The 5 Most Underrated Pop Culture Heroines
Recently, I argued that we like heroines who act like men and so writers construct stories enabling women to physically compete. So what about the female characters that don’t act like men?
If writers don’t have a female character fight for herself and by herself, then we typically ignore them. Sometimes we ridicule them. If given the opportunity, we rewrite them. Then, we complain that there aren’t enough of them. There are many, and the comment thread on the last article mentioned a few. These are my favorite five.
5. Princess Buttercup, The Ignored Heroine
In The Princess Bride, Buttercup lives on a farm and falls in love with a quiet and dedicated farm boy. The boy, Wesley, goes off to seek his fortune so he may marry Buttercup, but his ship is attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts. Buttercup despairs for Wesley’s death. Years later, the prince of the land choses her as his bride. Powerless to refuse him, she agrees. Soon, Wesley returns and rescues her and the land.
Targeted by an evil prince for her beauty, but with no physical way to resist him — no superpowers — Buttercup relies on her courage and wits to keep the prince and his henchmen at bay until help arrives. With Wesley’s help she escapes and together they save the kingdom from a needless war. But she got rescued and does not physically fight. She engages in elegant verbal sparring, of which I’d provide a video clip, but I can’t find any of those scenes online. They aren’t popular enough that anyone thought to upload them. I’ve rarely seen Buttercup mentioned as a feminist favorite even though The Princess Bride‘s cult following rivals Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s. Strong-willed and spirited she might be, but she’s just not manly enough to merit much attention.
There’s always been a strong scent of self loathing among radical feminists, women who hate the fact they’re women. Of those who spout a constant hatred towards men, I suspect 9/10 are lesbians whose agenda is to make women hate and fear men; a sexual agenda designed to attract women to her instead, eh? The other 1/10 probably had an abusive father.
All SF&F. What does that mean? Along these lines Heinlein had Podkayne and Holly, who dealt with the Menace From Earth in true girl fashion. Neither was one you’d want to cross. In the words of another SF female character, “We survive weez dee brens.”
Fantasy lit is now full of tough girls. Female warriors seem to be an especial favorite in the gaming community. The wonderful digital promo art there reflects a ratio of women as opposed to male warrior art by about between 5 or 10 to 1.
Loved the literary ancestor of them all, Jirel of Joiry, but it’s getting stale. And there’s this: did Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore bring a “woman’s touch” to SF, or is that all nonsense. One thing’s for sure – they were formidable artists.
What’s the argument about the women’s touch? That they were women or that their characters were feminine?
This list is SF&F, but the same dynamic plays out in other genres. The favorite female characters are the ones most like guys. Career success is still the preferred standard. We are very self conscious about anything domestic. We need an excuse to be domestic and the only occasionally acceptable excuse is for the children. While writing this I came across an older NYT article that made this argument, after the obligatory NYT blue state condescension, in this case to Florida rednecks:
““Strong female character” is one of those shorthand memes that has leached into the cultural groundwater and spawned all kinds of cinematic clichés: alpha professionals whose laserlike focus on career advancement has turned them into grim, celibate automatons; robotic, lone-wolf, ascetic action heroines whose monomaniacal devotion to their crime-fighting makes them lean and cranky and very impatient; murderous 20-something comic-book salesgirls who dream of one day sidekicking for a superhero; avenging brides; poker-faced assassins; and gloomy ninjas with commitment issues. It has resulted in characters like Natalie Portman’s in “No Strings Attached,” who does everything in her power to avoid commitment, even with a guy she’s actually in love with; or Lisbeth Salander in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy; or pretty much every character Jodie Foster has played since “Nell” or, possibly, “Freaky Friday.”…
Of course, I get the point of characters like these. They do serve as a kind of gateway drug to slightly more realistic — or at least representational — representations of women. On the other hand, they also reinforce the unspoken idea that in order for a female character to be worth identifying with, she should really try to rein in the gross girly stuff.”
That article is here if you want to see the whole thing: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/magazine/a-plague-of-strong-female-characters.html?pagewanted=all&_r=4&
The bottom line is that reality needs no promotion. This meme is dug in our ribs precisely because women don’t do these things. But political correctness says don’t mention that – I will anyway.
But how many fighter pilots are women and what percentage of drug dealers are women? Does rain need a helping hand from gravity? Should there be a recruiting drive? In 5 thousand years of human history there has never been an Amazon army. That should tell you something about the limitations of culture and reality.
My male intuition says no recruiting drive.
can I allude to the joke “with what I’ve got, I can have all of those I want?”
Ari, I think you just did.
Fail Burton, agreed. I recently saw an article (can’t find it at the moment) about allowing women forward combat positions, but that few servicewomen would choose that duty.
“The favorite female characters are the ones most like guys.”
I’d say like guys, only better. They have to be at least as physically superior to guys as real world males are to real world females.
I remember well the frail helpless leading ladies that predominated my reading and viewing as a child of adventure in books, comics, movies, and TV. The scrappy and sensible heroine came as a breath of fresh air back then¸ but now it has become an even worse tired old cliche. Surely there has to be some middle ground here.
Umm, so Buffy is both an overrated and underrated heroine? Alright, I’m not reading these anymore.
“We get so busy with Men vs. Women, that we can’t spot Good vs. Evil.”
To radical feminists, they are one and the same. Though intellectually bankrupt, they exert a profound influence upon our society, as our movie industry demonstrates so effectively.
Hmmm. No mention of Kaylee Frye, Inara Serra, Zoe Washburne or River Tam?
Tai-kong suo-yo duh shing-chiou sai-jin wuh duh pee-goo
Thank you.
BUN tyen-shung duh ee-DWAY-RO
I’ll go with those, save maybe River with her superpoweresque fighter element. Kaylee was on the list if this had been 10 under and 10 over. I’d roughed out Kalissi from Game of Thrones before I decided to go for the Buffy contradiction of getting praise for her weaknesses and ignored for her strengths.
(Back later to discuss the gun thing. I’m still doing cleanup from last night’s party.)
Kaylee is a great pic, but River, while o.k. during Firefly was a Mary Sue, Waif Fu practitioner. She became everything I hate about female characters in modern cinema. Anything that River did in Firefly was washed away by the fanboys desire to see her kick ass with krotty.
