to be a chef. We never get to know if Malcolm Reynolds loves chess or if Han Solo geeks out over galactic comics. 

Thane and I have struggled with these stereotypes many times, especially in creating our characters Alex and Katara. And while I'd be the first to admit that I love these tropes, reading the same story for multiple people gets tiring after awhile. 

Lets take Fawke from my Novel excerpt; Tamám shud. Fawke has been through a lot in her life, she is the epitome of a heroine with nothing to lose. Something not many people know about Fawke is she has a passion for weaving and gardening. Adding a characteristic like this to your POVC will not only add another dimension to your character, but make them more relatable to your readers. It's ok to have a photography loving, sweater wearing, POVC who has a passion for martial arts. Or a macho, thrill seeking POVC who's favorite down time activity is huddling behind their computer and playing Skylanders. 

It's time to see some tiny girls kicking butt in their pastel sweaters and macho men who's favorite pastime is their choir.