What type of Protagonist do you prefer? A boy or a girl?

MomoStarr16 Level 1

March 23, 2018, 10:05 am

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What type of Protagonist do you prefer? A boy or a girl?

For me, having a girl main character will be hard. It will make me hard to establish her as a main character. But if I will make a boy as my main character, it is easy for me to make a back story about him. How bout you guys? What do you prefer?

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

For me, as long as the protagonist is three-dimensional, well-developed, and serves a purpose in strongly and effectively making me care about the plot, then I am okay with either a male or female protagonist--the gender does no really matter if the story, character, and the writing is interesting. That being said, as a man, I could most likely write the part of a male protagonist better, but I have created strong female characters by observing the females in my life, and all it takes is some thought, some drafting, some planning, and some imagination to pull this off, in my opinion.

6 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

" …as long as the protagonist is three-dimensional, well-developed, and serves a purpose in strongly and effectively making me care about the plot…"

This is absolutely the key here! Just as a quick example of this, I was wrapping up High School when the Twilight movie came out. Needless to say, I was a very outspoken critic of both the film and the books, and many of my female peers chalked it up to me not being able to deal with the fact that the protagonist was a woman. In reality, it had absolutely nothing to do with that, but entirely with how--in my opinion--the protagonist was duller than a frozen waffle.

6 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

I agree with Twilight, it mostly ponders to the teen female population but the books are just poorly written, and the main character Bella is so dull and boring, literally a two-dimensional character lol. Kristen Stewart's performance received a lot of flak but it's hard to work with a dull source material, and her performance actually sort of reflects how the character was written in the books.

6 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

"Kristen Stewart's performance received a lot of flak but it's hard to work with a dull source material…"

This is why I usually don't hate on the actors if a movie ends up being dull or boring. I mean, more often than not it actually isn't the actor's fault. You have so many films out there that have great actors doing the best they can, but--to put it colloquially--you can polish a turd until it shines like gold, but ultimately it's still a turd. Now I don't feel that Kristen Stewart is exactly Oscar worthy, but given a film with proper writing and direction, she isn't a bad actor by any means. It's just as you said, you can't be loyal to a role and make it exciting if it is dull at the source.

6 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

Yeah, I don't hate actors after only watching just one of their movies, no matter how bad it is. Both lead actors in the Twilight movies have actually moved on quite well and have starred in good movies with great performances. The Twilight books were just really not up to par though. I always wondered how Twilight became popular, but then we have an even worse book and movie combo in Fifty Shades...

6 years ago

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MomoStarr16

MomoStarr16

But of course you should consider the plot if it will be good for a female or male character. Your point are totally helpful though. And what is a three dimensional thing about a character? Can you elaborate that for me? And yes a good imagination really need for making a good character.

6 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

A three-dimensional character is someone who is very well-written that they seem to come to life; they show character development throughout the story, their actions are realistic and true to their established personality, and they seem like an actual person with real motivations in the real world. This comes from how 3D in animation is more lifelike compared to 2D which is just flat.

6 years ago

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esteban123

esteban123

For me I do prefer the boy protagonist because I feel more convenient about it and I think it is more effective than the female protagonist on my own point of view. It is more interesting for a certain movie to see a boy as a protagonist because we all know than men are more stronger than women in terms of physical aspect. He can do a lot from it which will really make the movie more challenging as it is.

6 years ago

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EfficientNinja

EfficientNinja

For me, a protagonist can be of any gender. As the previous comments say the character must be someone who has a great character. Someone who has a defined goal from the start of the story and he/she persists for this goal. I like protagonists who have great character developments throughout the story.

6 years ago

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ashmattfan

ashmattfan

Yes, I agree with you anyone can be a protagonist as long as he/she have a great character he/she can deliver her/his character.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

I like women protagonists ever since Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider series. And lately seeing Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman cemented my endearment with female protagonists.

