༉˚*ೃ 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒.
nowadays, the phrase "strong female character" seems to have negative connotations, and especially is looked down on by men. it seemed that any female character (captain marvel, rey, korra, jane foster, ellie, abby) can't be powerful without being called a "feminist agenda" or a "mary sue", which is dumb, just to put it frankly. there's a lot of hypocrisy surrounding how a male character is treated vs a female character is treated when they do the same things, or have the same personality type. this is nothing new, but the dudebros (particularly in marvel) have been getting pretty loud lately.
one of the big things that i feel like has become associated with the phrase "strong female character" over the recent years is that for a woman to be strong, she needs to reject her femininity. it's the "not like other girls" trope but on screen. and what this chapter will be trying to convey is that there should not be a type for a strong woman. women who reject stereotypical femininity can be strong, and women who embrace femininity can be strong. this is something that seems to have been convoluted through the years.
and while i will be writing a full chapter soon about how to be writing strong characters in general — e.g. balancing them out with flaws, etc. — this chapter will mainly cover how misogyny and internalised misogyny have skewed the idea of what it means to be a "strong, powerful woman", and harmful tropes to avoid.
i think my focal point of this chapter is: FEMININITY ≠ WEAKNESS.
so often, "strong" female characters in film and literature are shown to reject femininity and anything remotely feminine, which has somehow become the standard for female characters shown to be powerful and strong. this ideology that "strong" women must not be feminine is inherently misogynist, though i feel like many writers and executive producers, etc, miss the point of why.
"NON-FEMININITY = STRONG CHARACTER". → * . &
the idea that for a woman to be "strong", she must be "more like a man", is completely sexist and totally misses the mark on what many people think is empowering. of course, women can present as more masculine, not wear dresses, dislike the colour pink, etc, women can do whatever and be whoever they want, and they can of course be strong characters. but the idea that ONLY non-feminine women can be strong is... not it.
an example of this is barbie (my queen). a lot of teenage girls and older woman seem to have the idea that barbie is inherently harmful to young girls, because, as a rather outspoken, misogynistic terf tumblr user once said, "dumbfuck solipsistic girly-girls are [the] bubonic plague". she is seen as harmful because, admittedly, she is beautiful, and the old-school barbies were all thin, shapely, blonde and dolled-up. yes she has size three feet, yes her body proportions might be unrealistic. but you know what else barbie is? she's an astronaut, a president, a doctor, a business woman, a fast-food worker, a maid, a formula-1 driver, a secretary, a youtuber, a veterinarian, a soccer player, a zoo-keeper, and just about every other job known to man.
my favourite barbie set when i was a young girl was barbie's veterinary clinic. i had a vet barbie who would do animal check-ups and had a cool stethoscope and lab-coat. i loved that barbie set so much. and it wasn't because barbie was "beautiful", it was because my dream when i was that age was to be a veterinarian, and i saw barbie doing it, and had to get the toy. i never picked barbie sets because she was pretty, i chose them because i wanted to play being an astronaut or a doctor, or a horse-rider. i didn't see barbie as something with ideal body standards, i never internalised any of that, i just wanted to be the jobs she was doing.
barbie's slogan in the 80s was "we girls can do anything. right, barbie?", and today, her slogan is "be who you want to be". she was created by ruth handler, a female toy developer who was constantly being told by men (who dominated her field) that young girls only wanted baby dolls they could nurture and mother. because everyone thought that girls would only ever want to play at mothering, and that that's all they would grow up to do. so she created barbie, who could be anything she wanted. yes, barbie is beautiful and was created as a kind of fashion-doll, but again, the idea that her being beautiful is a crime is the damaging idea here.
since the 80s, she's had many different appearances — she started out as a white, thin, blonde, able-bodied woman, which was what was considered "conventionally attractive" in the 80s, but since she's been produced as a woman of every race, every shape and weight, with different hair-types and disabilities. they sell a barbie who's in a wheelchair — in two races, white with straight blonde hair or black with kinky dark hair — at target, bald barbies and different height barbies, albino african-american barbies and asian barbies, barbies with vitiligo and male barbies with long hair. she did originally begin as one kind of woman — the beautiful, conventional aryan barbie — but now everyone is barbie. barbie is empowering, at least to me, the idea that any woman can be anything she wants, and i think it shaped me that way as a child.
