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.
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.