Dear Women: What makes a good female protagonist?

Women are sexy.

Both men and women are capable of being bad ass. The primary reason male protagonists are so much more common is because the majority of gamers are male and therefore find a male character easier to relate to. No man on this planet truly understands women and vice versa.

Gay porn, boys' love,... Add these and I'm sure many will read it :v All my female friends like these kinds of things.

Dear men: what makes a good male protagonist? Oh wait, women are qualified to answer that question, too.

However, you sound more like you're looking for a hero through the lens of feminism. Thing is, there are a million brands of feminism, just like there are a million shades of belief for any ideology. One kind of feminist might praise Faith from Mirror's Edge, while another might be offended by the way she takes directions from a man. Another type of feminist might not hold Faith as an ideal because in many respects she is a reactive hero rather than taking matters into her own hands (not that many proactive heroes exist in gaming to begin with.) We could look at it through a kaleidoscope of different feminist lenses, just as we could look at it through a bevy of marxist or humanist or nihilist lenses. Those are all great flavor and great perspectives for telling stories, but they can be problematic when trying to grasp at the One True Definition of an action hero.

In my own personal opinion, "action hero without a dick" isn't far off. The problem is that your phrasing implies that action heroes are by default men. And while that is de facto true across the entire population of action heroes, it's not an egalitarian way to look at things. Consider an action hero. What color is the hero's hair? We don't know. Is there a default? I don't think so. Should there be a hair color that typifies heroism? That sounds silly. Just assume any type of person can be an action hero in their own way. Gender is just another thing that describes the hero (n.b. that doesn't mean gender is pointless - just like sexuality shouldn't figure into a default action hero, they should probably still have one, if you're the one telling the story. And that gender or sexuality or religion or whatever should either figure into the story or be so totally unimportant that you don't spend any time on it.)

Rambo is an action hero with a speech impediment. Chell is an action hero without socks. Gordon is an action hero with glasses. Advance Wars' Rachel is an action hero with red hair. Don't assume there are any defaults.

"In my opinion, most "good" examples of female characters don't exactly extend much further than "action hero without a dick". I don't mean this in an offensive way, but I just don't understand why these characters are "women" as opposed to "men"."

That already shows the root of your problem. Stop looking at women as some sort of radically different species. What do you mean WHY the character is a woman? Why are you a male? Why am I a female? Because that's just what we are. Why does the female character have to be something different than what a good male character is? She doesn't. The same elements that make a good male character still goes into making a good female character. Why do you have to look at the female character as being an "action hero without a dick"? Why not just an "action heroine"? Or why not just a "protagonist"?

Fun fact: Lara Croft was originally a man but since the character resembled Indiana Jones too much they changed the character to a female. Both characters are very successful and popular. That's a pretty good example of how the same elements can go into creating a good male and female character.

Just stop viewing women as being so different. We're not. We like the same things in people as men do: courage, perseverance, kindness, intelligence...etc, etc.

I'm a guy, but reading this article almost a year ago forever after made me notice the "strong" adjective as the defining trait many character writers automatically go for when creating a female lead, and how weird that word would be when applied to many male leads.

As long as she looks cool, well-designed, and not meant to be sexual appeal, I'm fine with it. I just hate it when people design female characters wearing as little as stone age people, and with oversized boobs etc.

A twerking idle animation.

Watch Kerry Washington in the TV series, "Scandal".

The same thing that makes a good male protagonist.

Large breasts.

Disclaimer: I'm a guy, so if women have a special ability for relating to women, I can't tell you how that works. I don't think I've got a special ability to relate to men, though -- at least not a conscious one, so I can't tell you how that works either.

What makes a good female protagonist? I'd say the same thing as what makes a good male protagonist, since making a character a believable human being is more important than the nature of their naughty bits. That's not to say you should ignore that there are gender differences, but you're doing it wrong if they're more important than the story.

Trying to write a female character in accordance with whatever standards people would like you to uphold is prone to lead to centipede syndrome -- as writers start consciously thinking about how to not make their portrayal offend anyone, they lose the ability to write well.

Big boobs and big guns ;) or ever better boob guns :o

If the internet social justice crowd is to be believed, a mannequin.

