# Straight men: Can you think of a female protagonist you identified with? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 28, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262 "2012-04-28T20:01:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262/81 "2012-04-30T15:56:53Z")
I can’t really think of any characters where her gender specifically would have made it difficult to relate to her. Certainly, some hyper-feminine characters, particularly in sappy romantic comedies are difficult to relate to, but not so much because she’s hyper-feminine, because I will have as much trouble relating to the male leads in those films too because I often don’t find either character particularly believable. In some genres, like action and sci-fi, the sex of the character is almost an afterthought. For instance, I’ve seen a lot of references to Ripley and Sarah Connor in here, and I agree. I think just about anyone could relate to their situations because that they’re female is more or less completely incidental to their struggles. Ripley struggles against uncertain odds for survival, Sarah Connor against an uncertain future and the burden of human on her shoulders and those of her child. I could easily see both films being more or less the same with male leads (minus the whole future father aspect of John Connor that required Sarah to be a woman). In some genres they need to be female, but it still doesn’t make much difference. In some romantic situations, I have no trouble relating to female lead. Yes, she’s longing for a man, which isn’t something I feel, but it’s really not that different from a man longing for a woman. Or if it’s a situation of a woman fighting against some stereotypical women’s struggles, we all have similar struggles, so I can relate to that. In that case, it’s not really all that different from a character of a different fighting against racism or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262/82 "2012-04-30T16:02:08Z")
I have been known to identify with sentient computers, birdlike alien pacifists, and talking ponies. _Female_ talking ponies, created by a woman. Why would I have trouble with a member of my own species just because she’s a woman? I identify with characters based on their personality and their situation. If I have trouble identifying with a character, it’s generally because I find their personality jarring and unpleasant in ways that I’d like to believe I don’t share–and even then, I often find some common ground. For what it’s worth, the single character in all of fiction with whom I most strongly identify is Jame of Knorth, from P. C. Hodgell’s _Godstalk Chronicles_. In fact, I sometimes wonder just how much the character influenced my own personality, since the first book made quite an impression on me as a boy. Jame is a woman. > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Link, on the other hand…he’s Going To Rescue A Princess, at least in Zelda, Zelda II, and A Link to the Past (I didn’t buy the newer Nintendo consoles). Would male gamers accept having a female avatar who is going to rescue a prince? I don’t think so. As a male gamer and a fan of the Zelda series, I would have no problem with that at all. It might have been a hard sell to many gamers when the Zelda series started, but I think it would be less so now. I frequently make and play female characters when given the option, and no, it’s not just to watch their butts bounce across the screen. It’s because character concepts tend to pop into my head fully formed, and some of them happen to be women. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262/83 "2012-04-30T16:03:52Z")
> [@Myrnalene](#): > > Sure, I get that. In a lot of ways they are stand-in characters with no real persona. If presented with a completely neutral human figure, most of us will assume it is a man because that’s the way our brains have been taught to work. That’s sort of a problem, but not the one I am taking issue with here. > > What I have a problem with is when a character has been designed as and stated to be a woman, and some (dude) comes along and says, “…naw. She’s not a _real_ woman, she doesn’t do anything womanly”. No one would make the same argument for male characters no matter how one-dimensionally they were depicted. I would, assuming that a woman were playing them. I think the default is that the character is the same gender as the person playing. I also do not have a problem with Inner Stickler’s broader point that identifying with a woman who only does stereotypically masculine things is not the same as being able to identify with women who do stereotypically feminine things. And it goes both ways: there’s a difference between women who can identify with Zapp Brannigan and those who can identify with Kiff. On a totally unrelated note, I’d suggest that Chronos read [Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality), at least for a little bit, to see if he can more readily identify with Harry there. I definitely can–it’s honestly one of the first if not the first book I’ve read where I’ve identified so much with the main protagonist. EDIT: And I have no problem identifying with any of these. I actually find some stereotypically female traits to be easier to identify with. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262/84 "2012-04-30T16:04:16Z")
Anyone who is clearly the hero in any [hero’s journey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey) story resonates. The gender is immaterial. Kinsey Milhone. The Holliwell sisters. Slim Hiller. Xena. Katniss Everdeen. They all resonate. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262/85 "2012-04-30T17:26:36Z")
Katniss doesn’t, but that’s not because she’s a girl. I think the only time I _did_ identify with her was also when she was acting in a way that could be considered stereotypically girly. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262/86 "2012-04-30T17:31:02Z")
Daria. Liz Lemon, to an extent. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262/87 "2012-04-30T18:10:59Z")
Lindsay Weir from Freaks and Geeks. I was totally a male version of her during high school. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262/88 "2012-04-30T18:49:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > …I think which character I identify most strongly with in any given work depends more on personality than on gender… Yeah, this is how I look at it, too. Some that spring to mind: Lizzie Bennet in _Pride & Prejudice_ Friday and Podkayne in their respective Heinlein books Ripley in the _Alien_ movies Sarah Conner Lisa Simpson The girl in _True Grit_ The girl in _Spirited Away_ The young witch in _Kiki’s Delivery Service_ Amelie … and too many more to think of at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262/89 "2012-04-30T19:01:55Z")
Celie from The Color Purple. Several already mentioned like Daria, Lisa Simpson, Liz Lemon. I like the “odd character” who doesn’t quite fit in. Square Pegs, Square Pegs, Square, Square PEGS! ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262/90 "2012-04-30T19:10:48Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > And here we have what Streep was talking about. Movies are full of women doing things only a woman would do, and they’re women that most men don’t identify with. All the action heroines, prepubescent girls, and other nonsexual roles cited here are not challenging in that aspect. > > This is an important reason why teen slasher movies attract adolescent boys, why the last one standing is usually a girl, and why that girl never has sex. How far down that road do we go before we are in “No True Scotsman” territory? The OP didn’t make any such distinctions. I thought of a female protatgonist I identified with that has not yet been mentioned: Nancy Drew. OK, so her best friend was named “George.” Deal! I wanted her to solve the mystery, escape the clock tower and stop being so hassled cause she was just a girl! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262/91 "2012-04-30T19:44:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Lamia** : > > I’m sure not all male readers would have been put off a Hermione Granger series by reading equivalent passages about a teen girl’s budding interest in boys, but I think it’s plausible that some would have been. I don’t know if they would identify with it, but they might still find it to be of interest. A boy of that age is likely to be quite curious about how a girl of that age thinks about relationships, and consider such passages to be instructive. One other possibly relevant point about Chell, by the way: There are hints that she first came to Aperature Science for Take your Daughter to Work Day… and has been a prisoner there ever since. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-men-can-you-think-of-a-female-protagonist-you-identified-with/620262.md?page=4)