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Sheila Heti, Lena Dunham, and the Challenges of Telling "Girly" Stories in Film and Television | Alyssa Rosenberg | Slate XX

There’s no question that some male literary gatekeepers place a lower value on women’s stories. And the dominance of male creators in film and television means that fictional women in those realms can end up punished or mocked for their girliness, as is the case with vast numbers of pop-culture brides, or viewed askance when they behave like decisive, action-oriented, amoral men, like uber-lawyer Patty Hewes on Damages. But the problem isn’t just the judgements and preferences of a few powerful men. In visual mediums like film and television, it can be harder to tell stories about interior struggles than external actions. And we’re conditioned to prefer heroes and anti-heroes of any gender who take the initiative, even when they step wrong, over those who focus inward, vacillate, and embrace—or at least embody—passivity.

One great advantage literature has over film and television, particularly when it comes to stories about women, is the interior monologue. A first person narrative or a third person perspective that focuses on a single character requires that a reader submit to the narrator’s view of events, and be overwhelmed by the main character’s feelings at the same time that he or she is. Whether readers find Sheila’s emotions and reactions to events irksome or charming in How a Person Should Be?, the novel privileges her experiences and delivers them clearly. When she wishes to be obliterated by gunshots in the wake of a fight with her best friend, she can tell us that directly, rather than trying to find an alternate way to make that depth of emotion visible. Similarly, when the film adaptation of The Hunger Games arrived in theaters this spring, it was generally faithful to Suzanne Collins’ novel, but the inability to relay heroine Katniss Everdeen’s constantly-churning interior monologue made the movie less complex and rich.

11 months ago ・ 2 notes

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