“Waif-fu.” You can consider that term stolen. It’s perfect.
Hm. You like Voltron but I’d rather choose Blood; in fact Saya is pretty much what the feminazi culture admire most about women. As a honorable mention in this category, I would say Ophelia from Pan’s labyrinth is a true unsung heroine. Happy New Year.
Bleh. Blood was overrated. Blood Plus is more tolerable.
I was talking of course about the original movie. Saya is a sword-wielding genetically-enhanced monster slayer. Never underrated, in fact Buffy and all other bunch are nothing but imitations.
Another heroine deserving more attention, imo, is Leeloo (5th Element) who is very fragile and yet possesses the strength to save the entire planet.
Great film, and Leeloo randomly jumping over a skyrise building is probably one of the most iconic images in the history of modern cinema.
Actually, I belieive Buffy preceeded Blood by some years. I always privately suspected that it might have been inspired by Devil Hunter Yohko, taking the same general tack of serious supernatural mayhem mixed with silliness. (Though I did not see Buffy, I’m aware that the original movie had the concept of “valley girls fight vampires”, which one might have guessed from the wee bit of ridiculousness feel in hearing the very the title. Apparently Buffy got a bit more serious in the TV version.)
Ah, Voltron. A lot of good memories gush up on hearing the name of one of my all-time favorites (unfortunately I was never impressed by the second season or any of the recent remakes). Alura was a great character for the most part, considering all she had to go through. When she was the sole survivor of her family and one of a handful to survive in the whole royal court, it was no small thing for her to impress the Voltron Force with her presence, and to struggle on in trying to hold a devastated planet and traumatized populace together. Though the episodes showed clearly that Alura loved her late parents very much, it was also clear their relationship left her sorting out her feelings on their past relationship (the reason Alura and the mice of the castle were such close friends, was because they eased her loneliness as a girl while her parents busied themselves with state business). And assuming the dual roles of sovereign and foot soldier was bound to raise tricky problems with chain-of-command (and did), but the problem was who else was there to fill the throne and fly Blue Lion (in fairness, Alura did prove to be an advantage in one aspect, in that the ghost of her father communicating with her would provide the Voltron Force with advice that saved the team in more than one battle)? Basically, she kept going on doggedly in spite of all the obstacles, and well deserved the final triumph.
However, what bothered me is that my true favorite part of the series, the Vehicles Team, has been neglected through the years. Maybe it was because it was harder to identify with a team of 15 members instead of five, but some female characters did manage to shine in the spotlight on occassion. One of the best episodes was when the pep girl pilot Ginger struggled through flashbacks of a spaceship crash her family was involved in years before, and Lisa certainly helped the team bond as a kind-hearted soul who generally had the right words to say (but was always ready for action nonetheless). However, the best female character of that portion of Voltron was ironically a Drull, Dorma. This classy lady was fully involved with her brother Hazor’s tragic struggle to achieve peace with the Galaxy Alliance before his planet’s population was doomed.
Isn’t the book the Princess Bride a two-parter? One where the grandfather tells the story in the movie, and then the author makes comments about his life, as well. it’s measuring the distance between heroic stories, and real life.
Editors will not pick up novels with a retiring, shy, femme-y heroine. They just won’t. Twilight got bought b/c it was the editor’s first pick after she had been promoted to editor. She followed the printed guidelines, not the “penumbra” guidelines. Stephenie Meyer was paid $750,000 for delivery on three books. She re-negotiated on the fourth. Stephenie Meyer had the benefit of working with her editor, rather than deeming every little word “precious” (add golum breathing sounds) or her title “precious.” That’s why they were willing to work with her, and give her a decent advance. She was obviously productive, level-headed, and ambitious in a good way.
She wrote a fourth, then she wrote The Host, she was available for interviews, blog tours, comic books, movie script writers, tee-shirt designers, musical influences, youtube videos, skateboards. She didn’t audit her fan boards, like some authors. She didn’t interfere with fan- fiction writers- contractually, she’s not even able to view them, in case someone wishes to sue. She blurbed other writers. She’s a big fan of copy-right free authors (that would be Jane Austen) who are basically available for the price of printing. She’s just about perfect in terms of marketing.
And, that editor bias against stereotypically feminine heroines means that writers don’t write them. It enrages some authors that there are characters that they cannot write or publish. Realistic, influenced by people they see, characters that cannot be put into print. Instead they must write to spec. It’s not the writers with the stranglehold on publication, it’s the editors.
And, maybe, possibly, that’s a good thing, that these editors are not in the market for characters that they, themselves do not understand or encounter. It would sound like an alien, or details would be missed, or a horribly distorted character would be presented as real and aspirational.
I am thinking of the current British public. In the Economist, some columnist is trying to dance on the grave of the Church of England by commenting that more young women under thirty have experimented with BDSM than have been to church. This would be an entirely peculiar statistic, except that in “Letters to—– on First Reading Jane Austen” Fay Weldon writes that women are afraid of succeeding at work b/c they are naturally masochistic. Fay Weldon is obscure over here, but quite famous there, as a BBC producer of a Jane Austen series, writer of books, television commentor, and so on. Add in, say, Lady Gaga’s meanderings about power transference, or whatever, highlighted here at PJLifestyle, in the last two months, I’d think it was dangerous to let such women have any information about opinions about wives, mothers, or housewives.
Somehow, tenderness, privacy, nurturing, listening, have all been warped into this odd “masochism” state. Maintaining a house, keeping it clean, attending to homework,,,,means that one is the equivalent of a welcome mat out on the front step?
A notion that women are, by virtue of modernity, “impenetrable”, is the dearest,fondest wish of progressives. It’s nonsense on toast, but still……..
Ari, if I have comment editing privileges other than deleting, I can’t find how. And it is too late for me to ask David, so I’ll just reply to your comment on editors. (The BDSM and power transference point—I see it, but but I’ll need some sleep to reply properly.)
