Does The ‘Strong Female Lead’ Character Trope Have Reverse Implications For Women?

The English lead Emily Blunt made some surprising revelations in her interview with The Telegraph. Blunt conveyed that the ‘strong female lead’ archetype makes her roll her eyes and bores her to her wits. 

Blunt stars as Cornelia in The English series who is vehement about avenging the death of her dear son. Cornelia pairs with Eli who is also on an avenging mission for his plot of land. Blunt finds Cornelia to be a refreshing break from the ‘strong female’ archetype. 

On the strong female archetype, Blunt said, “It’s the worst thing ever when you open a script and read the words ‘strong female lead’. That makes me roll my eyes. I’m already out. I’m bored. Those roles are written as incredibly stoic, you spend the whole time acting tough and saying tough things.” 

“I love a character with a secret. And I loved Cornelia’s buoyancy, her hopefulness, her guilelessness… She’s innocent without being naive and that makes her a force to be reckoned with,” said Blunt 

Turns out Emily Blunt is not the only star that is plagued by the ‘strong female’ label. Tatiana Maslany from She-Hulk: Attorney at Law also said she found it ‘frustrating’ for her roles to be diminished to a ‘strong’ trait. 

Maslany said, “It’s reductive. It’s just as much a shaving off of all the nuances, and just as much of a trope. It’s a box that nobody fits into. Even the phrase is frustrating. It’s as if we’re supposed to be grateful that we get to be that.”  

But why does the media’s representation of the ‘strong female lead’ have women expressing their disappointment? One might be impressionable enough to believe that it's a compliment to the gender. 

Suggested Reading: Strong Female Characters to Look Up To In 2022

All That’s Wrong With The ‘Strong Female Lead’ Label 

The wave of feminism designed the ‘strong female lead’ label in response to the ‘damsel in distress lead’ archetype that women had been cast in for ages. Where the damsel in distress is often seen crying and needs saving from a man, the strong female does everything by herself, shows no emotions, and needs no one to help her, let alone a man. 

However, it is okay to ask for help when one needs it and such an act should not be synonymous with frailty. It is healthy to show emotions and there is vulnerability and therefore strength in such expressions. 

The representation of the ‘strong female lead’ by the media is stoic and promotes the hyper-independence culture that frowns upon seeking support. 

Hyper-independence is when people feel the need to be independent to an unhealthy extreme. Hyper-independent individuals might take offence or feel insulted if someone offers support. Hyper-independence usually develops as a coping mechanism for childhood trauma if the individual continually received negative responses while seeking support. Growing up they feel it's best to never seek out support as they had been let down every single time they did so in the past. 

Furthermore, the label ‘strong women’ establishes that there is a separate category of women that are inherently not strong. It creates a disrespectful discourse toward women as it leads to the implication that women are not strong in general. The ‘strong woman’ label is culpable of typecasting certain trademark features as strong while excluding certain other humane features. It tends to box women into a particular category and expresses exasperation when women tend to claw their way out of it. 

The views expressed are the author's own.