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Fuck Yeah, They're Awesome.
So, some time ago, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dsudis wrote an entry that began, "So I was adding some new interests to my LJ profile ... and found myself feeling defensive every time I typed a female name, thinking, basically, FUCK YOU, SHE'S AWESOME, because I felt as if someone somewhere was going to be criticizing my love for them."
That really resonated with me, because... female characters have some particular hurdles to surmount. They're dismissed as unsuitable protagonists for fictional works expected to appeal to boys and men, and therefore expected to make 'real' money. They're accused of being Canon Mary Sues when they have one milligram of agency and lauded entirely for their sexiness when they don't. Best of all, their fans are often told we like them just because they're female, that nothing else about them matters to us (or obviously we wouldn't bother to like female characters). (And then there's what real-life women in the public eye undergo...)
I almost didn't post this, because a big all-caps, "FUCK YEAH, THEY'RE AWESOME" felt like shouting, like being unladylike. (And yes, I compromised with my sense of decorum -- I went with "yeah" instead of "you" and didn't put caps in my title.) But the point is to stand up, and have something to say, and not be cowed.
So here are ten fictional characters of whom I wholeheartedly say, fuck yeah, these women are awesome. Which isn't saying that everyone is required to like them, but that not liking them is not a reason to dismiss them as universally worthless, and that I'm not going to be ashamed of liking them, at all.
Stephanie Brown
Koriand'r
Rosie Cotton Gamgee
Arwen Undomiel
Amita Ramanujan
Martha Jones
Samantha Carter
Inara Serra
Ekaterin Vorkosigan
Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan
dsudis wrote an entry that began, "So I was adding some new interests to my LJ profile ... and found myself feeling defensive every time I typed a female name, thinking, basically, FUCK YOU, SHE'S AWESOME, because I felt as if someone somewhere was going to be criticizing my love for them." That really resonated with me, because... female characters have some particular hurdles to surmount. They're dismissed as unsuitable protagonists for fictional works expected to appeal to boys and men, and therefore expected to make 'real' money. They're accused of being Canon Mary Sues when they have one milligram of agency and lauded entirely for their sexiness when they don't. Best of all, their fans are often told we like them just because they're female, that nothing else about them matters to us (or obviously we wouldn't bother to like female characters). (And then there's what real-life women in the public eye undergo...)
I almost didn't post this, because a big all-caps, "FUCK YEAH, THEY'RE AWESOME" felt like shouting, like being unladylike. (And yes, I compromised with my sense of decorum -- I went with "yeah" instead of "you" and didn't put caps in my title.) But the point is to stand up, and have something to say, and not be cowed.
So here are ten fictional characters of whom I wholeheartedly say, fuck yeah, these women are awesome. Which isn't saying that everyone is required to like them, but that not liking them is not a reason to dismiss them as universally worthless, and that I'm not going to be ashamed of liking them, at all.
Stephanie Brown
Koriand'r
Rosie Cotton Gamgee
Arwen Undomiel
Amita Ramanujan
Martha Jones
Samantha Carter
Inara Serra
Ekaterin Vorkosigan
Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan
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I'm going to treat this as a meme of sort and put together a list of my own in my journal. I think I'm going to use caps even (but I'm sticking with your change from 'you' to 'yeah', because that's more my style too :D )
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(I miss my Kory icon. But Steph definetely fits this, she does.)
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Who is Amita Ramanujan?
I am very curious, because I know the rest of your list fairly well.
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*tempted*
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Granny Weatherwax
Goldberry
Entwives
Rose Tyler
River Tam
Vala Mal Doran
Despair, of the Endless
Captain Janeway
Toronga Leela
Mina Harker
:-)
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From the Land of Oz (a fantasy world loaded with strong females --no doubt because L. Frank Baum's mother was a suffragette): Dorothy Gale, Princess Ozma, Glinda the Sorceress, the Good Witch of the North, Tiny Trot, Betsy Bobbin, General Jinjur, Scraps the Patchwork Girl
The Little Engine That Could (read the original Watty Piper tale from 1938 -- the engine is called "she"!)
Weyrwoman Lessa of Ruatha Hold (Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider books) -- and Ramoth her queen dragon.
Menolly the bard, same source
Eowyn ("I am no man!") of Rohan
The Little Red Hen (a single mother who did all the work with no help from the freeloaders)
Dab-Dab the Duck from the Dr. Doolittle books (the good Dr.'s housekeeper)
Mrs. Hudson from the Sherlock Holmes tales
Irene Adler, the same.
Those are just off the top of my head.
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Also, I live with two small people, so recs for good kids' books are very useful!
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In putting down the first ten of my favorite ladies off the top of my head, I see that some of my choices echo others', but only because great minds think alike *grin*
Eddie McCandry (War for the Oaks)
Granny Weatherwax (Discworld Series)
Willow Rosenburg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Lydia Asher (Traveling With The Dead)
Rose Tyler (Dr. Who)
Martha Jones (Dr. Who)
Toshiko Sato (Torchwood)
Alice (Resident Evil)
Harimad Crewe (The Blue Sword)
Mrs. Hudson (Sherlock Holmes)
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