6 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

Most heroes in cinema tend to be men. Not sure if this is on purpose or incidental. I guess a little bit of both? In the case of literary works, things tend to be a bit more even but still more male protogs exist there as well. I do notice a trend in certain genres of cinema though. In the horror genre, women are 8 times out of ten the hero. In terms of science fiction films, the hero can be female, male or even a person of color. When it comes to action films though, the hero is almost always male.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

Judas2018,
You just reminded me of something--I read that, even during Shakespearean times, that women were not allowed to be a part of the acting "profession", and even men had to dress as women in order to play the female parts in plays and productions, etc. You made a good point here about the female hero in horror films--that is so true, and I did not even think of that! I think that society, in general, is becoming more and more acceptable about different gender roles in terms of our heroes in stories and in film.

6 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

It's a long time coming but yeah, women are not only getting more opportunities to perform in key roles in front of the camera, but also to direct and engage in the telling of these stories as well.

6 years ago

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MomoStarr16

MomoStarr16

Your point are totally right. I like the how you point out about female protagonist in a horror film. I never thought of that until you tell it. It look weird having a male main character in a horror film. Looks uncool.

6 years ago

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aeon

aeon

Yeah most of the time, they use male as a hero or main character of the story, specially if fiction action or fiction, because literally, male is strong and flexible and much more applicable to the character. That's why when the protagonist is female, and it's action. I really like to watch or tor read it. like the resident evil, they use female as protagonist on that movie, and it gives a lot of excitement for me.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

Sometimes I get tired watching good guys beating the crap out of the bad guys.

Nowadays I would really like to see more women protagonists like Tomb Raider's Lata Croft or Wonder Woman's Diana Prince just to balance things up.

6 years ago

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MomoStarr16

MomoStarr16

That was my point. Sometimes it will be cooler if the role of a male will be given to a female. But it will be really a big deal gambling doing that.

6 years ago

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Pixie06

Pixie06

To be honest it does not really matter to me whether the protagonist is male or female. What's most important is whether they suit the characters and did justice to their roles. I know that in the majority of movies the protagonist are males but I have seen some very good movies where the lead characters were women. I have seen numerous movies by Noomi Rapace and she excels at all the roles she undertook. There are various movies by Angelina Jolie where she played the main character.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

Pixie06,
I agree with you, and I am kind of shocked, without mentioning anyone specifically in this forum, at how sexist our cultures can still be in this, what is now, the 21st century. I acknowledge the difference between the sexes, but, at the same time, I have no issue with powerful women--that idea is interesting to me and has never intimidated me when it comes to a movie plot. As a student of literature, I am familiar with how powerful women have always been at the center of our stories--you can go back 2500 years, if you like, to The Epic Of Gilgamesh, and see the power of Ishtar--these powerful women hve been around since the origins of stories in general, and most anthropologists agree that the first societies were matriarchal ones in ancient times.

6 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

In terms of as a reader, I don't think people care that much because it doesn't really affect them in any way if the main protagonist of a story or show is a boy or a girl. However, as a writer, I'm sure it may make it slightly easier if for example you wrote a story with a boy as the main protagonist and you were male.

6 years ago

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aeon

aeon

Right. Because it's easy for the writer to write about the attitude or personality of the protagonist if they belong to the same gender, and I think some of the writer somehow apply their character to their protagonist and imagining that they're the main character in that story.

6 years ago

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edencaga

edencaga

It really doesn't matter for me if the protagonist is a boy or a girl since what we have been looking for among of us is the content of the story. When it comes to love story I prefer girl as the protagonist and we all know that a girl is more emotional when it comes to love and maybe I can relate or somehow I understand the feeling of the protagonist girl.

6 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

I don't really care about the gender of the protagonist, as both can equally work well, as long as the character has been adequately fleshed out, with a clear backstory, character development, charisma, with a relatable purpose. Even if the protagonist is evil (or will become evil), it will still work out as long as the character is well-developed (Walter White, Light Yagami, Maleficent)

6 years ago

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Barida

Barida

The protagonist being valued and understanding that they are really important is the need we need to get better. I've enjoyed watching the males doing all they could to become the main characters.

Though, I don't have anything against the female version of the leading actor, but the lady should be ready to struggle against me on this.

6 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

It also depends on the actors/actresses if they can live up to the way the protagonist was written, since some just can't work well with the script they were given, making the character feel flat.

6 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

Before I continue, I want to make it abundantly clear that I'm all for gender equality. I feel the need to say this because people are so quick to be offended these days.

