Girls in Movies vs. Girls in Books ¢

Tierney Watkinson
Team Member

irls, you do not have to be beautiful to
be a hero. You don’t have to be a sex
goddess. You just have to be you.

Young adult novels are doing pretty well
with the portrayal of girls as heroic figures;
these ladies aren’t generally written as

the character who steps aside and let’s the
boys take over. The Percy Jackson novels
by Rick Riordan tell us about characters
like Annabeth, who are described as

being brave, intelligent, and more than
ready to step up and take a hit. Clary of
The Mortal Instruments series, written

by Cassandra Clare, would do anything

for the people she loves. Tris of Veronica
Roth’s Divergent might be a bit difficult

to like, but she is strong, resourceful, and
independent. Everyone knows that Katniss
of The Hunger Games, is ready to die for her
sister; she is not a person to mess with.

All of these stories are hugely popular at the
moment and don’t speak for the entire genre
of YA fiction, not even these sub-genres in

which magic exists or the world is ending.
Even so, while there are exceptions, overall
teen novels actually do tend to feature
women as strong characters admired not
for their physical beauty but for their inner
strength and valour. | will admit that they
are almost always boy crazy, to the point

of obsession, but they generally fight their
own battles and to me, that is the most
important factor. Side note: I want to see
more YA fiction written wherein the people
in love aren’t heterosexual. It’s important.
Just throwing that out there, future authors.

The problem lies in the alteration of

these characters for screen. Television or
film adaptations of these novels tend to
deviate from portraying girls as characters
whose beauty actually goes deeper than
their faces. On screen, the character’s
physical beauty is what you see first.

Annabeth of the Percy Jackson is completely
warped by the movie industry--her defining
character trait becomes good looks and
being really good at yelling for Percy to come
and save her, rather than using her superb
intelligence. Although Percy is obviously

crushing on her in the books, he barely
mentions her looks and instead goes on

and on about how smart and how good of

a fighter she is, and how much he admires
her for that. Clary is written as an awkward,
nerdy teen with obnoxious red hair but is
transformed into a beautiful, curvy young
woman with brown curls. Tris is a part of
the faction in her dystopian society wherein
vanity is looked down upon, so things like
makeup and nice clothing are never worn,
but on film she is clearly made-up even
before her situation changes, and the minute
it does she is decked out in much sexier
clothing and her long, flowy hair is loose too
often to be practical for all of the combat
that girl has to do. If you have seen the

final installment, Katniss is nearly flawless
for the entire movie; injuries she sustained
to her face in the novel are either glossed
over or omitted entirely despite the fact

she only endures them for a short time.

Are we repelled by young women with
curveless bodies and imperfect faces? It

is absolutely ok to write beautiful female
characters--you don’t have to be unattractive

The Price should be Right for Blue Jays

Brady Stark
Team Member

mere month removed from making their

spectacular run in the MLB playoffs, the
Blue Jays are looking a little worse for wear.
First, there young stud of a GM decides that
he wants to take his talents out of Toronto
to a yet to be determined organization. Next,
they lose Mark Buehrle, Dioner Navarro,
and David Price to free agency. The latter of
those three has to be the most puzzling of
them, after all, Buehrle is getting up there
in age and Navarro wants to be the main guy
behind the plate instead of backing up Russell
Martin. David Price just finished second in
Cy Young voting to the Houston Astros ace
Keuchel, and is poised and driven to do even
better next year. Price was a dominant force
in the regular season, but faltered a little in
the playoffs, which lowered his value only
slightly. Now, to the rant. 1 am

perplexed as to why the Blue Jays would
not try to go hard after Price to make sure
that he is their ace next season. There is no

one in free agency that wants to come to
Toronto as badly as him, as well as, no one
that will bring in the fans to every game
like he can. Every time Price stepped onto
the mound at the Rogers Center, the crowds
filled in and they went bananas. To know
that you have an almost guaranteed win
every time he steps onto the field will be a
relief to every Jays fan from coast-to-coast.
Seriously, what is the problem with Rogers?
They have all the money in the world. They
basically own Canada, especially Canadian
sports. They made a ton of money last year
with the run that they went on. I know that
the length of the contract will be a problem
with ownership due to the fact that Price
will be looking for his “career contract”,
therefore the term will be near the 10
year mark. Asides from the length of the
contract, there should be nothing else to
hold up negotiations. Price is 30 years old;
ownership should front-load the contract
so that when Price gets to 38-40, there will
be less of a financial risk. Another reason
for the Jays to make it a priority to win
the Price sweepstakes is the notion that

if they don’t, then one of their divisional
rivals might snatch him up. One of the front
runners to get Price is the Boston Red Sox.
Since I am a Red Soxs fan and have been for
about 20 years, seeing Price in Red and White
would give me great satisfaction. Despite
my allegiance to Beantown, I am still very
frustrated with Jays management and
their willingness to throw a Cy Young
pitcher away. Price deserves the
money that he will command on
the market; the Jays (or Red
Sox) better be the team to
get the coveted left-
hander. The Jays will
make their worst
mistake in years
if they do not
sign David
Price.

Events 13

to be real. However, you shouldn’t have
to be model-worthy to be watchable.

Maybe the idea of a stick-like or pimply
Black Widow just doesn’t fit our ideal of
a superheroine. I mean, superheroes are
supposed to be an ideal. It is not like Black
Widow is the only pretty character—her
fellow, male heroes are hot enough to
melt Santa’s igloo. The abundance of
beautiful people is definitely not going
to keep me from watching the next
Avengers movie. I’ll be running to the
theatre for that one (I really like the
scenes where they get to smash stuff).

Teenagers are not superheroes. Maybe
they want to be, but magical powers
aren’t just handed to you in times of
need, Sometimes you are a Hermione and
you're born with a free ticket to Hogwarts,
but for most of us, we have to earn it.

Not every female character has to be
the lead. When she is, though, the first
thing we admire about her shouldn’t be
her looks. It should be her tenacity, her
bravery, her intelligence, her spirit - all
of the things that keep her alive.