THIS is why i think people miss the mark on what message barbie is trying to send. barbie does wear "high-heeled shoes" and has "an intense fixation on being ~fashionable~" as this same "not-like-other-girls" tumblr user states, but when did being feminine start being non-feminist? women CAN be anything — that includes being feminine, if they want — yet a lot of younger generations, particularly those who were 12-16 in the 2000s-2010s, like i was, were made to feel like femininity was bad.
being beautiful, feminine, domestic, and enjoying typically "girlish" things does not make you or any woman less strong. we do not need to reject womanhood or femininity to be powerful. woman are fucking powerful, whether we wear dresses, like the colour pink, enjoy fashion, baking or cleaning, wear makeup or paint our nails. those things will never make us less strong. i like having long hair, wearing makeup and dolling myself up, dressing in pretty dresses and visiting flower meadows, i think the colour pink is lovely and i love watching cheesy romance movies — and i do this not because "society" taught me to (in fact, society and 2000s "not-like-other-girls" mentality taught me not to), but because i want to.
also, totally unrelated, but i think barbie and 2000s barbie movies in general were a large contributor to me being into women like,,, nori from fairytopia mermadia just GOT me. all barbie movies are inherently sapphic and that's just a fact. let's go lesbians.
i, a sapphic, LOVE masculine-presenting, strong women. i will take ellie from the last of us, brienne of tarth or arya stark from game of thrones, buff, short-haired, violent, "masculine"-dressing women ANY DAY. i literally want them to step on me and lift me off my feet with their buff arms (gay). and they're valid, they're 100% a valid character trope because, guess what, not every woman needs to be feminine, they can present and enjoy whatever they want. but it's the idea that only non-feminine women can be strong is what's damaging. and that's what i wanted to get out of the way with internal misogyny.
"NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS". → * . &
i want to make the point that i feel like a lot of this does stem from the idea of being "not like other girls". i know it's made a meme now, but when i was growing up, this was a serious problem. i was this girl. i used to think because i was an avid reader, because i didn't wear makeup or enjoy wearing dresses, because i rejected the colour pink and was in a way "anti-feminine", i was somehow better than girls who did adhere to those typical feminine roles. i literally, unironically liked those "i'm not like other girls" posts when they floated around instagram in 2013, because back then, me and other 12-year-olds took it seriously. i thought that was my way of being feminist and empowered.
long story short, it wasn't.
it's called INTERNALISED MISOGYNY. it's a real problem, putting down other girls because they enjoy feminine things. i literally made myself dislike the colour pink, dresses, make-up and high heels because i was told by "real feminists" that those things made me weak and adhering to patriarchal roles. maybe, in a way, it is. sure, historically, we were forced to like those things because they were the only acceptable factor of womanhood. but that doesn't mean we can't let women now enjoy them. that, in itself, is opposing feminism. let women be who and enjoy what they want. i'm not any less of a feminist or strong woman just because i wear dresses and enjoy collecting flowers.
and consider women who are typically "masculine-presenting" — short-haired, buff and muscular, masculine-type clothing — but also enjoy feminine things, or are total sweethearts. consider scorpia from the she-ra reboot. she has short hair and is buff af, but she's a hugger and loves her friend dearly, and is the sweetest character in the entire show. the same goes for vice-versa, a pretty, feminine-presenting, conventionally-attractive woman can enjoy "masculine things" like football, video games, boxing, fighting, etc. they can be badass and violent, just as the stereotype is for the non-feminine conforming women. stop putting stereotypical boxes about how women can present, who they can be, and what they can enjoy!
you can be "different" in the sense that you fit outside of the norm, that you don't adhere to the popular status-quo of make-up, dresses, the colour pink, flowers, cheesy chick-flicks, etc, and for that you're wonderful. but other girls are wonderful too. those "other girls" — who are typical "girly-girls", who enjoy things feminine and domesticity and womanhood — are our sisters and we should hold them up as much as we do women who aren't feminine. women need to support one another rather than try to put each other down for what we enjoy! whether stereotypically "feminine" or stereotypically "non-feminine", we're all sisters here.
SO, YOUR CHARACTERS. → * . &
i know so far this has kind of been me just ranting about how society has forced women into these different roles and beliefs, etc, etc, and how much i love all women, but i promise it has a reason.
too often, in film, literature (primarily modern), video games, and an insane amount of in fanfiction, this "not-like-other-girls"-type, anti-feminine, anti-woman, masculine-presenting, female character is the only way a woman character can be seen as strong. if a female character enjoys domestic things like cooking or feminine things such as dresses or painting her nails, she's automatically seen as weak, a "bimbo", dumb, vain, anti-feminist, etc. simultaneously, these more masculine-presenting female characters are often seen by men as lesbians, anti-men, "disgusting" or "too manly", so, honestly women can't win.
except that we can because, hell yeah, let's do it anyway. dudebros have no valid opinions.
