Why are most of the female characters love interests?

[Papenbrook]

I am seeing a trend among the female characters of the show. Most of them are love interests to one of the male characters. I really hope this stops soon.

[Leo656]

Because it's easy. Especially when your target audience isn't primarily made up of deep thinkers.

Not gonna lie, when I was about 7 or so, basically the target age group for this show, when I'd see a girl character in a show/movie my first instinct was that she was going to be someone's "girlfriend". At that age the people you're most familiar with are your parents, so subconsciously, you tend to pair people up because that's how it's "supposed" to be in your head.

It also gives the writers the excuse not to put much thought into making them a fully-formed character. Most of the pen-holders on any show or movie are men, remember, and it's kind of impossible for men to even pretend they know how women think or act. So, since to them, women in real life only exist as potential partners, that's what goes down on paper.

[snake]

Don't you make the same thread every other week?

[Luckyday]

Because it's easy. Especially when your target audience isn't primarily made up of deep thinkers.

Not gonna lie, when I was about 7 or so, basically the target age group for this show, when I'd see a girl character in a show/movie my first instinct was that she was going to be someone's "girlfriend". At that age the people you're most familiar with are your parents, so subconsciously, you tend to pair people up because that's how it's "supposed" to be in your head.

It also gives the writers the excuse not to put much thought into making them a fully-formed character. Most of the pen-holders on any show or movie are men, remember, and it's kind of impossible for men to even pretend they know how women think or act. So, since to them, women in real life only exist as potential partners, that's what goes down on paper.

That may be true but I am started to see shows (mostly Cartoon Network) that throw that outdate cliche out the ****ing window.

I am not sure if I can give all the credit to Pendleton Ward but his female characters, even when they're love interests, are multi facade individuals with so much thought put into them and he still thinks that he's not trying hard enough. So it's not impossible for men to write female characters. You just have to be good and not lazy.

A poor writer is a writer that is so complacent with status que that he/she never tries anything new and that is real problem with nickelodeon.

[Leo656]

Nick getting their hands on this franchise really was a worst-case scenario all the way around. I remember people being all, "Yay, we get more TMNT product!" But it's all been the drizzling sh*ts so who cares?

[IndigoErth]

Agree that part of it comes down to the fact that while there are many women working in animation they're still outnumbered quite a bit by the guys. It would serve writing teams well, as well as those who create and develop characters, to balance out the gender ratio in studios a bit more. As well as recognizing that they might need to beef up their quality in terms of female characters and be willing to have more woman involved in the writing. Or at least get more of their input.

[Bossa Nova]

Because that's all they're good for apparently.

[Warhorse]

It's typical in writings. Even J.K Rowlings couldn't seem to create female characters without them not having a romantic interest. Unless you were a teacher that is.

[IndigoErth]

Hm.. Suppose some of it could be social nonsense that sees part of a woman's value being in relation to her relationship status, and making a relationship or the hunt/want for one an inherent part of a female character's identity.

[CyberCubed]

Almost all women in fiction are love interests. Even the female villains are usually paired with someone, or try to seduce one of the male leads away from the "good" female character.

Even in Legend of Korra the female lead was rushed into a relationship with a guy in the first season even before she became a lesbian at the end of the show with the other woman who was just a love interest.

[Gunpowder]

Even in Legend of Korra the female lead was rushed into a relationship with a guy in the first season even before she became a lesbian at the end of the show with the other woman who was just a love interest.

Should probably put spoiler brackets around this. Just sayin'.

[ssjup81]

Might be ingrained...thinking that a female character will definitely do her own thing and have her own life but may also get paired up with someone...although, for me, I never really thought about romance in general as a kid much. Although, when watching Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears back in like the late 80s, I viewed Cavin and Callah as a pair or possibly becoming one if they were adults. I thought it was cute.

[Warhorse]

Might be ingrained...thinking that a female character will definitely do her own thing and have her own life but may also get paired up with someone...although, for me, I never really thought about romance in general as a kid much. Although, when watching Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears back in like the late 80s, I viewed Cavin and Callah as a pair or possibly becoming one if they were adults. I thought it was cute.

I don't know how ingrained it really is. When watching Gummi Bears, stuff like that did not cross my mind. Now, when watching Alvin and the Chimpmunks, it was very easy to do a child's version of shipping Alvin with Britany. And, for some reason, I also rooted for Charles and Sarah in Charles in Charge.

[CyberCubed]

Should probably put spoiler brackets around this. Just sayin'.

