What do girls and women who consume entertainment media identify and sympathize with?

I don’t care for gender. I identify with any characters who are well-written.

I’m usually drawn to characteristics.
Less so to a person’s sex.

Most people tend to identify with the protagonist, regardless of gender.

Most entertainment media is still written and directed by men, in and for a male perspective, particularly when there are female characters (who tend to be objectified and dehumanized). Girls and women tend to appreciate and be interested in exceptions to that – for example, to female characters who are shown in ways other than as sex symbols, and particularly when not just written and portrayed from a male perspective. It also helps to show females successfully doing various interesting careers, creative accomplishments, etc.

There’s a good recent documentary about gender discrimination in media and related ideas by Gina Davis called ‘This Changes Everything’ which I think is on Netflix currently.

I think @canidmajor has this right, but to be fair, I’m not familiar with any readership on the topic. It’s a great question. Welcome to Fluther!

Depends on the characters.

Money, security, and romance. Generally speaking. And not necessarily all three.

Hahaha, @kritiper, that is straight out of what the men in the 50s assume about women. <eyeroll>

I just read your details. As I said it depends on the main character. I just reread “My Side of the Mountian.” I related to the 12 year boy who was the main character.
Pretty sure he didn’t have any money at all. And he lived inside a tree. So much for security.

@canidmajor I often get annoyed with protagonists. And relate more to side characters. :)

I agree with @canidmajor but it really depends on whether the character of the protagonist is consistent and well written. Like @raum, I will get annoyed if they start out with a strong character and then later they weaken the character to draw sympathy but then have someone else save them. This tends to be done a lot with women who are the protagonist but it is often done to males or females in superheroes. There will be a fight where suddenly the protagonist can’t use their invincible power and will be saved by an even weaker character, I would like to add that woman protagonists are often written as whiners as well.

@Pandora I think it’s that the protagonist has to go through a character development arc.

We are supposed to root for them to become better versions of themselves.

But sometimes the initial version of the protagonist is just so whiney, that I’m just rooting for them to stop whining.

Or they like the asshole instead of the awesome best friend in front of their face. And instead of rooting for them to realize how awesome the best friend is, I’m rooting for the best friend to realize they can do better than the protagonist. Haha