so, i implore you, write that character who wears old, tattered sundresses over her apocalyptic armour because she likes them, while carrying a semi-automatic and shooting zombies. write that girl with superpowers who enjoys painting nails with her other female friends. write a woman who can kick ass and use her heels as weapons (that one scene of nakia from black panther in the casino fight WHEW). write a monster-killer who still enjoys baking between kills, with a sword tucked over her shoulder and her gear all piled up on the other side of the kitchen table. write that woman who comes back from drag-racing in a sci-fi world and watches a romance film with her driving-gear still on and her helmet flipped up. write that beautiful woman who kicks ass in her spare time. write that buff woman who loves her friends more than anything else.
break all the stereotypes!
women can be badass and be feminine. women can be loving and be not-as-conforming to femininity. just don't write women characters who will instil in young girls that being feminine is negative and weak; and don't write women characters who will instil in young girls that being less feminine is negative and unbecoming. femininity is not evil. neither is non-femininity. we need less of each type of character hating on the other, and more of them being best friends or girlfriends. (girlfriends, please).
TROPES TO AVOID. → * . &
. & ━ the oversexualised female character → the one where female characters have to be sexy. the objectification of women through female characters in particular is so incredibly damaging. i can't tell you how annoyed it makes me to see the ass-shots of powerful women, from black widow to megan fox in transformers, it just feels so very demeaning. because it lets me know those women are written by men who only see those characters as sex objects. women can and should be allowed to be sexual, to own their sexuality and dress however they like — there's nothing wrong with that! — but if you describe women only by the way their "breasts bounce" or by describing the curve of their ass constantly, you're just turning them into a kind of sex toy. if you're going to have a character dress sexily, go into superhero fights scantily clad or with make-up, make sure to let us know that it's for her enjoyment, that she's owning her sexuality, and not because you're trying to sell the book, film or video game to horny men and teenagers. i'm bisexual, and i enjoy sexy women as much as everyone else! but there's a difference between admiring beauty and the predatory viewing of women as sex toys and little more than objects. don't pertain to that !
. & ━ "not like other girls" → i'm SURE we all know this one, because it absolutely fills fanfiction written by younger girls, particularly through the time period of 2010-2015 (like how i said, this was the general time range i recall the phase being a thing, though it definitely still exists). the female protagonist, typically a teenage girl, establishes right off the bat that she's "not like other girls" because she's not a "bimbo" or a "slut", she reads and wears "minimal make-up". she probably has brunette hair, hipster glasses, wears alternative clothes and has blue or green eyes, thinks she's "ugly" despite having the appearance of a supermodel, and is the outcast. yet, perhaps the reason why she is the outcast is that she thinks so lowly of other girls / women, and isolates herself by thinking she's "different". i used to read fanfics with this trope all the time back in 2013, but now i can't bear it, because of what i talked about in the few texts above. whether you realise it or not, this kind of idea is internally misogynistic! the only time i think it's appropriate to have a character like this (it tends to make them extremely dislikeable, actually) is if she has an arc to come to realise that, well, other girls are wonderful too. maybe she's not so different, she finds friends similar to her and realise they're not "not like other girls", there's no cut-out for "girls" and no "other", they just have hobbies! maybe she becomes friends with those "other girls" who are feminine and realises they're not that different after all! i know myself that despite me liking reading and writing and video games, i have a varied mix of best friends (all girls) — from those who are avid fans of harry styles and makeup, to those who are feminine and go to a lot of parties, to those who run kpop dance cover youtube channels (who's also studying law at university), to those who are professional swimmers, to those who are training to be freaking doctors. we're ALL different, but the six of us have been best friends since school, some of us all the way since the fourth grade. this is why i think the "other girls" distinction is such bullshit. no girl is just limited to one thing that makes them a nerd or a bimbo. i'm technically a nerd, but i also like make-up and dresses and bright colours! having the protagonist think she's "not like other girls" will instantly make me close the book, because reading about misogyny from the point of an internally-misogynistic protagonist isn't appealing to me, or many others !
. & ━ "the head bitch" → you know the one. every teenage high-school drama written by men or internally-misogynistic women has one, or fanfics written by young teenage girls. the "head bitch" at a high school, the antagonist who's described as a blonde, tall, large-breasted, cake-faced bimbo, probably a cheerleader, who's a bitch to the "not-like-other-girls" oc and has no personality other than being a vain, shallow villain. she tries to get the oc's love interest, is seen as callous, shallow, feminine and vain, and is entirely a sexist trope with no depth. consider that, in all of my schools, i never had a "head bitch" in my school, and that includes both a co-ed public school and an all-girls private high school. yeah, in general, girls tend to be more bitchy (ages 14-17, for people who didn't go to an all-girls private school) but the popular girls were never like described in these high school novels. mean, yeah, but not to this extent. i'm sure some schools do have them, but the way that women are villainised in this role in such a way is just not on. cheerleaders are actually nice, athletic, dedicated to their work and adhere to an insanely strict routine of exercise, and a pretty cool role for a main character. wearing makeup, having big breasts and being blonde aren't antagonistic qualities. we can't control boob size and women can wear makeup for fun. the "head bitch" trope is very overused and extremely cliched in a sexist way, nowadays. popular mean girls do exist, but try coming at the idea at a different angle (i'll make a chapter about writing mean girls eventually). if you are going to have a mean girl as an antagonist, please consider them having a redemption arc and becoming the oc's ally or friend, that trope is so underused and one of my favourites. like, think veronica in sierra burgess (that movie is GOD AWFUL and i NEVER want to use anything from it as an example, but veronica is probably the only good thing to come out of it). she starts off as a totally mean popular girl, but over the story arc becomes sierra's best and only friend, reduces in popularity while still remaining a cheerleader and close to other female friends, and actually becomes more likeable than the main character, sierra. i NEED more main characters being the mean popular girl, or more mean popular girls redeeming themselves and becoming the protagonist's friend or ally, PLEASE .
