*stands straight*

All right, so last week we talked all about the Strong Woman. And as I’m sure you could tell, I get very annoyed by how often that character is portrayed. (Click Here if you haven’t read that post yet – you’ll want to, trust me)

See, the Strong Woman is overdone. She’s everywhere. And really, she’s not realistic at all. Which is what bothers me about her. She’s one note, strong and only strong, and it’s better that we have someone like…

The Balanced Woman

Okay, so it’s no superhero name, but hear me out.

Who is she?

The balanced woman is a real woman. She’s strong in some senses, and weak in others. I like to think of her as a business woman with a husband and kids (although that’s usually not her role, I’m just going to use it as an example). She’s fully capable of getting up in the morning and making sure the kids are ready to go to school, of going to work and doing her job despite the stress of it all, and coming home and being vulnerable with the man she loves.

She’s balanced. She’s well rounded. She struggles sometimes, because we all struggle sometimes. She allows herself to be silly and slightly insane from time to time, and she never thinks twice about being herself in front of the people she loves.

 

So now that we have the basics out of the way, here are our other three questions, for consideration:

Why should we read her?

What’s her main purpose in life?

What is her draw, for the reader?

In my experience, people like to read the balanced woman because she’s normal. She’s a real person, and not an ideal. Women especially are drawn to her because we don’t feel like she’s something we would have to struggle to attain. She’s reachable, she’s relatable, she’s understandable. Men are drawn to her because she's lovely in her own way, without being the perfectly always perfect woman.

And that’s a big draw, for the majority of readers. 

The balanced woman, unlike the strong woman, is real. She’s not an unattainable thing, an ideal that male authors seem to strive for in their female characters, while women look on and wish they could be those characters.

No, the balanced woman is what women really are, deep down. And that's what makes her a really good character to use.

[love]

{RD}