So regarding editors: I have little doubt that they meddle and make characters conform to what they suppose we want. Sarah Hoyt has written more than once I think about how avoiding such meddling is one of the advantages to self publishing. I find the same problem with Hollywood screenwriters. They try to write about things that they don’t understand. That lack of understanding doesn’t provide a silver lining. It is the problem. Whether the editors and screenwriters avoid writing realistic characters or they botch them when they do try, the practical result stays the same: crappy characters.
I came across an interesting writer who seems to have avoided this editor problem. http://oinks.squeetus.com/2012/12/why-do-you-write-strong-female-characters.html
I’m intrigued enough to get a book or two to check out her female characters, especially if she writes for young girls. Anyone read her books?
All rivers run back to Twilight. Shannon Hale is Stephenie Meyer’s BFF writing pal. She interviewed her in the Twilight Guide. Stephenie Meyer produced her first movie, which should be coming out this year- Austenland ( squeee!!!) It was directed by Jerusha (?) the wife of the guy who directed (produced and directed?) Napoleon Dynamite.
I don’t think they were friends at first, but they met through mutual publishing friends, I think. I’d have to look it up. Mostly, I’m glad they know enough about each other to have an interesting interview in the guide.
I want to, but I haven’t been out for new books in a while.
I’d think you could delete and repost in sections? I don’t want to be a threadkiller.
Really? Sometimes I find mainstream stuff in odd ways. I found Hale though a BD2 post by writer Malinda Lo who wrote a lesbian twist on Cinderella. I’d liked some of her points. http://www.malindalo.com/2012/11/10-thoughts-on-twilight-breaking-dawn-part-2/ I only clicked through to Hale yesterday. I read a few posts and put her on my list of books to check out for my daughters. I knew nothing of Austenland either.
Obviously, I don’t read TwiMoms on a regular or I would have known this and I would have caught Melissa Rosenberg’s interview about how she wrote the twist ending that I hated:
“The way I approached it was, who would be the most shocking to kill? Because the first death initiates the battle, it has to be someone who everybody cares about…. And you also want, like, who’s going to be the most satisfying to kill? Who have been the various nemeses? So everyone kind of gets a moment. Of course, Bella and Edward had to be the ones to kill Aro. That was the ultimate, and that they do it together felt really right. I really wanted to see Bella just rip his frickin’ head off. [Laughs]”
Yes, feminist storytelling: it’s great when the girl rips someone’s frickin’ head off. Also in the interview, here if you need to read the whole thing: http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/12/04/breaking-dawn-part-2-twist-ending/ , MR claims that she didn’t deviate from the story. But the twist was no mere dream/vision sequence. In the book Edward and Bella faced death knowing they couldn’t fight together. The twist rendered most of the ending and Alice’s search for another hybrid vamp totally unnecessary. The plot laid out nicely in the book but became a swiss cheese mess on screen. Meyer should have gone with her instincts that it wasn’t a story suited to a visual medium.
I never saw the movie, but I did read (and greatly enjoyed) the book.
would someone please mention to the wsj gun thing, that it’s “boys have cooties and guns are icky?” Biology must be respected, even if boys are not. cooties cannot nest in gun oil.
Funny, I seem to recall Leia doing a lot of “masculine” things like capping a storm trooper in the face right at the beginning of A New Hope. She wracked up quite a toll of Imperial troops after that as well. Let’s not forget flying space ships, infiltrating Jabba’s palace and living there for months before getting caught.
Bella? Really? She was just a luncheon special a couple of predators got funny about, like Spongebob in the episode where he fell in love with a Krabby Patty (though I guess it would be un-PC to have Bella get old and have the vampire and werewolf fall out of love and devour her after all).
Guns don’t count for making women acceptably masculine, so shooting at stormtroopers won’t get Leia the respect. There is a whole anti-gun element for the proper modern female heroine to follow, although the aversion is less anti-gun than the need for women to be completely self sufficient. A gun implies that a woman needs something more than courage and moxie in order to defend herself. Feminists don’t want us to think of that implication because it makes sense, and if we test it and find it right, then we acknowledge that there are physical prowess differences between men and women. Therefore, if a female character stands her ground by shooting someone, well, she had help. She didn’t do it herself.
Dig down in some feminist tomes, and women are islands. They don’t need men, children, patronizing parents. Women can do everything themselves and don’t like it when anyone suggests otherwise.
“What happens to female characters who don’t fight like men?”
They get promptly killed if they aren’t more lucky than they are stupid.
If they don’t get out of the way I mean. Very few women can go toe to toe in combat and excel.
Some can. But I can’t forget we are talking about fantasy characters, here.
And yes, I think Buffy goes to the top or very near of the list.
Not quite true. Women have excellent agility and flexibility in comparison to men and can be very good attributes in a hand to hand fight. Men are stronger and will always exceed female fighting ability if that fight includes hand to hand weapons that take advantage of male reach and strength. But foot/fist martial arts can actually favor female attributes. And, as we all know, guns are the great equalizer.
While a small percentage of women are smart enough to offset the typical weight, reach, and power advantage men have, 95% of women would take a punch to the face or body from 75% of men very poorly. Add to that the fact that the kind of man who would try to fight a woman is typically hyper aggressive and often experienced at beating down on women, I’d say that the man would win in the vast majority of one-on-one conflicts between a man and a woman. Probably 99+% of the time, even if the woman is martial arts trained. The proper strategy for most women in a violent conflict of any kind is “engage to disengage.” Hit a person with the dirtiest, most violent tactics available so that you can get out of there and seek safety or help, preferably a very angry knuckle-dragging barbarian of a husband or father.
From my inbox: a recommendation for Ilona Andrews’s Kate Daniels series. “I won’t say she doesn’t think that she can beat the men, she kicks their asses on a regular. She is magically stronger than most people in the “world” she lives in. But when in a physical fight she has to be more devious to keep from getting hit.”
Also, any women’s self defense class worth its salt tells us our best defense is to avoid any physical fight with men. (Failing that, then the dirty fight-to-the-death-not-to-get-in-his-car tactics.) It reminded me of defensive driving and leaving cushions between yours and others cars. This is why I’ve never understood Slut Walks. Dressing defensively isn’t about not giving permission for an attack but not being a mark for an evil man. On a jury, I’d send a guy who claimed consent based on dress to jail, but that won’t help the woman’s nightmares about being raped.