. & ━ "the bitch" → the other kind of bitch. she's strong and independent, so she decides not to listen to anyone's rules, and when she gets berated, instead of defending herself in a reasonable manner, she snaps and acts like a "psycho bitch", resorting to insulting him and his friends, as though she is an emotional teenager. this isn't always bad: female characters should and will have flaws — this might be one of them! it becomes a problem when she is such a stereotypical "psycho bitch", for a lack of better terms, that she's totally toxic, but seen as "right". she gives into petty bickering and name-calling, pouts and sulks when she doesn't get her way, throws sort of "temper tantrums" when they don't get their way. this filled a lot of fics i read when i was a young teen. again, you can have a central character where this is a flaw that they work to overcome, but there's a difference between a "erratic, defensive, irrational mean girl" and the "acting like a spoiled teenager, aggressive "bitch"". (i hate using the words bitch to describe a type of woman, sorry, but i just don't know how else to phrase it) .
. & ━ the love interest → yes women can be love interests, of course, but they shouldn't be just the love interest. the idea of them playing part in a romance is of course not bad, but if they have no other real goals than getting with said love interest, and all their thoughts are consumed by them, and if their only real problems pertain to the love interest or girls who are in the way of her goal of getting with them, that becomes a problem. women shouldn't be "afterthoughts", a sudden love interest chucked in so the man can have someone to save or can have a girl to win at the end. we're complex human beings! yes, some of us want love, but it's not limited to that fact. we have personalities and goals too .
. & ━ the damsel in distress → the helpless woman that the male hero must save, who is constantly subject of capture and can seem to do nothing for herself. there's nothing wrong with a female character being captured and needing to be rescued, the problem arises when they are written to be completely and utterly helpless. the only reason they exist is for the man to be the hero. leia is a good example of an original "damsel in distress", so is meg from disney's hercules. they start out as women who need or are subject to a kind of rescuing, but they're much more than just that. they're strong, witty and intelligent, they're a character of their own .
. & ━ power through seduction of men → this is one i have a complicated relationship with. i see a lot of women hating this trope, where the female protagonist, side-character or villain, only get their power through being sexy and seducing men. think a bit of natasha from avengers (but i love her), or some of the female villains from james bond. the reason why i don't have such a problem with this is because i do like seeing women reclaiming their sexuality, and it's fun to see them make men look like fools by using that weaponised sexuality against their sexist, immoral oppressor, or men who don't think with their heads. the reason why i understand why people have a problem with it is because it's again reducing women to little more than sex. they objectify their bodies and fool men into giving them power. in a lot of film and video games, it's shown through sexualising shots and essentially also seducing the viewer through the screen. it was also the only way a lot of female heroes or villains got the upper hand for a number of years, even now, and a lot of women still think it's demeaning and sexist. i don't think it's an issue to have one or two female characters who use this to their advantage, or a character who does it once or twice, but the issue arises when it's the only way any female character of yours gets the upper hand. while i don't have that big of an issue with it, keep in mind that it could come across as misogynist to someone else !
. & ━ killing the lesbian (spoilers) → this is more of an lgbt trope in general — re: bury your gays — and is a massive problem, but i've seen it happen most commonly with lesbians, or queer women in general, and that they can never get the happy ending they deserve. commander lexa from the 100, charlie and lily baker from supernatural, tara from buffy the vampire slayer, helena cain from battlestar galatica, alisha and denise from the walking dead, emily from teen wolf, tricia and poussey from orange is the new black, nora and mary louise from the vampire diaries, mimi whiteman and camilla from empire, susan from van helsing, eleanor guthrie from black sails, ivy mayfair-richards and winter anderson and bebe babbit from american horror story: cult, kit from the handmaid's tale, and like 200 other examples. you can see a list of all the dead lesbian and bisexual characters on tv, in an article on autostraddle. of course any character can die, characters die all the time, but lesbians and lgbt women get so little representation in general, that when we get a smidge in fiction, and then they get killed off with limited screen time, well, it fucking sucks. queer women have been dying exclusively in film since as far back as the 1970's, so maybe keep the lgbt woman / lesbian alive this time. (note, queer is a slur and can only be reclaimed by lgbt+ people, unless a lgbt+ solely identifies as "queer", in which then, with their permission, it's okay to refer to them as that). also if a character is a LESBIAN, refrain from calling them just "queer", it's often used to erase lesbians like angela davis throughout history, who are self-proclaimed lesbians, by saying they were simply "queer" women .
