Hatred for the female love interest

[kane]

Lois Lane [...] was a pushy, loud and annoying person.

So basically like the Lois from the comics. Still the Smallville Lois was one of the better interpretations of the character.

[Da Boat]

It's too easy to jump on the word misogyny bandwagon for how fanboys react but even looking back it's hard to even see any redeemable values in any of these women, they are just bad characters. Maybe it's because these men that wrote these parts did not understand women but dammit on the same Smallville show that had Lana they also had Chloe and she was a great character. Compare Laurel in Arrow to her sister played by Catie Lotz and it's a World of differences. Why does the love interest in these TV shows/movies have to be so annoying and demanding and has to shit the hero all the time? It's like these writers just don't get it. I'm seeing Barbara Gordon on Gotham and it's the same problem all over again.

Now we all loved Lois on Superman(78) even though she was spunky and had character. Why can't all love interest be written this way. The main thing is that most of us think super-heroes are great. Now why can't the love interest be part of fun and thinks it's awesome instead of being confrontational?

[Da Boat]

I do think female characters are held to a different standard than the male ones. Going back to "Gotham" people here seem to be fine with Maroni and Falcone (and love Penguin) but can't stand Fish. She's no different in her goals or being a bad person then them. The mayor is also corrupt but no one calls for his head. It's just odd to me.

It's more because Fish is an annoying character over-acted badly by Jada Smith.

[Iron Fist]

I remember Jonathan getting more hate than Mina back when Dracula was still going.

I think Lori got a lot of hate because she wasn't a faithful wife (which is an unrealistic expectation considering her husband was presumed dead) and she was a rather poor mother which blended in with the intense hatred people had for Carl.


I think misogyny is relevant here, but not in the way people think. Mostly because there shows are created and written by men for the most part and men really can't write women without them being massive cliches or stereotypes.

[Fuzzy Cactus]

It's too easy to jump on the word misogyny bandwagon for how fanboys react but even looking back it's hard to even see any redeemable values in any of these women, they are just bad characters. Maybe it's because these men that wrote these parts did not understand women but dammit on the same Smallville show that had Lana they also had Chloe and she was a great character. Compare Laurel in Arrow to her sister played by Catie Lotz and it's a World of differences. Why does the love interest in these TV shows/movies have to be so annoying and demanding and has to shit the hero all the time? It's like these writers just don't get it. I'm seeing Barbara Gordon on Gotham and it's the same problem all over again.

Now we all loved Lois on Superman(78) even though she was spunky and had character. Why can't all love interest be written this way. The main thing is that most of us think super-heroes are great. Now why can't the love interest be part of fun and thinks it's awesome instead of being confrontational?

It's often because the first female lead is written specifically to be a love interest, and thus that becomes their primary character trait. Whereas secondary female characters like Sara Lance and Chloe are written without some endgame romance in mind, and thus are allowed to freely develop as fully-formed characters first.

[Da Boat]

I remember Jonathan getting more hate than Mina back when Dracula was still going.

I think Lori got a lot of hate because she wasn't a faithful wife (which is an unrealistic expectation considering her husband was presumed dead) and she was a rather poor mother which blended in with the intense hatred people had for Carl.


I think misogyny is relevant here, but not in the way people think. Mostly because there shows are created and written by men for the most part and men really can't write women without them being massive cliches or stereotypes.

So you think men are not capable to write good female characters? That's pretty sexist. The history of Cinema would say otherwise. Maybe current male writers cannot do it however and I'm not sure why. Only thing I can think of is that in the last few years more geeks have been involved in filmmaking and maybe they don't get women. (again it's a theory)

[Da Boat]

It's often because the first female lead is written specifically to be a love interest, and thus that becomes their primary character trait. Whereas secondary female characters like Sara Lance and Chloe are written without some endgame romance in mind, and thus are allowed to freely develop as fully-formed characters first.

Good point but why does the love interest have to be a source of conflict? Why don't heroes just have girlfriends that wants to join along on their adventures and not question who they are and what they like. In real life, girls that cannot stand what you do and what you are, you don't go out with and marry them. You end up with the ones that have similar tastes as you.

I'm thinking the problem may be the WB/CW influence that has to turn every super-hero things in feminine teen soap operas and you get a lot of over-tortured crap.

