I usually prefer alpha male centered romance novels. By that I mean I like my romance novel heroes a bit rough around the edges, somewhat alpha and always in the forefront of the plot. Those are not mandatory requirements. I’ve enjoyed many novels recently (usually those that qualify as sort of chick lit or romance hybrid) without these qualities. But, I do love those heroes.
So, when I read a column in Entertainment Weekly last week, I started wondering if I was selling romance heroines short. Dalton Ross wrote an article titled Tough Gals Take Over TV. Ross starts out like this:
TV used to be filled with men’s men, who went by snazzy names like Magnum, Walker, and Nash. They were out there kicking ass with silly hats on and providing awesome one-liners along the way. Outside of the occasional Mary Richards or Murphy Brown, males have ruled the TV scene for decades. So what the hell is going on this summer? Everywhere I look, I see women. And not just ditzy Chrissy on Three’s Company-type women, but smart, sassy women who look like they could beat me up (granted, not all that difficult). I have to admit, I’m a bit jealous. For the first time in my life, I’m starting to feel like my TV is from Venus instead of Mars, giving new meaning to the term boob tube.
The article is actually pretty funny. And, when I thought about it, I decided he was right. Maybe this is the year of the strong female on television. Maybe it’s something else…like for the first time there are a few older strong female leads heading up in one-hour dramas. Not sure. If it’s a trend, I like it. In fact, Glenn Close in the new TNT drama Damages actually manages to scare me a little. Heck, she scared me years ago in the movie Fatal Attraction so maybe she’s just scary. But on Damages she avoids being one-dimensional. Utterly without a moral compass, sure. Just not cardboard like.
So, why the two standards lately - men lead my books and women lead my television shows? Anyone else notice this? Anyone else see a difference in the preference for male-led versus female-led on television as opposed to in books? I’m just wondering.
Give me your thoughts and you’ll be entered to win a $15.00 Amazon gift certificate.
UPDATE: We have a winner! How could the prize about Tough Chicks on Television go to anyone but Chicki Brown. Congrats Chicki!!!! Email me so I can get that Amazon gift certificate out to you.
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Good morning. Getting closer to the weekend, thank goodness.
I dont watch a lot of t.v. but maybe there is a bit more of a stronger woman on t.v. than in print; maybe it has to do with something of a visual thing. I dont care for ditzy heroines in either venue.
by Pat L
on August 16th, 2007 at 6:30 am
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I don’t watch a lot of TV, I’m lucky to watch 10 hours a week if that much and some time none at all. I’ve never given it much thought about who leads in the shows or the books, but now that you mention it, you’re right. On TV the women usually lead and in the books the men do the leading. I myself don’t have a preference just as long as the movie or book is a good one.
by Tammy G.
on August 16th, 2007 at 6:41 am
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Very true, but I guess I like it this way. Since there hasn’t been much on TV during the summer, I’ve gotten hooked on “The Closer” with Kyra Sedgewick. She tough but not creepy like Glenn Close. 
I believe it’s about time we had really strong female leads on television and not the faux-strong Charlie’s Angel types. But when it comes to my books, the alpha hero is still my choice!
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When I do watch TV I have noticed that women are now appearing more intelligent and showing stronger character. I really enjoy this new type as I am tired of seeing women only appear as beautiful, but dumb while the men handle everything for them. I think that era has hopefully passed as women take more active roles in professions and also their home lives in reality why shouldn’t they also on television shows. This doesn’t necessarily mean it has to happen in books as stories cover various time periods and places and I like to have a choice of different types of romance novels. When I am reading I want to let my imagination take me to other times and places as I want to get away from reality for a while.
by Shari C
on August 16th, 2007 at 8:19 am
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I have only watched a few shows this summer. I’m waiting for the fall season to start. The few I’ve watched had men leads so I guess I haven’t really noticed.
by Carol
on August 16th, 2007 at 9:10 am
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Alas, I don’t watch most of those shows. . . I watch mostly the news during the course of the day, but I watch Guiding Light, and I guess soaps are a bit more women oriented anyway (strong/weak individuals aside). . . and Smallville is the only other show (I think! LOL) with new episodes still coming out, and there you have strong type females who still need the help of Clark Kent LOL. . .
But I tend to watch reruns of shows. I Love Lucy, well, she’s a housewife, but we all know Lucy. 
And Star Trek certainly have strong women, but not in charge (yeah, yeah, there is Voyager, but I don’t count that because I don’t watch it LOL). And the X-FIles, you have the team of Mulder and Scully, a man and woman equal. . .
and then with movies, yeah, Star Wars has Leia and Padme, but more men. . . so I guess I’m a person who watches mixes of things. . . the type of women and heroines we tend to find in romance novels are in what I watch, but they still might be captained by a guy and a guy vulcan or something. LOL (make sense at all, hopefully?)
Lois
by Lois
on August 16th, 2007 at 9:58 am
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I’ve noticed shows on TV with strong woman types of late also. Take for instance the CSI type shows or Dog the Bounty Hunter where Dog’s wife and daughter sure show their toughness in apprehending men and women. Women are portrayed as more than housewives and are professionals also. I like this in TV and books. Either way is fine with me.
by RobynL
on August 16th, 2007 at 11:42 am
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yes i have i like it. ugly betty strong and not your standard of beuty but tough chick. my boys the show. strong female charcter and who can take it like a man. love that show. male lead in books is good too.
by kim h
on August 16th, 2007 at 11:57 am
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You are right. My favorite summer shows are Saving Grace with Holly Hunter, as well a The Closer and Damages, plus I was a faithful Bones and Blood Ties viewer as well.