TROPES TO USE. → * . &
. & ━ female friends → the literature and film world does not have enough positive female friendships for my taste. it's always either that the protagonist is alone, only hangs out with boys, or seems to despise other women. i need a story where a gang of women friends take down an oppressive government, go monster-hunting together, or are just a healthy, positive shoulder for the beat-down and badass female protagonist to lean her head on. healthy purely-platonic friendships with a man are also important, but i feel like i see female friendships so much less in media. female friendships are so fucking strong, like i feel like people totally underestimate how loving and uplifting they can be. i'd just love to see a strong af woman be able to go back and be nurtured by her female friends! sleepover nights with movies and nail-painting and baking please, it's never seen enough and i love it so much. media has a MASSIVE tendency to turn women against one another instead of them becoming friends and i just,,, hate that so much. let women be friends please !
. & ━ strong mother → i need more strong, badass mothers doing anything to defend their children. more june in the handmaid's tale or joyce in stranger things but like upped by 20. like she will hike through a jungle with children on her back, fighting beasts and enemies just to protect them. it can be a woman as young as 18 or as old as 70, i don't care, give me more fierce maternal figures — from mothers to aunts to grandmothers. or empowering maternal figures, sweet and loving and encouraging maternal figures — like moana's grandmother, or karen wheeler from stranger things (that scene where she's encouraging nancy to never give up like she did makes me emotional) .
. & ━ a sapphic character who doesn't die → sapphic, meaning wlw (woman loving women) or nblw (non-binary loving women), essentially, in this context, queer women. this shouldn't even have to be said but apart from a bunch of recent cartoons which have sapphic rep where they all live (she-ra, the owl house, adventure time, the legend of korra), it's been pretty rare that sapphic characters survive. so, just,, don't make the only character dying a queer woman please .
. & ━ divert expectations → just don't rely on stereotypes. like i said above, make a less feminine-presenting woman enjoy feminine things; let a more feminine-presenting woman enjoy masculine things. stop putting women in boxes! delightfully surprise the audience by twisting the stereotypes around. or let them adhere to those stereotypes but not be hateful of the other side .
WEAKNESS IN FEMALE CHARACTERS. → * . &
another thing that men (and internally-misogynistic girls) love to beat over the head of women is that any woman character who shows a sign of weakness isn't strong and is a "mary-sue" or whatever kind of sexist term they use. well, guess what? weakness should be the cornerstone of all characters and is essential to any character, whether female, male, or non-binary. your character should have a weakness.
i agree that female characters shouldn't always be the grovelling, weeping, damsel in distress. that's another sexist trope that's been used throughout all of history. but women are HUMAN TOO. female characters are allowed to, and should, experience weakness.
let them grieve. let them scream when their loved one dies, let them weep at it and grow depressed. let them experience mourning, emotions, sadness and anxiety just like every other character. emotions are the key to writing good characters. just because a character is strong, doesn't mean they don't experience weakness.
for example, one of my ocs and the closest to my heart, sar, is strong as hell. she can beat up monsters, swing an axe at an enemy like she means it, hold the fabric of reality together with her mental powers, take a hell of a beating, and defends those she loves with her life. but in my opinion, the reason why she's strong and powerful, is because she's made it through the incredible amount of trauma in her life. she has bad days, she has days where she can't even get up out of bed, and she experiences PTSD flashbacks, panic attacks, and horrid grief over the people she's lost. there are entire chapters where she's just broken down over memories or realisations that she's never going to see her loved ones again, that all she does is cry and be in pain. but she's so strong because she gets back up. she doesn't let the grief be her weakness, it's just her humanity, if anything, it fuels her. it doesn't make her any less strong — it makes her more so. if characters can't be seen as human, they won't be seen as strong.
let your female character fuck up. let them be wrong, let them or others get hurt for it, beaten the shit out of them or captured by the enemy. let it have consequences. misogynistic men will always say it makes that female character "a fuck-up" or "useless", but, hell, you're trying to make your character human, aren't you?
let your female character have fears. let them have a weak point that can be exploited, let them have phobias or traumas, let them experience real terror. let them be paralysed by it, frozen. let them have to be saved once in a while, and also let them do the saving. let them lose. make them more than just a chess piece you move around, let them be real.