Its all around tumblr, deviantart and every forum, everyone knows it by now.

[ssjup81]

Its all around tumblr, deviantart and every forum, everyone knows it by now.I didn't because I dont use those sites.

[Gunpowder]

Its all around tumblr, deviantart and every forum, everyone knows it by now.

I didn't. :ohwell:

[Huzzah]

The problem with introducing characters as solely love interests, is the writers use that as an excuse to write poorly formed characters. Then again some of these writers also live by the severely outdated notions that female characters aren't interesting to boys, their primary target audience, toy companies use this as an excuse not to make female figures.

[Konchadunga]

It also gives the writers the excuse not to put much thought into making them a fully-formed character. Most of the pen-holders on any show or movie are men, remember, and it's kind of impossible for men to even pretend they know how women think or act. So, since to them, women in real life only exist as potential partners, that's what goes down on paper.

I don't buy this. I mean, maybe it's not possible for men to think exactly like women, but it can't excuse women being written that dull. I don't see why a man can't just pick one of his interests out and give them to a female character. Girl who likes training iguanas? Maybe it's not relatable to many female viewers (or male ones, for that matter), but at least it's something apart from the norm.

[Metalwolf]

Even in Legend of Korra the female lead was rushed into a relationship with a guy in the first season even before she became a lesbian at the end of the show with the other woman who was just a love interest.That's lame. She escaped being some dude's love interest only to be shoved into a lesbian one. It's like the writers are saying 'Too bad honey. You ain't gonna escape having a relationship this time."

You know what the most radical thing would be? Not making her a lesbian, its having a woman who is single, and not treating it like it's a bad thing. The sudden lesbian thing also only reinforces the stereotype that a woman never really is content without a relationship, if she can't get with the men for some reason, well, then she's gonna go with the girls. It's either she's always in a relationship, or she's aspiring to be in one. A woman is always defined by her relationship role.

And if she somehow happens to be lesbian or bi from the get go? then heaven help the writer that happens to let her be content or desires to be single! It's somehow 'bigoted' or 'homophobic' if she's written to not be in or aspire to a relationship! Gay or bi characters are just as defined by their relationship status as straight female ones. They don't get away from the relationship trap either.

[MaximeLoonatic]

Not all the females from the show is a love interest, like: Ice Cream Kitty, Ms Campel, The female reporter, Kraang Prime...

But, honestly, I belive this show could use some other females, specially villians.

[IndigoErth]

So the cat made of ice cream, the robot who's only desire is to shoot rockets at people, a nameless woman (who probably has a husband and two ungrateful brats at home anyhow), and a Kraang who's gender is debatable. :tlol:

Oh but don't forget about Mom-Thing! Bigfoot... well... even she got paired up. (Still hoping that was more a nurturing love and not romantic. lol)

[Amaranthus]

Because that's all women are good for, duh!

[Leo656]

You're definitely happier in the long run if you treat 'em like ornaments instead of, y'know, people. That sh*t's just a losing battle.

[plastroncafe]

Almost all women in fiction are love interests. Even the female villains are usually paired with someone, or try to seduce one of the male leads away from the "good" female character.

Even in Legend of Korra the female lead was rushed into a relationship with a guy in the first season even before she became a lesbian at the end of the show with the other woman who was just a love interest.

Korra and Asami aren't lesbians, they're bisexual.

Female characters are reduced to love interests so often because many writers of fiction are bad at their jobs.

[Leo656]

Also, because laundry-folding and window scrubbing makes for piss-poor TV.

[plastroncafe]

Having seen the "let's clean the farmhouse" episode, I'm inclined to agree.

[Leo656]

I couldn't fit in a sandwich pun without making it clunky. Just wanna say, I really, really, really tried.

[plastroncafe]

https://41.media.tumblr.com/c4569c677b17c71cab87a16b18eb9318/tumblr_mrpltk9N721szisqro3_500.jpg

[Leo656]

Anything Linkin Park that's not "Shadow of the Day" makes someone a terrible person by default.

[plastroncafe]

http://www.geocities.ws/Hollywood/5671/PrincessBride/Image82.jpg

I'd day that about breaks us even. :D

[Donnieangelo]

I don't know how ingrained it really is. When watching Gummi Bears, stuff like that did not cross my mind. Now, when watching Alvin and the Chimpmunks, it was very easy to do a child's version of shipping Alvin with Britany. And, for some reason, I also rooted for Charles and Sarah in Charles in Charge.
Oh yes, good old Chipmunks. :nod:

I prefer the romance there instead of how the Nick Turtles try. Not too big, not too small. Just right in the middle!

