Some characters—be it a movie, a book, or any other form of expression—are so well-written, it feels like you know a person exactly like that or you can relate to them yourself. Others, not so much. In fact, some of those others can be so far-fetched, clichéd, or inaccurate, you can’t help but roll your eyes or even shame the writer.
The latter is what some redditors did after the user ‘SkywalkersAlt’ started a thread about the most obvious instances of a woman’s character being written by a man. Members of the ‘Movies’ subreddit discussed quite a few of such examples, often detailing what it was about the writing that they didn’t like. Scroll down to find their insight on the list below and see if you agree.
#1
After seeing Oppenheimer recently it became painfully apparent that Christopher Nolan sucks at writing women. I can’t think of a single well-rounded female character in any of his films.
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#2
Megan Fox in Transformers.
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#3
I watched Snow White starring Kristen Stewart recently and was not surprised to find out that it was written and directed by men. For a leading role, she hardly had any lines at all, it seemed her sole purpose was to look scared and sexy
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#4
The classic, the obviously pretty actress “hides” her beauty by wearing glasses.
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#5
Harley Quinn in *Suicide Squad* (2016) was very clearly written and created/dressed by a man.
In her solo movie, *Birds of Prey: …Harley Quinn*, she is very obviously written and created/dressed by a woman.
In the reboot/sequel *The Suicide Squad* (2021), I believe that Margot Robbie and the director James Gunn coordinated when it came to Harley Quinn’s outfit and makeup, but that James Gunn still wrote her dialogue, although her characterization has more in common with Christina Hodson’s writing than David Ayer’s.
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#6
I hated that so much.
“You, a radioactive rage-controlled superhuman. Me, a woman who can’t procreate. We’re both monsters :(“
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#7
Uhh Padme pretending that Anakin’s game was working on her.
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#8
90% of Bond girls
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#9
I feel like any of the Manic Pixie Chicks fit the bill as the are specifically written to advance the male antagonists self discovery. In some cases it boarders on meta, but it turns the female lead into a device instead of a character.
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#10
No one under-writes a female role like Christopher Nolan! The woman in Tenet is a real standout, they’re explaining what they’re up against and say “if this happens all of existence will be undone” and her response is “including my son!”. Because “mom” is exactly as far as the character goes.
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#11
Clark Griswold’s wife, Ellen, in *National Lampoon’s Vacation*. She catches her husband in the act of cheating on her, blames herself, and immediately rewards him by recreating the infidelity with herself in the other woman’s place.
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#12
I just rewatched Edward Scissorhands. As a teenager I was absolutely enthralled but looking back Kim has pretty lackluster writing. She’s pretty much only valued for her looks, is a jerk otherwise but that’s overlooked because beautiful. Her final line is still about her appearance “I want him to remember me as I was”.
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#13
Lily James’s character in Baby Driver.
Black Widow in Age of Ultron.
#14
There’s a movie called Born a Champion. There’s a great scene where our middle aged, bleach blond haired MMA fighter hero is talking to a young woman (who later falls in love with him because what hot woman doesn’t love wrinkles). She says the line every 40+ year old man with a pony tail and samurai sword wants to hear. I can’t remember the exact quote but it was roughly:
“I work as a paralegal and I’m a part time model, but what I really want is to be a housewife and have kids”.
#15
Working Girl. “I’ve got a mind for business and a bod for sin.” Yeah, no.
#16
I was watching Draft Day last night with Kevin Costner. Jennifer Garner plays what felt like to me to be a very clear man’s ideal woman. I’m not talking at all about how she knows the game of football very well or that she’s attractive but talking about how she interacts with her “man.” She treats him like he’s on a pedestal, the way she interacts and responds to him and supports him and lifts him up.
#17
That woman who fell in love for no reason in particular with de Niro in Heat. And who is ok to flea with a criminal she barely just met.
#18
Splash is a great example of this. As a kid I was like “yay, mermaids!” But as an adult it’s so cringe. She’s beautiful, naked a lot, wants to have sex with Tom hanks all the time, AND she’s ignorant about the world.