let them be feminine, masculine or androgynous. let them wear whatever they want, dress and present and wear their hair or makeup however they want. let them be friends, siblings and mothers. a woman or female character being a mother does not make her "weak". have you ever met a strong woman who loves her children and has a good relationship with them? they'd literally go to hell and back for their kids. let them have friends, female characters having other female friends is oddly sparse in media at the moment. good female friendships are literally the best thing, they hold up the freaking world. let them have friends in general.
let your female characters be human.
all of these points will be covered in my broader chapter soon about how to write three-dimensional characters that feel human, but i thought it needed to be covered here as somewhere along the way, "strong female character" got confused with "feminine-rejecting, emotionless female character", and i think that ideology is harmful and misogynist. strong women come in all shapes and sizes! in fact, what is the definition of "strong"?
strong in the sense that they can kick ass and battle their way through anything? strong in the sense that they have a powerful moral code and can't be dissuaded? strong in the sense that they've overcome all their emotional and traumatic issues? there are so many ways to define strong, and there isn't a box it should be shoved into. a woman can be petite, non-muscular, and "physically-weak", and still be strong in the way that she's stubborn and achieves whatever she sets her mind to, or she can be strong in the way that she's taken down entire branches of the government before. a muscular, battle-ready woman can be strong in the fact that she could kick your ass and tear zombies to pieces, or strong because she is willing to do anything for her loved ones. there are a thousand ways any person can be strong. i know i'm strong in so many ways, even though i can't lift weights for the life of me and have no body strength. you're strong in many ways too!
REAL WOMEN. → * . &
my suggestion? observe real women. find what makes your mother strong (if you have a good relationship with her), or your sister, your female friends or your girlfriend. think about how the girls at your school or work have used power and strength for good, your teacher or professor. celebrities, athletes, writers, historical figures, or strong female characters you admire. why do you look up to emma watson? dakota johnson? brie larson? serena williams? joan of arc? angela davis? why do you look up to katniss everdeen? ellen ripley? fa mulan? leia organa? the bride in kill bill? hermione granger? furiosa and the wives in mad max?
find the traits you admire in them, the acts that they've done. what makes them, so called, "strong"? then observe their appearance, their hobbies. see how not every strong woman can be the same. they haven't needed to be sexualised or objectified to be strong, they've just been fucking powerful as hell!
MY FAVOURITE SUGGESTIONS OF STRONG WOMEN. → * . &
here are some lists of strong, powerful women throughout history and fiction who have inspired me and continue to inspire me. through their physical strength, their wit, their power and determination, their courage or their humanity. i hope some of them inspire you too!
HISTORICAL FIGURES
. & ━ joan of arc → a heroine of france during the 15th century. she was a peasant girl who believed she was under divine guidance (claimed to have been hearing the voice of the divine since she was 13), and led the french army in a victory at orléans in 1429, preventing the english from capturing french land. was burned at the stake after being labelled a heretic, sorceress and cross-dresser, at age 19, and cried out "jesus! jesus! jesus!" as she died.
. & ━ sappho of lesbos → did someone say, ancient greek lesbian who single-handedly coined the terms "sapphic" and "lesbian" by writing gay, world-famous poetry about her relationships with other women? sappho is one of my favourite poets, her poem fragment — "someone will remember us, i say, even in another time" — is the only three-line poem that can hit me like that, somehow summing up the entire experience of sapphism, the oppression of sapphic (women-loving-women, like lesbians, bisexual & pansexual women, etc) women throughout history and the erasure we've experienced (most of sappho's work was burned and erased by men who wanted to erase her lesbianism), and the knowing that one day we'll be able to no longer hide and someone will know who we are? brings me to tears i love her and her work so much .
. & ━ angela davis → a black american political activist, particularly during the civil rights movement in the 60s, and was closely associated with the black panthers. is still a powerful voice for black rights and power today. also a lesbian. she's extremely inspiring and i recommend watching some of her speeches .
. & ━ katherine g. johnson → a black american mathematician whose calculation of orbital mechanics at NASA resulted in the success of the first and subsequent U.S. spaceflights, in 1962. the movie hidden figures is about her, dorothy vaughan, and mary jackson. i recommend it as a watch, it's very inspiring .
. & ━ dorothy vaughan → a black american mathematician and human computer at NASA, the first african-american woman to supervise a group of staff at the centre. she self-taught herself and her staff the language of programming to prepare for the introduction of computers in the 60s. the movie hidden figures is about her, katherine g. johnson, and mary jackson. i recommend it as a watch, it's very inspiring .