[IndigoErth]

You're definitely happier in the long run if you treat 'em like ornaments instead of, y'know, people.
Know what a lawnmower is really for? It's a prop for a lawn ornament. :P

[Leo656]

Interesting theory. Meanwhile, dinner ain't gonna cook itself, cupcake. Might as well hop to and make ya'self useful, no?

[plastroncafe]

We are now no longer broken even.

[Leo656]

Nah, just plain broken.

[plastroncafe]

True enough, my friend.
True enough.

[Warhorse]

So the cat made of ice cream, the robot who's only desire is to shoot rockets at people, a nameless woman (who probably has a husband and two ungrateful brats at home anyhow), and a Kraang who's gender is debatable. :tlol:

Oh but don't forget about Mom-Thing! Bigfoot... well... even she got paired up. (Still hoping that was more a nurturing love and not romantic. lol)

Oh, you forgot Tea Time girl!

[IndigoErth]

Twice I went to add her and considered the thread title... lol Poor kid is default safe for now given her age.

Granted my earliest vague crush was in kindergarten, which appeared to be vaguely mutual, so I suppose they're never too young. :tlol:

[Gunstar_Red]

I would like to argue that since there's "not enough" female characters, Raph and Mikey are not paired up with someone. (Though, how Mikey makes out with Ice Cream Kitty sometimes, I gotta wonder if she's his girlfriend. :lol: ) If there were two more girls, they would have have love interests too.

So how I see it, it's not a female problem. It's a main character problem. But that's a common trope with cartoons. Main characters are "suppose to" have someone. Just like real life, if you're not in a relationship, people judge you either as gay or something's wrong.

And how are Karai and April flat characters? They are not as generic as you guys are making them out to be. I don't see either of them having their sole purpose on the show as love interests.

[ssjup81]

I would like to argue that since there's "not enough" female characters, Raph and Mikey are not paired up with someone. (Though, how Mikey makes out with Ice Cream Kitty sometimes, I gotta wonder if she's his girlfriend. :lol: ) If there were two more girls, they would have have love interests too.

So how I see it, it's not a female problem. It's a main character problem. But that's a common trope with cartoons. Main characters are "suppose to" have someone. Just like real life, if you're not in a relationship, people judge you either as gay or something's wrong.

And how are Karai and April flat characters? They are not as generic as you guys are making them out to be. I don't see either of them having their sole purpose on the show as love interests.Same for me, especially Karai. As for April, I would like to know more about her general interests.

[Leo656]

So far we have "Moping" and "Sending Mixed Signals" for a start. :lol:

[Huzzah]

April isn't so much a flat character as she is a useless character. They don't know what to do with her, can't explain how her powers work, or change it on an episode by episode basis. They keep trying to find a way to keep get in every episode, even when there is no way to actually use her. Basically the show would be a lot better of they actually limited her appearances.

[ssjup81]

April isn't so much a flat character as she is a useless character. They don't know what to do with her, can't explain how her powers work, or change it on an episode by episode basis. They keep trying to find a way to keep get in every episode, even when there is no way to actually use her. Basically the show would be a lot better of they actually limited her appearances.They were explained. She was indirectly experimented on because of her mother (Kurtzman even mentioned something like this). She has Kraang DNA in her system which is probably why her "powers" seem to react whenever Kraang are involved, be it directly or indirectly and seemingly she doesn't have control over them. The show's been very consistent with that.

[Huzzah]

One week she senses things, the next week she has telekinesis, the next she's seeing through mutant's eyes, no, they adapt her powers however they want when looking for an excuse to make her useful to the plot. They don't know what to do with her.

[ssjup81]

One week she senses things, the next week she had telekinesis, the next she's seeing through mutant's eyes, no, they adapt get powers however they want when looking for an excuse to make her useful to the plot. They don't know what to do with her.But it was still explained and seems it always reacts to Kraang stuff. We've only seen her use her sensing thing not involving Kraang twice, and that could be due to Splinter's training April on how to use her mind. It's still consistent.

[Ravenshell]

Yeah, and let's all forget that Karai was a driving force of conflict for the show for the first two seasons, shall we? Because obviously we need to forget about that so you can more effectively pigeonhole her...

[victory_angel]

But it was still explained and seems it always reacts to Kraang stuff. We've only seen her use her sensing thing not involving Kraang twice, and that could be due to Splinter's training April on how to use her mind. It's still consistent.

