Feminism Sunday: Male Savior Thoughts Following A Comics Contest

This weekend, I was delighted to be one of the judges in a webcomics contest co-hosted by @cobmaximus and @teamgirlpowa. I found the winner and a few of the others absolutely delightful and I am so happy they will be rewarded for their good work.

What follows is my own views and thoughts, not as a judge or as a mod in #TeamGirlPowa. This is Feminism Sunday.

Three of the entries had the same feature: A male superhero coming in to tell a man to be better. The theme of the contest was "Feminist Heroes." And, to my mind, while the character of the male hero may be feminist, a comic strip in which a man has to come in to save a woman from patriarchy is inherently anti-feminist. So let's talk about that.

You can hear and read a LOT about white savior trope, often called the white male savior trope (warning, the preceding link is a TV Tropes link, only click if you have loads of free time or indomitable will of iron). In this trope, a white dude comes and saves a bunch of people of color. The recent film The Great Wall is an infamous example of that, but it's infamous mostly because it came out at a time when people who have had enough of the trope have a public voice.

But male savior, well, if we start complaining about that, we would be complaining nonstop forever. Because "dude saves dudette" is incredibly common. It's why a show such as Jessica Jones, where women save themselves and others, is still so revolutionary. It's why the Jonathan Coulton song The Princess Who Saved Herself is still needed. Speaking of, here it is, it's lovely:

So, yeah. There's a difference between writing a narrative with a feminist character and writing a feminist narrative. If the sole female character in your narrative is some sort of damsel in distress, and you never subvert that? That's emphatically not a feminist narrative.

There are many reasons to prefer feminist narratives, but here's one that's not about justice or representation (I expect I'll do a "why representation matters" post at some point): Male hero narratives have been done TO DEATH. It's not impossible to write a new and interesting one, but the bar is so much higher for me, as a reader and viewer. Legion, on FX? That's a story with a white male protagonist that works for me because apart from that one aspect, it is absolutely innovative. And as someone who's been consuming media for many, many years, I need the new and interesting, or I zone right out.

So, to some up: If you believe in feminism, make your work feminist because it's the right thing to do. If you're not a feminist, make your work feminist so it doesn't suck.

Related posts:

Allyship Sunday: Allyship Is Not Conditional
Feminism Sunday: It's Not About The Sisterhood
Allyship Sunday: Ally Is A Verb
Feminism Sunday: Splaining
Allyship Sunday: Stay In Your Lane
Feminism Sunday Redux
Feminism Sunday: Should It Continue?
Feminism Sunday: Feminists on the Blockchain
Feminism Sunday: Feminism 101, With GIFs!
On White Feminism
I Don't Want Ally Cookies
You Are Not An Alpha
Let's talk intersectionality