. & ━ mary jackson → a black american mathematician and aerospace engineer at NACA. in 1958, she became NASA's first black female engineer. she worked at NASA for 34 years and earned the most senior title and ended up working to influence the hiring of women in NASA's science, engineering and mathematics careers. the movie hidden figures is about her, katherine g. johnson, and dorothy vaughan. i recommend it as a watch, it's very inspiring .
. & ━ circe → a sorceress-goddess from greek mythology who lived alone on the island of aeaea. known to be a magician and a sexually-free woman, she once turned all of odysseus' (male) companions into pigs. madeline miller's book circe is a lovely retelling of the myth in novel-form and i highly recommend it .
. & ━ artemis → another figure from greek mythology, the goddess of hunting, the wilderness, chastity, young girls, and the moon. her temple at ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the world. she wielded a bow like her twin brother apollo, and was one of the virgin goddesses, vowed never to marry a man. once killed acteon with his own hounds when he found her bathing naked in the river. she was known to be a protector of young girls and childbirth .
. & ━ athena → a more controversial figure in greek mythology, because of her role in the pantheon. i wrote an essay on her and her role as one of the sixth women in the pantheon once. the goddess of wisdom, battle strategy, and warfare. she is usually depicted wearing a helmet and with a spear, and was known to be a fearsome goddess to cross. to be honest, all the female greek mythological figures deserve to be here .
. & ━ cleopatra → "i will not be triumphed over". the last ruler of the ptolemaic kingdom of egypt, and an active influencer in roman politics .
. & ━ rosa parks → a black american political activist during the civil rights movement, who resisted bus segregation and was best known for her pivotal role in the montgomery bus boycott. has been called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement" by U.S. congress .
. & ━ malala yousafzai → a pakistani activist for female education and the youngest nobel prize winner. was shot in the head as a 15-year-old by the taliban, on the schoolbus, after having spoken up for the right of girls to be educated. survived, and is now an activist for young girls .
. & ━ mary wollstonecraft → an english writer and advocator for women's rights in the 18th century. in her book, a vindication of the rights of woman (1792), she wrote that women are not inferior to men, but only appear as such because they lack education. she argued that both men and women should be treated equally as rational beings. was sapphic, as she had sexual and romantic encounters with women after her husband's death, as immortalised in her writing and work. also the mother of mary shelley, author of frankenstein.
. & ━ helen keller → an american author and political activist, the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. after an illness at 19 months left her both blind and deaf, helen had learned by the age of seven how to distinguish people by the vibrations of their footsteps, and developed other methods of communication. she received a formal education, gave speeches about her life, and learned how to "hear" people's speech by pressing her fingers against the lips and throat of the speaker. she was an advocate for people with disabilities. (if anyone brings up that bullshit 'helen keller wasn't really deaf-blind' conspiracy theory that i've seen on twitter, you're both dumb and incredibly ableist. deaf-blind people exist and can learn to function more-or-less the same way we do. stop acting like you're the first person to claim a deaf-blind person 'isn't actually' deaf-blind because "well, uh, how would they learn how to do things?". your ableism is showing).
FICTIONAL CHARACTERS
. & ━ elle woods, legally blonde → oh my god, an icon, literally the blueprint for strong feminine characters. the scene where she debunks chutney in court over her hair perm is so legendary. and then she dumps the boyfriend she was trying to impress after she realises she's a better lawyer than him and not as stupid as he and everyone else thinks she is, simply because she likes fashion and girly things. god i love this movie, go watch it right now .
. & ━ katniss everdeen, the hunger games → probably the most recognisable character when the idea of a "strong female character" is raised. though the movies show it well, i think people forget that katniss is 16 and the rest are children, despite how in the films they look much older, and despite people complaining about how icy and "boring" katniss can be, she is literally a child just trying to survive and deal with trauma .
. & ━ fa mulan, mulan → also a historical figure, she's my favourite disney princess in my favourite disney movie (the animated, not that garbage of a live-action), and do i really have to explain why a woman in a patriarchal society dressing as a man to go to war is badass ?
. & ━ moana of motunui, moana → my other favourite disney film! her story and her songs are so powerful and she doesn't have a love interest in the movie !
. & ━ ellen ripley, alien .
. & ━ leia organa, star wars → BADASS QUEEN, god i love her and carrie fisher so much .
. & ━ rey, star wars .
. & ━ princess mononoke, princess mononoke .
. & ━ the wives / the breeders, mad max: fury road → five badass women fleeing their crazy, disgusting "husband" in an apocalyptic australia, wielding guns and driving insane war-rig vehicles across a desert landscape? check! i have so much love for all of them. the spendid angharad, capable, toast the knowing, the dag, and cheedo the fragile — mwah. the dag is my favourite, and is also who plays nessie in my asoiaf series. she has a strong aussie accent and is incredibly observant, also a badass and a sweetheart. go watch mad max: fury road right now .
. & ━ imperator furiosa, mad max: fury road .