And in China Town Ghost Story. Ho Chan had told April she had barely tapped into her psychic/spiritual ablities. She doesn't entirely know what her powers are. With the training she has recieved from Splinter she is learning how to control them and she is gradually beginning to learn what her powers are.

And if my headcannon about her being a neutrino turns out to be correct, it can give her even more of a means in which she can learn how to understand, control, and limit her psychic gifts.

[Warhorse]

Twice I went to add her and considered the thread title... lol Poor kid is default safe for now given her age.

Granted my earliest vague crush was in kindergarten, which appeared to be vaguely mutual, so I suppose they're never too young. :tlol:

It's just nature showing that she will not be squandered. I think my first crush was Alfonso Ribeiro on SilverSpoons. I think I was 6 at the time.

April isn't so much a flat character as she is a useless character. They don't know what to do with her, can't explain how her powers work, or change it on an episode by episode basis. They keep trying to find a way to keep get in every episode, even when there is no way to actually use her. Basically the show would be a lot better of they actually limited her appearances.

I wished they get rid of her powers altogether. I liked it when she would be there for the Turtles to either scope out something, or show them stuff on the internet, or introduce them to a restaurant, and maybe on the side, either show her being interested in either becoming a scientist (this line of work would be perfect for her, considering she meets Donnie at a younger, more impressionable age, and it would give them something huge to have in common with) or a reporter. I don't know why the writers feel like they have to give her some incredible power for her to be interesting, when the fact that she was a regular girl accepting mutant turtles as friends was interesting enough.

[Keroscene]

April isn't so much a flat character as she is a useless character. They don't know what to do with her, can't explain how her powers work, or change it on an episode by episode basis. They keep trying to find a way to keep get in every episode, even when there is no way to actually use her. Basically the show would be a lot better of they actually limited her appearances.

I'd say "a confused character" rather than a useless one. The writers don't seem to have an overall direction for her - they want her to be genuinely powerful so that she isn't just Donnie's crush but at the same time they don't want her to be powerful enough that she outranks the boys, because that would mean every episode ending about five minutes early.

Rather than limiting her appearances, they could just do away with the Kraang powers. April was already well into her ninja training before Casey showed up, there's no reason she should need "special abilities" when Casey doesn't. Essentially, Casey is being given a lot of stuff to do that either April or one of the Turtles should be doing instead.

[***First of Two Latin Kings***]

I more or less disagree with this even though your thought process is logical. I think they are trying to pull from every TMNT medium, and while Vol. 4 is Mirage canon, it ISN'T Eastman influenced (in the sense that Eastman was no longer involved with TMNT when it was ongoing), so I think they made April unique as a reference to that series-- just because we're confused doesn't mean the writers are.

As far as the question asked by this thread, the answer is pretty obvious. Their core audience is essentially hormone fueled tween boys and girls, so having love interests helps ratings. Seems almost every cartoon is like this nowadays.

[Luckyday]

And in China Town Ghost Story. Ho Chan had told April she had barely tapped into her psychic/spiritual ablities. She doesn't entirely know what her powers are. With the training she has recieved from Splinter she is learning how to control them and she is gradually beginning to learn what her powers are.

And if my headcannon about her being a neutrino turns out to be correct, it can give her even more of a means in which she can learn how to understand, control, and limit her psychic gifts.

And hopefully a hard to ignore weakness like Green Lantern's color yellow and Superman's weakness that is well known by his arch villain, Lex Luthor. For every upside to discover a new power, there should be a downside to it to keep her balance. Hopeful hers isn't "it use so much energy" crap because weaker writers on the show will just use an ass pull like "willpower" or some other BS.

[NoName999]

So the cat made of ice cream, the robot who's only desire is to shoot rockets at people, a nameless woman (who probably has a husband and two ungrateful brats at home anyhow), and a Kraang who's gender is debatable. :tlol:


To be fair, that's a better track record than most tv shows with women in them. :tlol:

[Spike Spiegel]

April isn't so much a flat character as she is a useless character. They don't know what to do with her, can't explain how her powers work, or change it on an episode by episode basis. They keep trying to find a way to keep get in every episode, even when there is no way to actually use her. Basically the show would be a lot better of they actually limited her appearances.

This.

April would be appreciated more as a character if they didn't make her a Mary Sue. If anything, she should appear most often in stories where a larger part of the plot/character development is centered around her. The 2003 series did this really well (i.e. "April's Artifact").

I want to like the character, but she almost gives off this Deanna Troi vibe with the psychic powers.

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070801175921/malf/images/d/d1/Troi1.jpg