In a book about Vietnam (the country, not the war) the author told the story of his grandmother defending his grandfather’s honor in a bar fight and winning. She was a black belt in karate, and he was a more passive type male.I think you are absolutely right about most women in a fight, but maybe martial arts does make a difference?
Or armed.
“Seasoned, gray-haired generals take instruction from her not because of her physical prowess or her political position, which has no more force as neither her world nor the Galactic Senate exists any longer, but because of her smarts, endurance, dedication, and sacrifice.”
Or its because she’s a Princess (and Senator) from a very well-connected family. History is replete with Princes and Princesses who were ousted (or defeated) who went on to run rebellions with the assistance of others who were in it for the money, prestige, power, or land. For example, the last Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Otto, did very well for himself in European politics by playing on his connections.
No disagreement on playing connections, but that’s why I mentioned Alderaan and the Galactic Senate. She’d still have connections, but many would be dead or cowed. Furthermore, the generals don’t have to listen to her and certainly don’t have to like it if they do, but scenes in the Hoth command center suggests that they have plenty of respect for her. During the battle on Hoth, General Rieekan doesn’t tell her what to do and then ask for her approval, which could be played in many ways that suggest either he thinks her naive or he otherwise resents having to get her approval. But he waits for her orders and then executes them.
Princess Leia, another keeper. Two scenes in particular really lept to mind for me. First, there was the moment in the original Star Wars movie (subsequently “A New Hope”) in which Hans Solo moans, “No reward is worth this!” The other is at the end of “The Empire Strikes Back,” when Leia leaps to the rescue of her brother after his defeat at the hands of Darth Vader.
Melissa Rosenberg has been desperate to maintain her credibility within the Literary folk. She has said she really had to work to accept that Bella goes through with the pregnancy without an abortion, and she has been careful to proclaim that she herself is completely pro choice). From the first, many readers of Twilight just hated the last book, because (a) the icky pregnancy; and (b) the lack of a satisfying battle at the end. And I just don’t get that critics insist that Bella is a wimp throughout the story, when it is perfectly obvious that she drives the action throughout.
Like you, I am sorry the movie has this so-called ‘dream’ of Aro’s with mayhem, etc.
Keep up the good work, Ms Loftis! I am looking forward to “Austenland”, by the way.
You know, I liked the battle scene. It sort of teased out all the implications, and showed them off.
I liked the south american guy, too. Aro could see what one set of choices would get him- and he was given an immediate face-saving play, rather than having time to come up with a counter-strategy.
and, yeah, melissa rosenberg is………sigh…..at least she’s not the writer who hashed up The Firm. At least she’s near to the same tangent as SM, rather than completely, insanely, awfully opposite.
Not only is Bella just not a good female role model. She’s not a good human being role model…or just a good human being. She is pure selfishness.
okay, I’m going to guess you saw the news articles about teenage girls squealing over robert pattinson, but likely you haven’t seen the movies or read any books?
care to expand and defend your drive-by judgment? b/c there’s a chance if I opine, it will be about like trekkies getting hopped up on the wisdom of spock as he heads into the nuclear reactor- way important to the fans, laughably retarded to any real political philosopher.
In the movie, the props suggest the life written about in the books- a studious, quiet girl who is loyal to her parents develops a crush on a remote, reserved boy. the boy is the son of the local doctor, and youngest of several siblings. They graduate from high school and get married. Her friends in high school are the yearbook students, and the eventual valedictorian. She helps them as they go about their studies. She gets a part-time job. She keeps house and cooks dinner for her working dad.
I’m missing what is selfish in any of what I’ve summarized. You care enough to post,do you care enough to clarify?
You describe her as being much kinder to her dad than I remember from the first movie. Maybe she changed? I don’t know, I was actually angry that I wasted a dollar on renting the damn thing, so I didn’t do it a second time.
I watched the first movie and stopped there. My wife read the first book and stopped there. In both, Bella was a terrible person. She consistently puts herself before her family (her dad, who she never shows gratitude for) and is more than willing to allow Edward and Jacob to fight over her to satisfy her fragile ego. All the while the whole world sucks because she got dragged into small town life and her life is over now and waaaah! it’s all unfair.
(posted this incorrectly first time)
Also, I hated the fact that there was no actual plot all the way through the film (my wife contends they ADDED plot to the movie, in comparison to the book) and the “bad guys” showed up…just because. I hate the story so much that maybe it creates a bias against the characters within. Also, I think it’s the target audience. I believe women are more tolerant of stories that tell events in a chronological order where people just live life and do things than men, who prefer events to be connected through an overarching larger uber-event (plot device). I noticed the same thing in the Sookie Stackhouse books (which read more like Sookie’s diary than an actual story).
awww. sorry you didn’t like it. if both of you were reading, it suggests that you have a happy marriage with two people in sync.
Isn’t Billy ?? the actor playing the dad a hoot? I love how he steals all his scenes. He’s kind of the same kind of sarcastic as Bella. From what I saw, they were so obviously related by temperament and looks.
I guess the movie did not make it clear. The girl volunteered to move to Forks, to live with the father she’d never really known, to give her mom some breathing space in her new marriage. She’s moving in with a near stranger who loves her and cares for her, but she’s not comfortable- he’s not a roommate, but he’s also not a not-stranger. It is an awkward sort of set-up, despite every psychologist and Disney movie schmaltz ever ladled over a broken family.
That’s one of the things I love about both the book and the movie: that part rings true for me. It’s backed up by a fair amount of research about children of divorce.
I don’t know that it’s in the movie, but in the book, Bella has an entire “crying ritual” and has no close friends prior to the Cullen family. She’s very awkward and socially isolated. That’s pretty interesting, too. She’s not a special snowflake. She’s very out of her element, up to the last movie. That inspires a great deal of love in readers. Remember ??the bee girl in that video? And, like, Cindy Crawford was calling herself “just like her”? And tons of other famous, beautiful sorts? It’s a private misery. Most books don’t cover that sort of misfit, among girls. Well, precisely, they didn’t before Twilight, in the teen book category. Now it’s all over the place. Seriously-teen angst is a category at B&N.