#19
Donna in the Mamma Mia sequel, i remember thinking the movie had a weird vibe and as soon as the scene of her jumping into the sea with denim shorts came on i went “this s**t was 100% directed by a man”, looked it up and confirmed it lol.
#20
This man really casted Florence Pugh just to give her one nude scene and 67 seconds of dialogue, all the while fawning over Oppenheimer for no real reason
#21
Rachel McAdams in both Sherlock Holmes and in Midnight in Paris is honestly just hard to watch. I am a bit biased as I don’t like her acting at all, but especially Midnight in Paris the dialogue is so bad for her character that it’s hard to blame her for the role. It’s hard to make something believable when there is no reality a woman would have her character’s dialogue to begin with.
#22
Vanilla Sky / Abre Los Ojos.
Penelope Cruz plays the same character in both movies and it’s just this fantasy of a woman that no one really is. The antagonist is also a freak. No women behaves like that unless they are actively looking to be idealised by men.
#23
Natasha Romanoff in *Iron Man 2*. I’m pretty sure there are memes of the scenes involving ScarJo and Jon Favreau.
#24
The TV series Yellowstone is the worst writings pertaining to women.
#25
While not among the worst, it’s pretty obvious with Anne Hathaway‘s and Jessica Chastain‘s characters in Interstellar. There‘s a hilarious skit on Youtube about the writing of those characters
#26
All the “born sexy yesterday” women. Has to be one of my least favorite tropes.
u/Censius explained:
For those that don’t know “born sexy yesterday” is a trope where a fully mature woman is created, seems to have incredible skill/power/intelligence, but lacks knowledge of the world. Think Fifth Element or Tron Legacy. They often fall in love with a happless dude, since they seem impressively knowledgeable about things, but really they’re just some guy.
#27
Judd Apatow himself has come out and said the female leads in Knocked Up weren’t great. Very real male perspective on display for a film mostly about a woman going through an unexpected pregnancy.
Electrical-Tiger-536 added:
The scene where they’re grabbing multiple pregnancy tests, omg. I don’t believe there are many women out there who didn’t watch that and think “Those things are like $25 each!” Nobody spends hundreds of dollars on pregnancy tests in a single sitting.
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#28
Every Kevin Costner Movie imo. The wife in Field of Dreams, Stands with a Fist, they’re just different versions of his perfect woman.
#29
Anything written by or based on the works of Stephen King.
#30
Rebecca Hall in The Town and Charlize Theron in A Million Ways to Die in the West
#31
Most biopic/brand pic movies have the archetypical “wife” character who’s just there to imbue conflict and have like one argument scene
#32
Suits has a lot of that
After watching the 1 season, i don’t think any character passed the Bechdell test
#33
Geri/Ginger was a profoundly unfit mother who chose to date criminals, but I don’t think a woman would leave out Ace/Lefty Rosenthal’s violently jealous spousal abuse when they were adapting *Casino*. Or decide that the boyfriend she wanted to run away with was a pimp.
#34
I do think the Honor Blackman pilot in Goldfinger is probably the worst offender.
Pretty enough to be desirable, but not interested in men.
She’ll say yes if you beat her up!
Note- this is just as creepy as it sounds. This is not advice of any kind!!!!!!
#35
Cameron Diaz in There’s Something About Mary.
#36
All the women in Baywatch with Zac Efron and Dwayne Johnson. I love that movie and think it’s hilarious but man it could have been so much better if the women were in on it, but they were just one dimensional and flat
#37
It always sticks out as the worst part of an otherwise great script, but I think the most recent example where this annoyed me the most was Claire Foy in First Man. Absolutely thankless role.
#38
My first thought was Natalie Portman in garden state.
#39
The female accompaniment in most Nic Cage movies are dead set on falling for him regardless of the red flag t-shirt his characters seem to wear.
I do enjoy the majority of NC’s filmography for his “professionally chaotic” energy, but I cannot understand the *romantic appeal* at all.
#40
It really took me out of the film when her character implies she is unattractive. Like, this woman played Cinderella.
#41
I see your Baby Driver and I raise you Lily James’ character in Yesterday
“I’d just be the girl with frizzy hair.”
u/level 3Puncomfortable added:
It really took me out of the film when her character implies she is unattractive. Like, this woman played Cinderella.