I agree wholeheartedly! If you have any Recommendations that stir clear from this issue please recommend them!
You're cooking cuz that's why I dont read stuff like that cuz "strong FL" doesn't always have to equate to 'she's in this tumultuous relationship with this dude' or 'the main enemy is some manipulative women'. Thank you for pointing this out but yeah I realised a lot of stories which put emphasis on a strong fl, show little about how her support systems, especially her relationships with other women too.
The closest example I can think of is I’ll Be the Matriarch in This Life. The female lead is genuinely smart and actually achieves things through her own abilities instead of relying on male characters. She also has a good and supportive relationship with her aunt and cousin, which is something you rarely see in these types of stories.
I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a historical/revenge story that avoids a lot of those usual clichés.
I’m glad you noticed it too, it’s surprisingly common in these stories
Literally most comics on webtoon be like you're so damn accurate
YOU'RE SO RIGHT!! I'm personally obsessed with any storyline where FL is strong as in CAN KICK ASS (even though I'm bitter about the fact that 90% of the times ML is still stronger than her, OF COOOOURSE the ML needs to be the strongest *eye roll*), be it hunter FLs, knights FLs, martial artist FLs etc., OR where FL is already a monarch/leader or the story follows her rise to power. THOSE are the strong FLs I'm always looking for! Such a pity that it's so rare in proportion to all existing stories with a FL. Not saying that MENTALLY strong FLs plotting revenge aren't strong as well, but it's so rare for that trope to be done well and for the revenge to actually be satisfying
It brings me great joy to recommend PENDLETON REVOLUTION (you will never see female friendships like this EVER) and (drumroll) Cameila: Mastering the 3 Kingdoms as Alice. Both of them actually focus on the female MC and show how essentially female friendships are. They deal with the effects of patriarchy with great detail too.
Camellia has been on my want to read list for a while, this is a sign to finally read it!! I continued post-poning it because the novel is SO LONG and I know I'm gonna want to binge it all at once
Bro, after rewatching a lot of stories labeled with “strong female lead,” I started noticing a pattern: many of them are actually very male-centered.
Most of the plots are almost identical, aside from one or two exceptions, and for some reason a lot of them include a reverse harem. But what bothers me the most is that even though these stories claim to empower women, the female lead’s entire development still revolves around men.
Usually her “strength” is tied to a toxic relationship with a man in her life—her father, brother, or husband—who mistreats her or chooses another woman over her. The story then frames another woman as the villain, even though the man is often the real source of the problem.
What’s even more frustrating is that these male characters are often given redemption arcs. The story tries to make them get closer to the female lead again or pushes the audience to sympathize with them. And if the character happens to be attractive, people are even quicker to forgive him.
It also feels like female relationships are almost completely ignored. You rarely get to see a female lead whose main support system is her sister. Most of the time the mother is either dead—often because she died giving birth to the female lead—or she simply isn’t mentioned at all. And when there is a sister (including step-sisters), she is almost always written as evil.
Meanwhile, the brothers are weirdly obsessed with those “evil sisters,” which just adds to the same repetitive trope. And when we do get siblings who are supportive and kind, it’s almost always the brothers—not the sisters.
Even the so-called “funny” or wholesome moments usually revolve around fathers or brothers suddenly acting overprotective or turning into tsundere characters after literally ignoring the female lead’s existence—or even abusing her—in her past life.
In the end, the narrative often ignores that the men are the bigger issue while blaming the “wicked women.” Because of that, it’s hard to call these stories feminist. Even when the female lead is supposed to be strong, the story still makes her depend on a handsome male character to achieve her goals. On top of that, almost every man who interacts with her ends up falling in love with her and forgetting about every other woman.
I’m mainly talking about historical or revenge-type manhwa and manga, because this pattern shows up there all the time.