Not Really a Star: Female and Androgynous Characters in the StarKid Musicals

Abstract

Team StarKid, a musical theatre company originating at the University of Michigan, has produced a number of works for the past five years, seven of which are stage musicals. These musicals, while made with good intentions and as a way to entertain, still possess a glaring problem when it comes to their female characters. In this essay these problems are exposed and discussed, with support from feminist literary criticism. The first problem to be examined is the way women are portrayed as men’s possessions in some form or another, instead of being allowed to be their own persons. Various examples are used, with two characters, Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger—adapted from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books—being the main focus. Secondly a prominent problem, female stereotypes, is discussed. An emphasis is put on how the male writers are only able to write women as two extreme opposites, the pure virgin and the sexual whore, and the vanity that is associated with women and how they are only accepted for their appearance. The third argument is more on a positive note, as it deals with the two major female characters that have been written in positions of power, one who is a villain and the other who is a major character. This portion also criticises the ways in which these women are written and how their positions are perceived within the narrative. Lastly there is a discussion on how traditionally feminine traits are written in two male characters, both of which only succumb to these traits after losing their genitalia, the implication being that it is not possible be masculine without a penis. The overall argument in this essay is that although the StarKid writers mean well, they nevertheless need to work on their female characters in order for them to be more believable.