Do Strong Male Characters In Books And Movies Matter?

Since almost all book readers are women, would it follow that they also want strong female protagonists in their books? What about the men in these books? Would they want strong or weaker male characters?

This is an interesting question that must be answered by both male and female authors as the book writing industry has had tremendous change over the years with the ever increasing surge of female authors.

But it’s still easy to see that book readers still want strong leading characters in their books, especially male ones. One just needs to look at the strong male hero characters in many suspense books.

Another glowing example, this time in the world of the romance book genre, is the ever increasing popularity of ”billionaire romance books which even has its own category. Surely, a lot of women would be balking at this idea.

The idea being that women tend to fall for handsome billionaires who are way out of their league. But as can be seen by the sales of these books, there are women among women who like billionaire seduction/love stories.

The writing on the wall is very evident, there are women and male readers who want dominating male characters in the books that they read. It could be romance, suspense, science fiction, fantasy or other genres, it doesn’t matter.

It would be a good time to ask ourselves, when did this obsession with strong male characters start? When did it begin? To answer this question, we need to go back to history and study how stories were written before.

Take a look at the stories in your history books. Who are the main characters in your history books? Are they men or women? If you are not big on history or have not been paying attention to your history classes, this might be a good time to acquaint yourself with history.

But let me answer now the question of who is the dominant gender in history books, it’s the men. The men are the emperors, kings, warriors, knights, ninjas, soldiers, explorers, presidents and other famous characters in history.

So, this is your answer. Even before the first printed books were being printed, men dominated the stories of humankind. There were also famous strong women in history like Cleopatra and Joan of Arc for example, but they were few and far between.

Besides, during the early days, it was the men who were more popular because they were the ones who held the important positions of the military, government, exploration, literature, art and so on. Women were for the most part supporting characters in history.

I’m sure that many women readers of this article might be cringing at the thought of this, but this is just the reality. Even today, when women have already made important strides in terms of gender equality, many men still dominate the limelight.

Powerful men have been written throughout history, but are powerless men also written in history? This might be again a good time to read your history books to see if indeed powerless men are also written in history.

But let me answer the question already, powerless men are not written in our history books. Nor are common men written in our history books. As the saying goes, it is the victors who write the history books.

And who has the power or influence to alter the content of history books? It’s the men in power. They are the male conquerors, presidents, generals, intellectuals, and all the other men who make and write history.

Are you seeing a pattern yet? History books and other fiction books seem to complement each other. They are written with a powerful male character in mind. Just look at books written even by women, there is a very strong likelihood that there would be a strong male character.

This is another bitter pill to swallow for powerless men. It seems that the world doesn’t care for powerless and average men unless you are of the dominating type. This is evidenced by the many macho type male characters in many books who are very domineering.

The quiet but strong and deadly male character is well represented in many books and movies. You don’t even need to read a lengthy book, all you need is to read superhero comics or watch television to verify this male character persona.

The quick answer is: “No.” You would be going against the trend if you do. The strong male character type is firmly ingrained in the minds of many people. As has been said, they are even written in our history books.

But not only is our history books filled with powerful men, our myths and legends are also filled with strong and powerful men. Even religious texts are replete with stories of domineering male characters. Many people even think that gods were of the male gender.

I’m sure that a lot of readers have a soft heart for powerless men and women in their books. But the development of these powerless characters can take three directions. They can either be the victim, the rescued, or risen hero.

This is the unfortunate position some book characters find themselves in. They are nothing but cannon fodder for the story. You see many of these characters written especially in crime novels.

They are usually mentioned only in passing. They are usually given a brief description by the author which is usually unremarkable and are then written of as having met some unfortunate fate. They are usually described as average or even powerless people in society.

These characters might be minor characters in books or the prototypical damsel in distress characters. They occupy a special place in the heart of the hero or heroes who may be either male or female.

Ask yourself this question especially if you are a heavy and wide reader of fiction: Have you ever read a story where the female heroine rescues the male hero? Chances are, you haven’t read of any such stories.

I know I haven’t read any books or movies where the female heroine rescues the male hero. I would be happy to know one. So I’ll appreciate it if any of this article’s readers could tell me one.

This kind of male character is very popular in many books and movies. One good example of a risen hero character I can think about is Harry Potter. I don’t think I need to explain who Harry Potter is.

He is the famous character written by billionaire author JK Rowling. It’s quite impossible not to know Harry Potter or JK Rowling. The books about this character have been made into blockbuster movies and are one of the highest grossing movies in history.

Well, for anyone who hasn’t read the books or even watched the movies, the character Harry Potter is first portrayed as a powerless young orphan living with his evil relatives who treated him very badly.

One day, he discovers that his parents were really powerful wizards and he goes off to a school for wizards where he excels and learns of his true power as a very powerful wizard. He then literally saves everyone.

If you are an author, this is a very good kind of character to use in your books. Let’s face it, many people read books to escape the realities of everyday living. And everyone knows what’s it like to live in the real world.

People are mostly powerless in the real world and many aspire or dream about having some hidden power that would enable them to escape their dreary lives and might even make them rich or famous.

As can be seen especially as exemplified by the risen hero which was previously discussed, people clamor for some type of a strong male character in their books and movies. They may be good boys or bad boys, as long as they’re the strong types people want them.

They may be the main protagonist or just a supporting character to the heroine, it’s still okay for the readers of books and watchers of movies. We can add also to the fact that there are now many books and movies who portray women as the macho types.

Characters like Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider Movie Franchise and Katniss Everdeen of the Hunger Games Book and Movie Franchise, are just some examples of these strong women who can literally kick a man’s ass.

But even they need a strong and powerful male character by their side to save the day. It seems that book authors and movie writers can’t grasp the fact that strong female characters are all they need to sell their books and movies.

While it’s true that women have advanced in terms of gender equality such that they are now even doing powerful and important jobs which were normally only reserved for men, some things haven’t changed.

Do a lot of women still expect the men to pick up the check when they go out on dates with them? This might seem like a small thing, but many women and men still expect the men to pay for dates.

If deciding who picks up the check during dates is still not clear, how about the issue of who asks the big question of: Will you marry me? Of course, it is still expected that men pop up this question.

Almost all women would balk at the idea of being the one to ask this question to their male partners. As you can see, a lot of things have changed in life and many people already have a different outlook on a lot of things, but men are still expected to sweep women off their feet.

And this idea or way of thinking would continue to still persist for a long time. I don’t even think this would change in my lifetime or for several other succeeding lifetimes. As has been written in our history books itself, this has been ingrained to us since the beginning of time.

You might wonder why strong and powerful male characters abound in books and movies. The reality is that it began ever since the dawning of humankind. Strong and powerful male characters are even recorded in our history books.

To try to buck the trend by writing main male characters who are weak and powerless, you endanger the probable reception of people to your books and movies. This is because strong and powerful male characters are ingrained in the minds of people.

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