browngirl

So, some time ago,

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