I know there’s a book recommending that parents find a way to transplant their daughters for at least a year in late high school, or even transplant, and graduate them early, if they are not among the confident and glossy. It termed the year abroad as a possible “ophelia life-saver.” It wasn’t reviving ophelia- it was based on interviews with successful women. they all mentioned that year away from their childhood as a time to become someone different.
The Action Hero Girl is a thoroughly modern and American creature born out of the Riot Grrrrrl/ Feminist movement and has become overplayed and trite as time has gone on.
I’ve actually looked at Asian female heroes as a bit more tolerable. While they can pick up a gun and shoot as well as the next person, they still can be feminine without long tirades or anyone calling them somehow weak. (cept the villans).
Well, in that manga/anime side of that equation, In the shonen (boys) genere, the females tend to play the roles of professional hostage or second-string action hero limited largely to fights with females of the opposing side. In the shojo (girls) genere, the female tends to be a strong central character, and while there may be action (or not), there’s a heavier emphasis of character and relationships over action.
Just as an aside, I’d like to point out one particular heroine, Hitomi Kanzaki, who is featured in “Vision of Escaflowne,” an anime that kind of crosses both the shonen and shojo traditions (note, movie and two magna are completely different from this TV series). Though an athlete, she is no fighter, yet Hitomi’s character is clearly the engine that drives the story.
Best recommendation of the series and a rating? My kids like anime, but beyond Airbender or Voltron or Howl’s Moving Castle, it’s hard to find good ones for kids that are available. (I’ve had recommendations that I can’t find on Netflix or for download.)
And thanks for finally giving Allura her due in the comments. She was best in the original season. By the second, the series had become popular so American producers had requested specific things like another female character, Merla, and a more direct allusion to Keith and Allura’s romance. It just didn’t work as well. The writers tried to force too much to the surface instead of letting bigger themes run under the storyline. Every reboot repeated that mistake with increasing vigor.
Well, as much as I highly recommend “Escaflowne,” it’s definitely not for kids (it is about a war after all, and contains its share of tragedy), though I believe older teens would find it enjoyable (if they’re watching the Lord of the Rings movies, then they’re likely ready for this). Akemi’s Anime World has it rated 13+ (“Though there isn’t anything particularly objectionable, quite a bit of violence and some mature themes lead to a 13-up rating
Violence: 3 – Not particularly gory, but there is a lot of death and destruction.
Nudity: 1 – Nothing particularly noteworthy.
Sex/Mature Themes: 2 – The romance is mostly light, but there are some mature themes.
Language: 1 – Relatively mild”). What makes so many people fall in love with the series is its unabashedly romantic fantasy setting and score, much unlike its contemporary Evangelion (which I found mostly twisted, I thought that studio had a much better giant-robot saga in “Gunbuster”–which has some great female characters by the way, though again not for kiddies, as far as I know the only series they’ve made that would tend to be family-friendly is “Petite Princess Yucie”).
And, yes I know what you mean about it being hard to find good anime for kids, there’s lots of it out there but not necessarily available to North American audiences sadly. Ghibli’s movies (like “Howl’s Moving Castle” you mentioned) are very available thanks to Disney (“My Neighbor Totoro” is my personal favorite, though they all tend to be family-friendly, except for “Princess Mononoke,” which is definitely aimed at older interest and sensibilities). However, when Geneon went belly-up, another Hayao Miyazaki treasure, the Japanese-Italian coproduction “Sherlock Hound” may have become hard to find. Hamtaro, World Masterpiece Theater, Sgt. Frog, Strawberry Marshmallow, Piano (great slice-of-life series of teenage girl struggling to come of age, though little kiddies might find it boring)–they aren’t often easy to find, sadly. However, I do have some suggestions. Try googling Right Stuf and RareFlix.com, they can have some obscure items available for ordering. Also, try Amazon.com, they not only have new and used items for a lot of out-of-stock items, but you can generally get some useful reviews (IMDb is another great on-line source for reviews). And there’s another possibility, you might try looking on-line to see if there might be an annual anime convention in your area (admittedly, they aren’t as widespread as Star Trek or comics conventions, but you would almost certainly find a great selection of videos to browse). One general rule of thumb if you’re looking at “Tenchi Muyo”–series of this and other related shows tend to be anything but family-friendly if they originally came out on video, but if they aired on TV in Japan or are in comics, they tend to be family-friendly (WARNING: this does NOT include Tenchi Muyo GXP, which is tied to the original videos and is as risque as anything they put out). I would highly recommend “Magical Project S”, even if it only came out in subtitles, because it is simply the excruciatingly laugh-out-loud funny sendup of the magical girl genera, as well as having a heart-tuggin trilogy of episodes between Pretty Sammy and her archfoe (unknowingly best friend). Don’t confuse it with the recent “Sasami’s Magical Girls Club”, which isn’t that bad with some characters of interest, but not the great ride that MPS is.
Alura: yeah, I KNOW! A little romance can be great for a series, but sometimes it just feels all wrong, and “What is this!?” was my reaction when I saw that happening in Season 2 (besides, they kept Princess Romelle and Sven from the first season, so they didn’t need to introduce romance into the storyline). And I think you put the finger on why Voltron has never had a satsifactory followup.
Hi Leslie,
Great article.
Thanks
When my daughters wanted to hear a real princess story, I told them the story of a princess who went into the Army to repair trucks so she could free up soldiers to fight against the forces of Nazism, and later became a queen who provided leadership and strength to her country when the forces of communism threatened Western republics. My girls have a picture of Elizabeth II in their bedroom. My wife and I also tell them stories of brave women who kept their families together while crossing the plains when husbands died, women who provided homes for their children while husbands were away for years at a time doing missionary service, and women who endured the solitude of having husbands away at war (including their own mother). You’re right. Women certainly don’t have to be in combat to be heroes. They have unique gifts from God to endure hardship and give soldiers something to fight for, to nurture families under less than ideal circumstances, and to inspire the best in all of us.
For me personally, Sarah Plain and Tall is the ultimate cinema heroine. Willing to leave home and family to meet and marry a man and his children that she’s never met and become a driving force in the daily battle of life on the plains of middle America.