Give me a good old guy meets girl, they like each other and then go beat the crap out of the bad guys.

[Blacksun]

For me Lois on smallville was pretty good, same for Lois on Lois & clark.

I don't think the love interest has to kiss the protagonist butt all the time. all relationships have some tension or they wouldn't be real.

Good point but why does the love interest have to be a source of conflict? Why don't heroes just have girlfriends that wants to join along on their adventures and not question who they are and what they like. In real life, girls that cannot stand what you do and what you are, you don't go out with and marry them. You end up with the ones that have similar tastes as you.

I'm thinking the problem may be the WB/CW influence that has to turn every super-hero things in feminine teen soap operas and you get a lot of over-tortured crap.

Give me a good old guy meets girl, they like each other and then go beat the crap out of the bad guys.

it's because they discovered the money is on the girls.

Lori was terrible in the comics too lol, the show just exaggerated her flaws. Some of these are related to shipping wars though, I mean let's be honest.

shipping wars?

[Basara]

shipping wars?

Ship: Short for relationship. Many people thought Lori was better off with Shane rather than Rick. Of course, most of that was because they were the two worst people of the group and most felt Rick could do a lot better than Lori.

Maybe current male writers cannot do it however

Not true. Many current TV shows and movies have great female leads (Flash, Amazing Spider-Man, White Collar, Burn Notice, just to name a few). There are various causes of blame for annoying actors and actresses. Sometimes it's the writers, sometimes it's the actors, and sometimes its both.

[TOXIC]

Most of the time it's down to bad/terrible actresses.

[JediMindTrick]

I give you Aeryn Sun (Farscape) as a female love interest who was not only the first interest of the main character but also awesome and beloved by fans. Maybe it simply comes down to the same reason we love Sara on Arrow but hate Laurel - she wasn't written as a damsel in distress who was forever defined by the fact she was always in need of being saved by the main character.

[PiercedMonk]

Did fans dislike Laurel in season one? I only remember a vehement opposition to the character when she began drinking to excess and stealing her father's pain medication. Laurel was specifically written to be unlikeable in season two. She was irrational, and hostile to friends and family. Whether that was to contrast against Sara, or to make it so that Oliver wasn't the least likeable character on his own show, I could speculate, but fans were perfectly justified in their dislike of Laurel. Now that she's not written to be a complete train wreck for season three, fans don't seem as opposed to her any more.

I don't think I've seen anyone complain about Iris, on 'The Flash'. If anything, more people seem weirded out by the fact that Barry is pining after a woman who was more or less raised as his sister then anything else.

[JediMindTrick]

I don't think I've seen anyone complain about Iris, on 'The Flash'. If anything, more people seem weirded out by the fact that Barry is pining after a woman who was more or less raised as his sister then anything else.

Read the Flash thread. Many of us are souring on Iris simply because she is stereotypical PIS and she's following the exact same lame plotline Lois had on Smallville where she was blogging about the Blur. Its not too late to save Iris but she is certainly trending downward at this point. Though in her favor there is no other competing female on the show at this time who is better unlike Arrow and Smallville where there were far superior potential love interests to the poorly written main one. Competing interests are why Lois on Smallville and Laurel on Arrow are failing spectacularly, maybe they were smart on Flash by not truly having any other females of note (Fitzsimmons or whatever her annoying name is doesn't count since she is horribly annoying and is obviously Firestorm's girlfriend whenever he shows).

Though apparently in a total kick in the nuts to Wally fans, a second incarnation of Linda Park will soon show up as a possible love interest to Barry and will likely end up being better than Iris simply because the writers will no doubt continue to PIS Iris in order to allegedly create romantic tension.

[Bl00dwerK]

I think a huge issue is that romantic relationships often take up too much of the plot to a point of annoyance.

Nothing really needs to be said after this. Those relationships tend to be annoying because the girlfriend usually tries her best to prevent the hero from doing anything other than paying attention to her...

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Fitzsimmons is a merger of Fitz and Simmons, two characters from Agents of Shield...and she won't be his girlfriend...unless I'm mistaken the character that you're thinking of was the fiancé of the guy that turned into Firestorm, or one of the guys that turns into Firestorm...I think that her name is Caitlin Snow or something like that...as for Linda Park...remember that the character is also the wife of the next flash Wally West...at least she is in the comics...