That being said, I would be lying if I said that I don't slightly prefer male protagonists over females. This isn't because I feel that women are inferior to men in any way. In fact I think that female protagonists can be even more interesting than male, simply because as a male, it isn't often that I get to see things from a female perspective.

However, this is also the exact reason why I somewhat prefer male protagonists. Being a male, I simply find the male gender more relatable. It's the same reason why people have subconscious preferences to others of their own race. It doesn't mean you're racist, it's just that you're more comfortable with what is relatable to you.

6 years ago

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aeon

aeon

Well it's all depends on the story. If which more applicable the story. But most of the time, the leading character for me is male. I like using the male as main character because most my story is about adventure, and I think male is much more applicable to that story, well just for me. That's why I like the Resident evil because, I think it's really hard to create that kind of action movie with a female lead character.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

".... Resident evil because, I think it's really hard to create that kind of action movie with a female lead character...."

I'm really lost at what you are trying to say here. The lead character in Resident Evil is a female with the name Alice. She is by far distance the strongest female character protagonist that I have ever seen in any movie. The only one closer to her was this female character in Underworld. Her name was Selene if I'm not mistaken.

6 years ago

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aeon

aeon

Exactly. That's why I like that movie. I like how the writer use a female character or protagonist in a action movie without any confusion to the viewers because they know it's fiction or something fantasy. Because most the time, that kind of movie always using a male protagonist. And this writer, use a female character and it's looks fine.

6 years ago

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Barida

Barida

The man has always got that aura in him that enables him to take up the mantle of being a big character at story scenes. Getting to learn more about the work of the man as the main character isn't that bad. If there is a way that the female will get to subdue the weak traits and get better. So, she has to improve to be the main character.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

I would really like to see more women protagonists these days because there's only a few stories who have them.

I think having more women as protagonists could entice more people because of their innate female charm.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

Although I don't have anything against females being the protagonist but I would prefer having more of them over the male. I'm so sorry to say this but I'm among the people that consider females as the weak sex, so I really would be comfortable having them dominate males in the role of protagonist.

6 years ago

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jaymish3

jaymish3

It depends on what your gender you are. I may be biased, but the best protagonists are always female. This is because we expect them to be nice . We often don't expect it when they act in an affirmative or evil way. The best book takes you in unexpected directions. You expect a man to do certain things. When he kills or steals or cheats you're never surprised. At least I'm not.I vote for female protagonists.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

I'd have to agree. I like male protagonists as most people do. But there's just something about female protagonists that makes them so memorable. Maybe it's the fact that, in a way, they have to work much harder to prove their worth. And it makes for a compelling story because as we all know, the more a character struggles with their goals, the better the story will be.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

I think that nowadays there's an increase in female protagonists or female leads. In the past several years films like Wonder Woman, Ant Man and the Wasp, Tomb Raider, Underworld and a lot more have become blockbusters. What these movies have in common is that they all have a female protagonist. Even I got tired of the usual male lead and now I'm always on the lookout for a new movie which has female protagonists.

6 years ago

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TheArticulate

TheArticulate

When it comes to consuming media, whether books, moves, or TV Shows, it doesn't really matter to me what gender the protagonist is. As long as the conflict is compelling and the story is relatable, I'm really fine either way.

Now, when it comes to creating characters, I've found that I prefer writing about male characters more. The main reason behind this, of course, is that I'm a male myself, which makes it easiest to write about the gender I'm associated with. I've been taking a storywriting course this semester, and every single story I've written has featured a male protagonist. I noticed that the other week, and I told myself I'd make a conscious effort to write a short story featuring a female protagonist instead, but still haven't been able to bring myself around to do that, unfortunately.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

I think it's mostly feminist that are likely to advocate for female protagonist over their male counterparts. Such people would go to any extent to hold up female sex over the male ones. But anyways, it's not my problem because if I'm to rate how often female protagonist takes the lead role in movies or any work of art, it's nowhere near how often males are used.

So therefore having said that, it would be obvious to discern that I'm in support for male protagonist over females because it sounds kind of right to use males for such purposes.