As far as kickass women on television, Zeva David hands down. Shoots, fights and loves with the same passion.
you need to research the Donner Party. Your daughters would love that story.
Dear Leslie,
Really thought provoking article. Thank you for this!
The movie Buffy is still the absolute best. But my heroine remains Elizabeth Bennet. Her strong honest character has a subtle yet profound affect on those around her. The tongue lashings she gives Mr. Darcy and his aunt are priceless. Lao Tzu would recognize her as proof of the under estimated power of virtue and the feminine principle of creating change under the radar. All by simply being true to her self. Kiera Knightly had some good scenes, but Jennifer Ehle will always be the real Miss Bennet.
Bella Swann’s favorite books are by Jane Austen. She reads them in the first book, they are in her house when she gets married. Several of the Twilight books are modeled quite consciously on Jane Austen books. One is modeled on Jane Eyre, clicking teeth, romantic triangle, and all.
Stephenie Meyer is careful to reference, as good,worthwhile, amazing, all sorts of previous author’s works. She even throws in a reference to Zefferelli’s Romeo and Juliet movie. And, Lorenzo’s Oil, in the biology lesson.
So, lots of people love Lizzie Bennet. Some people learn about her from Twilight. (really)
That’s great, you never know, eh?
Um, yeah, actually I DO know. Twilight is compelling enough of a story that women who are functionally illiterate listen to the tapes, and then teach themselves to read, sort of like a grown-up read-along book. Then, they get excited, and go on-line, and they post, at first, with the speak and spell programs- there are a few- and listen when the computer reads back other posters. I know this b/c there is a checking thing- this is what I said, is this what I meant? There are enough really amazingly kind, nurturing, professional educators that love Twilight, that they end up teaching these women, in the most respectful way possible. “This is what I read? Is this what you meant? What a great point! I’m glad you brought it up! What do you think about this?”
Then, they go on to bulletin board posts comparing Twilight to jane eyre, jane austen, anne of green gables, little princess, Edgar Poe, and so on. There’s stuff about fairy-tales. There’s a teacher who gives tutorials on how to read a book with citations, and tracing references, and finding words, and so on. At some movie premiere parties, the marked up books- themes, words, parallel images all marked out- are charity auction items.
So, yeah. Twilight does lead to the rest of literature, for some readers.
Well, if these ladies are looking for strong and compelling female characters, you can’t go wrong with Anne (spelled with an “e”, she emphasizes) Shirley, or Sara Crewe.
I wrote an SF novel last spring that, at it’s core, is based on the crux of P&P and Jane Eyre, namely that of an institutional lack of power for women. I put in references to both novels.
Despite their plight, the main leads in my story are women who are quite successful navigating a dangerous world. This is because, unlike Bronte and Austen, these women are forced into institutional roles that develop skill sets that prove to be quite useful.
Sounds boring.
Not to me. Link Mr. Burton?
I saw a brilliant production in Cork about 15 years ago. In my mind, all Austen is now set on that stage.
Feminism is the contention that women are less animal than men. Apparently not. Men temper their more beastly qualities with self awareness; the jury is still out on the other side of the field…..’>…….
Leia sells out Dantooine in order to protect her home planet (unsuccessfully). Dantooine is a planet of farmers that had little or nothing to do with the war. She handed innocents over to the Empire in order to protect the rebel forces on Yavin IV. TERRIBLE role model.
So you judged Twilight after only one of the dreadful movies and not reading the books, and now claim Leia’s ruthlessness for selling out the farmers of Dantooine to protect the rebels on Yavin IV? 1. She offered Dantooine as a delay tactic, as the Death Star would have to make it there first. 2. She offered a sparsely populated* planet in exchange not for the Yavin base but for the heavily populated Alderaan. Sometimes in extreme survival situations, math is morality. 3. The rebels on Yavin IV had, she hoped, the key to defeating the Death Star. If she turned them over, all would be lost. It’s a terrible choice, but the farmers on Dantooine wouldn’t be able to fly at the Death Star. If she gave up Yavin then Alderaan wouldn’t have been the only planet destroyed. War is full of such “choices.” Leia, had perhaps 30 seconds for this analysis. It does her credit.
*The Dantooine farmers backstory is modern EU gloss. A long time ago, before the prequels and the EU, Dantooine was just a deserted rebel base on a deserted planet, like Yavin and Hoth. The rebels didn’t use populated planets because they didn’t want anyone reporting them. But when EU writers started grabbing every orphaned reference to write a story, Dantooine became a settlement planet with a long history.
I watched the first movie and stopped there. My wife read the first book and stopped there. In both, Bella was a terrible person. She consistently puts herself before her family (her dad, who she never shows gratitude for) and is more than willing to allow Edward and Jacob to fight over her to satisfy her fragile ego. All the while the whole world sucks because she got dragged into small town life and her life is over now and waaaah! it’s all unfair.
I’m getting a vibe here that “it’s not how good a hand you have; it’s how well you play what you got”. Which is why Zoe would make a better hero than River, for instance. Right?
I’m a bit surprised no one here has mentioned Mattie Ross yet…
Right.
As for Mattie Ross, from a rare feminist who sees the ‘strong means acting like men’ issue:
“As we know, all people regardless of gender are capable of the entire range of human behaviours but since we live in a male dominated, male centered society traits stereotypically identified as masculine are most valued and consequentially more celebrated by Hollywood while traits stereotypically identified as feminine are undervalued and often denigrated.
This maybe one of the reasons why people are quick to adopt Mattie as a feminist character and other female pop culture characters who are considered strong and tough. The feminism I subscribe to and work for involves more then women and our fictional representations simply acting like men or unquestioningly replicating archetypal male values such being emotionally inexpressive, the need for domination and competition, and the using violence as a form of conflict resolution.
In my feminist vision, part of what makes a character feminist is watching her struggle with prioritizing values such as cooperation, empathy, compassion, and non violent conflict resolution in a world largely hostile to those values.”
Whole thing here: http://www.feministfrequency.com/2011/03/true-grit-mattie-ross-and-feminism/
As good a read as that article was, I can’t help but see some flaws in it, that make me wonder if I’m not quite getting her message, or if it’s even the case that she doesn’t know what she wants.