. & ━ the bride, kill bill .
. & ━ hermione granger, harry potter → hate jkr, but love her. a feminist icon, i loved her so much growing up .
. & ━ valkyrie / brunnhilde, thor: ragnarok → canonically bi queen, powerful as fuck. i love her !
. & ━ shuri, black panther → a genuis and a badass, all at 16 .
. & ━ okoye, black panther .
. & ━ nakia, black panther → all the women in this show are badass queens .
. & ━ captain marvel / carol danvers, captain marvel .
. & ━ sarah connor, terminator .
. & ━ elastigirl / helen parr, the incredibles → such an icon in both films. "leaving the saving of the world to the men? i don't think so" .
. & ━ ellie, the last of us → lesbian icon .
. & ━ elizabeth bennet, price and prejudice .
. & ━ all the female characters from barbie movies → made me gay .
. & ━ x-23 / laura kinney, marvel comics → my BABY. i haven't seen logan but she's one of my favourite comic characters of all time. laura could kick me and i'd thank her .
. & ━ hawkeye / kate bishop, marvel comics → my other favourite marvel comics character! kate bishop is such an icon, she and clint are such a dynamic duo, and i could talk about her and laura forever. i heard she's having her own tv show in the mcu so i hope they don't fuck her up .
. & ━ america chavez, marvel comics → a lesbian space queen who punches shit really hard .
. & ━ jo march, little women .
. & ━ katara, avatar: the last airbender → katara hate is not allowed. this is my comfort character you're talking about. greatest waterbender of her time at just 14, and also a bloodbender? hell yeah .
. & ━ toph, avatar: the last airbender → TOPH! i could write an essay on her but a blind, 12-year-old girl kicking ass is all little me needed as a role model. 7-year-old me wanted to be toph so bad .
. & ━ suki, avatar: the last airbender → underrated considering she single-handedly kicked the sexism out of sokka .
. & ━ korra, the legend of korra → korra hate is also not allowed. i love my bi bby and slander is unnacceptable .
. & ━ coraline, coraline .
. & ━ jane eyre, jayne eyre .
. & ━ lucy pevensie, the chronicles of narnia .
. & ━ susan pevensie, the chronicles of narnia .
. & ━ anne shirley, anne of green gables .
. & ━ daenerys stormborn of house targaryen, a song of ice and fire / game of thrones → an icon, especially in the books .
. & ━ literally any of the historical targareyns: daenys, visenya, rhaenyra, rhaenys, baela, etc, etc, a song of ice and fire .
. & ━ arya stark, a song of ice and fire / game of thrones .
. & ━ sansa stark, a song of ice and fire / game of thrones .
. & ━ brienne of tarth, a song of ice and fire / game of thrones .
. & ━ wonder woman / diana prince, wonder woman .
. & ━ doralee, 9 to 5 .
. & ━ buffy, buffy the vampire slayer .
. & ━ nancy drew, nancy drew .
. & ━ she-ra / adora, she-ra and the princesses of power .
. & ━ clarice starling, the silence of the lambs .
. & ━ matilda, matilda .
. & ━ dorothy gale, the wizard of oz .
. & ━ charlotte, charlotte's web .
IN THE END. → * . &
misogynistic men will always be there to attack strong women. rey, korra, carol danvers, ellie from the last of us, whether you like those characters or not, you have to understand that a majority of men only despise them because they're women who are powerful, make human mistakes, can probably kick their ass, and aren't made for their enjoyment or sex appeal. men will always hate ellie because she's a lesbian, hate abby from the same video game because she's buff as hell and could toss them to fucking mars if she wanted to. they will always call those characters sexist towards men, boring "mary sues" or say that they're not sexy enough. they'll scream hatred at the she-ra reboot because underage girls in cartoons no longer look like sexied-up women, because she-ra no longer wears just a skirt or because mermista no longer has cleavage showing. because scorpia now looks like a real women with a short haircut (idc what anyone says, she, she-ra/adora, catra, mermista and perfuma are all still hot to me, idk why men think), because all the characters have varied body types and shapes, and because some of them are lesbians. i hope they know that the og she-ra was made for young girls in the 80s and not for them to still jack off to.
my point is, there will always be men who hate female characters for nothing more than them being women. they're intimidated by women, whether feminine-presenting or masculine-presenting, so just ignore them. we're better than the dude-bros whose only criticism is that the women's boobs aren't big enough or that they're "sjw feminist propaganda" (my favourite dudebro saying towards captain marvel just... existing). there'll always be sexist men who say women are horrible for just breathing. write your characters even if they don't want you to. we believe in you!
this turned into a rant about how much i love women and how women are beautiful and valid, but that's true and i just wanted to say that. uphold women!
word count: 8,294
03.10.2020.