If sales of books like the Twilight Saga are to be believed, useless needy victims.

Pick your poison, or just write what the hell you want and screw what anyone else wants. You'd be surprised how often it comes out okay.

XD

I think it's a bit touchy topic, because quite a lot of women (at least on the internet) seem to be rather easily offended by female protagonists written in a fashion they don't like.
So game devs and (screen)writers have to be careful, which often leads to poorly executed female characters.
I noticed this trend in movies and TV series, especially (but not only) cop shows, where the lead female characters often tend to be arrogant, overconfident bitches arguing with their male coworkers all day long. That's awful, IMHO.

So, my advice to the OP would be:
don't think of it as "writing a FEMALE character", think of it as "writing a human being". Generally, females tend to have better sense of details than males, and when they describe something, they usualy describe it in more details than a male would. So remember this when writing dialogues, if you wish :)
Other than that, in the modern days, generally females aren't really all that different than males.

I think the real question is "What makes a good protagonist?".

It's hard to give a response that's not subjective, in any case. In my opinion, I find that I can relate to any gender as long as the character and the storyline is intriguing. I want them to have flaws, weaknesses and a personal investment in why they are involved in the story.

Needless to say, stereotypes suck.

Attempting to create art to please an audience or a particular demographic usually results in generic, soulless, banal results. Just write the characters however you see fit. If you find it hard to write a female characters because of any worries or pre-conceptions, write your first draft with all male characters. Then toss a coin for each of your characters to decide it they are going to be male or female, do a search-and-replace of your first draft to change the names accordingly, and re-read it and see what you think.

most "good" examples of female characters don't exactly extend much further than "action hero without a dick"

Feels to me like you're really limiting your genre. Female characters would only be action heroes if you look at the action genre, and IMO that's a more male oriented genre in the first place. In gaming, if you want female protagonists look at hidden object adventures. For novels try reading books by female writers.

It doesn't take much effort to write a female character that is both modest and respected.
Unfortunately, most video game developers are shallow men. You don't see many male protagonists in a war or battle wearing a G-String, so why would a woman go in there with what is essentially a bikini.
As long as you respect your characters, they will shine through as being a "good" example of female characters.

Also, it's not hard to understand women. As a man, I find it so much harder to bond with guys.

Who would want to watch a Man's butt while playing Video games? Beside, It's great to see some jiggle physics once In a while

Not even female, but I think that a good female protagonist is one that doesn't act and play like a reskinned male character

A strong independent woman who aint need no man.

I am not a woman, but I am a writer, and I want to respond to your question as a writer.

For starters, you're not going to find out what you need to know by reading "feminist" literature. The women you really want to listen to, the ones who can (try to) explain to you what women like and how they think, are the ones who understand that men and women are different, not equal. Such women are comfortable with their femininity and utilize all of the amazing qualities they possess.

If you're going to be writing/creating games aimed at a female audience, you might start with The Bechdel Test. That won't guarantee that your work will be accepted or admired by women, but it will hopefully shift your focus in the right direction. If you're actually going to try and write from the perspective of your opposite gender, that's a tall order. It takes extensive research to pull that off convincingly, and most authors can't achieve it. The Harry Potter series, for example, fails in this respect because J.K. Rowling is somewhat ignorant of how males think and the influences which govern their lives. As a man trying to write from the perspective of a female character, it is much easier to have your female co-worker "fix" your masculine writing as you go along than it is to try and do it properly yourself.

I do not, however, want to discourage you from including a feminine perspective in your writing. Go for it. The exercise should prove to be of benefit to you. In fact, I think every man should spend at least some time and energy learning about women and how their perspective of things differs from that of men. Only then can a man truly appreciate the subtle differences between the sexes and why women are so critically important to the well-being of all humanity.

Just as a general tip, however, you should know that women tend to not be so hung up on the gender of a character as men are. Make sure that the characters are well-developed, interact with each other on a personal (i.e. not superficial) level, and that your hero or heroine is admirable. Do that and your game or story will probably appeal to a female audience.

PS. (Am I the only one noticing how many men are responding to a question addressed to women?)