One: she requires character growth in a feminist character. To me, that’s not a trait of a feminist; that’s a trait of a character. And it’s not even a trait of all characters; stories are littered with characters that don’t grow over the arc of the story, but simply achieve.
Two: she laments “women who simply act like men” or adopt stereotypical male characteristics. Then she cites a few (e.g. conflict resolution through violence). Well, okay. But why are these “male” to her? They’re not male to me. They’re human. Sometimes you just have to punch a dude. If you do it justifiably and you have a vagina, I’m not going to think you’re a guy; I’m going to think you’re a person who does what needs to be done.
Which makes me think it’s not so much that she’s bothered by women behaving like men as she is by women behaving in a way she disapproves. To be fair, she may have covered this in an earlier entry and I’m simply missing some context. But for now, that’s the way this one entry reads.
Thank you. I didn’t have time to write that, especially point one, in her comments this morning. I felt bad about that, and now you’ve saved me the time. I’ve not read all of her stuff, but I do know that the not-quite-knowing-what-they-want is common on feminist blogs. Her confusion stood out for me as just another example of that. I stuck it in my Evernote notebook for if untrue use in that context.
By the way, Ari, I’m liking Evernote so far, though I’m not using it well yet.
My favorite was Dale Arden in the original Flash Gordon book, not that wet kleenex in the remakes. That dates wayyyyy back.
Feminazies would hate it, though. She really loved Flash, and acted like it.
“Grizzly deaths”??? No bears were harmed in the filming of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
You forget Rapunzel from “Tangled.” Her physical prowess is limited — she’s mainly capable of doing Indiana Jones style whip-like things with her long hair. While she has a power, it makes her vulnerable. Her main weapons are charisma, empathy, and courage. She stands up to the thugs and then wins them over by drawing out of them what it is they really want out of life. She stops Max from taking Flynn by standing up against him but with courage and charisma, not with violence. She has developed talents — drawing, dancing, intelligence — other than what was just given to her at birth. And she and Flynn/Eugene both show sacrificial love for one another.
Xena, the Warrior Princess would be my pick.
What no Sookie Stackhouse?
The book Sookie, not the Anna Paquin sookie.
It’s always the book one, isn’t it? Is there any character that has been better on screen than in novel?
Regarding plottiness. Okay, first off, without the first 2/3 of Twilight being a social comedy, the last 1/3 of the book doesn’t happen. You don’t have dates with your hamburger, now do you?
Second, emotional whosis and whatsis. A female doesn’t really need to go our into the world, jump over stuff, practice aikido ten hours a day, shout slogans, all that. She just has to talk to a boy, and then be available physically. That’s it. That’ll get her to sup-plot, life’n'death maneuvers, and a sequel. The action-y stuff will likely keep that from happening- lack of body-fat, unapproachability, general stupidity.
If you want it to be a happy enough book, in fact, you need to throttle back on the independence. ” I can do everything myself” leads you down that primrose single-motherhood path. That’s a short second book, more or less. Teen suicide, teens murder rate, and teen drug abuse, pretty much only appears when you’ve got a single mom.
The approachability bit: old school advice: smile, say hi, say something nice, guard your virtue, but go out with every nice guy- who knows- he might be the one!– is very doormat looking these days. Or considered slutty, since everyone assumes you are having sex with every guy you go out with.
The non- approachability bit- be so busy doing self-improving girl-group activities, and so bouncy and loud, that no guy can find time in your schedule for him, or he’s deafened by the slogans, or you are snarling at him at the bar. And, you’re at a bar in the first place.Drinking beer, getting a beer gut. The old school girl thing was one half-alcoholic drink cut with juice, in a big glass with lots of ice. You could hold sober and not look like a dork, for hours.
The physical stuff- notice how SMGellar had to retire, and hang out, and put on some weight to get pregnant, when she got married in real life? Most women, losing weight is probably a good first step, but for athletes? 10 pounds wouldn’t kill them.
and, again, sub-plots and life’n'death. katie allison granju writes in slate, or salon, about natural childbirth. The guy who tried to popularize it in the west had the idea of a quiet, heroic birth, or dead. Really- it’s in his books ” joining the ancestors.” Lots of women keep trying this whole natural childbirth thing, like they are trying to prove something. I think only in the last few years, with mom-blogging, that they are saying ” Hey, I ripped up my lower half…” C-sections- while they lead to babies- are extensive abdominal surgery. Most people get drama when they get cut from stem to stern and survive, but this is just ‘every day, worth every minute’ “so happy” ( vicodin for weeks)
Women, being women, have hair-raising adventures just doing every day sorts of things.
Very true about woman having adventures in normal life. I had 8 kids naturally (7 home births.) The third born in Mexico in a small tourist town in the mountains at the missionary doctors house. We lived in a log cabin for 9 months with no running water or electricity. I homeschooled all my kids and they had garden variety adventures too. My friends all say I could write a book of the stories. Another friend IS writing a book of the funny things our kids say in ordinary converstaion (well, our kids are very not ordinary, and very literate, so they don’t have any ‘ordinary conversations!’)
You haven’t seen courage until you raise 8 kids as a single homeschooling mom after your husband leaves you with the youngest age one!
This why I am glad someone mentioned Anne Shirley and Sarah Crewe.Real women heroes are not stereotypically feminine fainting wallflowers, but they are not butt-kicking action heroes either.
So glad someone brought up Firefly. Zoe seems to me to be totally typical feminist fodder, but Inarra is uber feminine while staying master of any situation. I’m not a fan of her profession, but she definitely gets my vote for real girl power. Kaylee is pretty awesome too. She super sweet and kind and has an eye for shiny ruffly dresses, and doesn’t jump into the fighting when she knows she’d just be in the way. It’s the men in Firelfy who really shine and fight stereotypes. Four totally diverse guys, each very brave, honorable and competent in his own way, and all respectful of women. (I’m ignoring Jayne, who is a jerk, but a funny one.)
How about Anne Sullivan? Blind, orphaned, braving 19th century eye surgery!She’d be awesome even if Hellen Keller never happened. And she is both a real person and a movie hero!