6 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

Understandably, I am a woman so the hero that I envision is female. And although I can write using a male character for the hero, it is more comfortable if it is the opposite sex because it is easier when you can play the role in your mind. Writing fiction is all about imagination so if you are not comfortable with what you are imagining then don't push yourself for you may just come up with a lousy story. As one veteran writer said, proceed where the pen is smooth on the surface of the paper.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

From my observations now, it seems that most people are picking their choice of protagonist based on their personal individual sex. Male would chose male protagonist while female ones would go for the female protagonist. No one would want to be left out. So now, it's more how many people are making the vote, if male outnumber then the result would favor males and vice versa.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

I'm getting bored in seeing make protagonists doing the same thing over and over. After I've seen Wonder Woman, I guess I became more excited in seeing women leading a movie, then the new Lara Croft Tomb Raider movie came out and it was also a g good movie although no one can match Angelina's appeal but it was good.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

I agree with on that. Angelina Jolie is really a good actress and she can do a lead character in the action movie. I watched her movies and she was really impressive and absolutely amazing. She always give justice in her role.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

In the recent years there were quite a few movies that features women protagonists which were really successful in the box office like the Tomb Raider Series of Angelina Jolie, the latest was Wonder Woman starring Gal Gadot who like Angelina nailed the role. Now everyone's waiting for Marvel Studios Captain Marvell played by Brie Larson which will be released next year.

6 years ago

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TheInsaneSakif

TheInsaneSakif

It doesn't matter if the main character is male or female as long as there is a profound story revolving around the character. We think that a male would make a better lead-role than a female, but that simply isn't true. Nowadays, in many films and novels, the lead role is taken by females.

6 years ago

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mildredtabitha

mildredtabitha

I also am okay with the main character being male or female. I have never really thought about whether a female or male will make the movie better. As long as I know who the main character is, I will watch them closely to understand their story in the movie.

6 years ago

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SiamSEO

SiamSEO

This. Good character is not built on their gender, no matter how much some ideologues might push that sort of thinking on us. While the gender of the character could play some sort of a role in the story, there's just no way for it to be the central piece that would ultimately matter all that much.

6 years ago

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esteban123

esteban123

When it comes to some horror movies I do prefer the girl protagonist because it is more convincing for me to believe and to be afraid of girl characters especially if it is a Japanese horror movies which is really very scary to have. I like the fact the girl characteristics as a protagonist is really realistic for me.

6 years ago

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esteban123

esteban123

I often see to some Japanese horror movies that they tend to choose women as a protagonist in a certain movie maybe because of the different factors that they posses. Maybe they find a women more realistic in terms of doing the character or it is more convincing to have.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

That is correct but it is more exciting if the main character is a female. More excitement on how she would able to execute her character. I would love to see how she justify her role.

6 years ago

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mitan143

mitan143

Well, yes you have a point there. I agree that it does not matter whether the protagonist is a male or a female. The important is he or she can justify the role of being a protagonist and how will he/she be able to connect perfectly to the viewers. But as a female person, I prefer more female protagonists because I often enjoyed those movies especially if it is in angst genre and it simply tells us that ladies can be as cool as male protagonists.

6 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

There are stories with a female as the lead character but whose role is like that of a man and vice versa, there are stories with male as the lead character whose role is for the female. At any rate, I guess the more important issue in the protagonist is the heroic personality that would show resilience against the insurmountable odds, so to speak. We don't want a protagonist to be weak and who surrenders easily.

6 years ago

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mitan143

mitan143

Yes, that's right. As long as the protagonist has been playing his/her role well then gender is not an option. Well, sometimes it depends on the theme and on the story of the movie, series or whatever it is.

6 years ago

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romyter013

romyter013

One of the best movie I've watched, the movie called "The Forgotten", the protagonist was a female and she handled her role so well on how she can get back her son and husband from a experimental alien. But you guys are all correct, whether its a male or a female leads the movie, as long as they've done their part that well, I would say I will still watch the movie and I don't see any problem with that.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

I agree, someone should make a female James Bond type of character. A female British spy would be a good idea. Having a female lead can sometimes be refreshing to viewers who are getting tired of watching make protagonists.

6 years ago

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