by Cathy
on August 16th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
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I’ve always enjoyed TV shows geared around strong women, because even when they’re written around physically strong characters the stories are driven by emotions and relationships. I like to think that more women are working behind the scenes to bring us these type of shows and that women viewers are demanding and supporting these shows. So everybody keep watching!
by Sue A.
on August 16th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
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I am just getting back to watching much in tv, but yes it did strike me that there are some very strong woman characters there. As for books, I am seeing stronger females there, too.
by Little Lamb Lost
on August 16th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
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Saving Grace and The Closer are two of my favorites! But I do like alpha males in the books I read. 
by Susan
on August 16th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
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Since I have a 4 year old boy and a 10 month old baby girl I don’t have much free time so I have gotten away from watching tv. I don’t count my preschool shows like Blue’s Clues and Dora the Explorer as watching TV. Anyway, what little time I do have is spent reading and on the internet. I am with you on the Alpha males. I usually like my heroes to be alpha males. I would have to say from past TV shows that I also preferred Alpha male heroes to watch as well. I don’t have a problem with a strong woman in a book or show. I just don’t want the hero to be a wimp compared to her. That would be a turnoff.
by Cherie J
on August 16th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
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I don’t watch much tv but I do like watching movies. I don’t really see to much difference because I like action movies I love the tough Guy & Girls when I watch movies. The kick a$$ types LoL. In both my books and in movies.
Hugssss
LindaH
by Linda
on August 16th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
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The first show I thought of when you mentioned a strong woman versus a submissive one is the show Big Love on HBO. It’s about a family of polygamists. The first wife, named Barb, is a strong in control of her family kind of woman. She rules the family and her say is what goes. The second wife, Nikki, grew up in a more traditional polygamist household where the husband rules and the wives are submissive and cater to the husband. Nikki hates how Barb and the 3rd wife, Marge, treat their husband. She thinks a woman should let the husband rule with an iron fist. So it’s interesting to see both kinds of woman on the show together. The 3rd wife Margie, is young and wild and has the husband wrapped around her finger because he’s very attracted to her sexually. It’s a fun show.
Now in books it IS totally different because it’s harder to portray the people the same in writing. If I was to read a book about those characters from Big Love, I dont know if I would like them the same. I dont like men to be too controlling in books, it turns me off. But on the other hand, I don’t like a very strong woman. I think it’s overdone in books and it just gets to be boring to me. I’d like the woman character to be strong minded but at the same time womanly. She can carry a pistol and shoot with the best of them, but still she doesn’t try to carry a 24 pack of spring water herself, she has her man for that.
So I like a strong man and a strong woman. But please don’t make them too stereptypical. I like Stephanie Plum from the Evanovich books. She’s a good example. She’s tough. She’ll wrestle a man or beat him up. She carries a gun, sometimes, but there’s never any bullets in them. When someone is after her, she runs to Ranger to protect her. See, strong, but real at the same time.
by RachaelfromNJ
on August 16th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
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I don’t watch a lot of television but I have really been enjoying TNT’s The Closer. I do still enjoy the alpha hero in books though.
by Maureen
on August 16th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
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I love the alpha heroes in books and tv but now I have really really gotten into strong alpha females. Just because they are strong females doesn’t mean that they can’t have strong alpha males. You can have both in one story. Just because your strong and an alpha don’t mean harsh and ungiving.
by Pamk
on August 16th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
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I don’t watch a lot of TV but the shows that I do watch have both strong men and strong women.
by Linda F
on August 16th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
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I don’t watch very much tv—but do read a lot of books. Alpha heroes are still tops with me!
by Estella
on August 16th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
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I think art is immitating real life - who would have ever thunk that we finally may have a woman president - well, Gena Davis did a good job of it. I really think there are more strong women leads than there has ever been - and it’s about time 
by catslady
on August 16th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
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I am a sheep - I agree about the alpha males in my books and the strong women on t.v., though I also don’t watch a lot of t.v.
Maybe part of it is that in books, we fantasize more, we may visualize ourselves as the heroines in some sense, and the hero looks like how we want him to look, and acts more like we’d want him to act. I think it’s much, much easier to imagine that in a book, where the hero is our own personal idea of a hero, flaws and all. Whereas on t.v., I am cheering for the strong, fiesty, flawed heroine to save the day because she’s smart and resourceful and fearless in her quest. IT doesn’t surprise me at all that we like the tough chicks on t.v. - and I’m not talking a gun-toting, karating-kicking female either - but women who can take care of themselves or the situation, and not be clingy, wringing their hands in the corner. Romance readers don’t need the hero to save the day, even on t.v.
by Stacy ~
on August 17th, 2007 at 5:32 am
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I too have noticed more and more leading ladies as the stars of new television shows. Especially in the previews for this fall’s new TV line up.
by Kathleen
on August 17th, 2007 at 10:14 am
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Yes, I have. A lot of shows like that. I have been watching Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, and Grey’s Anatomy a lot.
by Amy S.
on August 17th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
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Interesting thoughts…but I have to agree with you. Men seem more dominiant in books than on tv shows…I can only guess more romance readers are women. As they say men are more visual so therefore women are more dominant on tv…this is just my theory.
by Lisa
on August 19th, 2007 at 11:39 am
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I think Jennifer Gartner in Alias was the prime example of this! I loved watching Alias! Okay, Michael Vartan didn’t hurt either!!! With books, I would have to say the men, especially BDB. Its a really good question, but I’m not sure why.
by Anne
on August 19th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
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any winner
by kim h
on August 20th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
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I don’t watch much tv . But my daughter does and she say more and more leading ladies are the stars of new television shows. Especially in the previews for this fall’s new TV line up.I enjoy reading all kind of books.
by Emma
on August 25th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
