Hollywood depends on strong female leads

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Areanna Bivens, Staff Writer

The phrases “girls rule” and “Who run the world? Girls!” have never been more prominent than now.

Women were rarely the main faces of TV shows and movies, more often portraying the love interest or the assistant. Today, studios are constantly releasing new material with dominant female characters.

The trend seemed to pick up popularity in 2012 following the release of the blockbuster hit Hunger Games with lead actress Jennifer Lawrence.

Having the lead of a movie be a female had been a foreign concept for many years. Hunger Games becoming such a hit paved the path for many movies and TV shows to follow by having Lawrence be a strong female that young girls could look up to.

Strong characters such as Brooke Davis from One Tree Hill and Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones are also a few examples of females who have inspired young audiences, as well as Hollywood directors, to change the content of TV shows and movies.

Young girls observe these characters and gain strength to be more bold and be themselves as they watch characters on TV.

While having more female recognition is inspiring and a pleasant change of pace from previous content, newly released shows such as Girlboss and Supergirl provide less aesthetically pleasing content. Girlboss has an obnoxious female lead who illustrates a negative message of getting into trouble constantly, and Supergirl’s plot line lacks depth and logic.

Shows such as these pose a negative trend of either having troubled female characters, as that is seen as the “cool” thing in modern day entertainment, or having a female character who is simply there to be a fresh face and nothing more, which can be insulting to female audiences.

Writers and directors want to have the next blockbuster hit, and they mistakenly believe that all they have to do is put a female face in the lead role.

However, the facts of entertainment remain the same: overused plot lines, unoriginal content, and annoying lead characters will never be enjoyable material for audiences.