Well, as much as I highly recommend “Escaflowne,” it’s definitely not for kids (it is about a war after all, and contains its share of tragedy), though I believe older teens would find it enjoyable (if they’re watching the Lord of the Rings movies, then they’re likely ready for this). Akemi’s Anime World has it rated 13+ (“Though there isn’t anything particularly objectionable, quite a bit of violence and some mature themes lead to a 13-up rating
Violence: 3 – Not particularly gory, but there is a lot of death and destruction.
Nudity: 1 – Nothing particularly noteworthy.
Sex/Mature Themes: 2 – The romance is mostly light, but there are some mature themes.
Language: 1 – Relatively mild”). What makes so many people fall in love with the series is its unabashedly romantic fantasy setting and score, much unlike its contemporary Evangelion (which I found mostly twisted, I thought that studio had a much better giant-robot saga in “Gunbuster”–which has some great female characters by the way, though again not for kiddies, as far as I know the only series they’ve made that would tend to be family-friendly is “Petite Princess Yucie”).
And, yes I know what you mean about it being hard to find good anime for kids, there’s lots of it out there but not necessarily available to North American audiences sadly. Ghibli’s movies (like “Howl’s Moving Castle” you mentioned) are very available thanks to Disney (“My Neighbor Totoro” is my personal favorite, though they all tend to be family-friendly, except for “Princess Mononoke,” which is definitely aimed at older interest and sensibilities). However, when Geneon went belly-up, another Hayao Miyazaki treasure, the Japanese-Italian coproduction “Sherlock Hound” may have become hard to find. Hamtaro, World Masterpiece Theater, Sgt. Frog, Strawberry Marshmallow, Piano (great slice-of-life series of teenage girl struggling to come of age, though little kiddies might find it boring)–they aren’t often easy to find, sadly. However, I do have some suggestions. Try googling Right Stuf and RareFlix.com, they can have some obscure items available for ordering. Also, try Amazon.com, they not only have new and used items for a lot of out-of-stock items, but you can generally get some useful reviews (IMDb is another great on-line source for reviews). And there’s another possibility, you might try looking on-line to see if there might be an annual anime convention in your area (admittedly, they aren’t as widespread as Star Trek or comics conventions, but you would almost certainly find a great selection of videos to browse). One general rule of thumb if you’re looking at “Tenchi Muyo”–series of this and other related shows tend to be anything but family-friendly if they originally came out on video, but if they aired on TV in Japan or are in comics, they tend to be family-friendly (WARNING: this does NOT include Tenchi Muyo GXP, which is tied to the original videos and is as risque as anything they put out). I would highly recommend “Magical Project S”, even if it only came out in subtitles, because it is simply the excruciatingly laugh-out-loud funny sendup of the magical girl genera, as well as having a heart-tuggin trilogy of episodes between Pretty Sammy and her archfoe (unknowingly best friend). Don’t confuse it with the recent “Sasami’s Magical Girls Club”, which isn’t that bad with some characters of interest, but not the great ride that MPS is.
Alura: yeah, I KNOW! A little romance can be great for a series, but sometimes it just feels all wrong, and “What is this!?” was my reaction when I saw that happening in Season 2 (besides, they kept Princess Romelle and Sven from the first season, so they didn’t need to introduce romance into the storyline). And I think you put the finger on why Voltron has never had a satsifactory followup.
OOPS. This got misplaced down here somehow. Sorry.
I figured it out. Many thanks for the details. Will go hunting soon.
Bella Swan -ewwwwww! She is the worst possible heroine for preteen girtls, whom the Twilight books are aimed at. First of all the set-up is the most overused cliche possible: the teenage girl forced to relocate to a new school, with all the attendant angst and bitchiness. Antagonistic and secretive toward her parents, she get involved with a controlling boyfriend who likes to climb into her room and watch her sleep at night. GREAT model for the worst kind of relationship which young people interpret as “love.” Of course she’s so wonderful, though it’s not apparent why, that she becomes the object of competition between two aggressive men, both the leaders of gangs. I couldn’t even get past this point, which is only the first book.
Here’s a real heroine for you- Hermione Granger. Brilliant, loyal, brave, indefatigable, ethical. “The Witch of Her Age”. It was a disappointment to me that she didn’t become headmistress of Hogwarts in the final book.
Then of course there is a great heroine of my childhood: Sheena Queen of the Jungle, who ran around on tv in a very skimpy fur bikini protecting her wild kingdom against some really bad guys in pith helmets.
Almost invariably, anyone complaining about Bella Swan has not read all of the books, although most get further than you did. The most typical stopping point is Bella’s depression after Edward leaves in book 2. Strangely these readers often cite how Buffy wouldn’t wallow like that even though from “Anne” to midway through season 3 Buffy does just that. Stopping in the middle of New Moon is kinda like stopping when Buffy runs away from home and ends up in a dimension for lost souls. If you only watched Buffy to that point, would you have a full picture of her character? Or why does Bella’s going through the motions repel readers, while Buffy’s going through the motions (not only after Angel, but also after her resurrection) is seen as growth?
I nominate “MAYA” in Zero Dark Thirty, memorably played by Jessica Chastain. Forget the President, this was the gal with the balls to catch Osama.
You’d want to add that to the real “Maya” as related by “Mark Owen” in No Easy Day. The real version is definitely a girly-girl as he remarks on her well-coiffed, designer-outfitted appearance. She’s an analyst, not a gunslinger and doesn’t pretend to be what she isn’t. She wins the respect of the SEALS’s and they develop a brotherly affection for her. When Osama’s corpse is flown to the carrier they have to coax her over to take a look up close at the object of her decade-long Ahab-like obsession, finally harpooned, and she does have a weepy breakdown.
Buffy is underrated — she’s the Chosen one, the Slayer. What an unimaginative choice.
I choose the heroine from Spritied Away – The film tells the story of Chihiro Ogino, a sullen ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood, enters an alternate reality inhabited by spirits and monsters.After her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba, Chihiro takes a job working in Yubaba’s bathhouse to find a way to free herself and her parents and escape to the human world. She has to use her wits and find the inner strength and courage to survive in a world she has no chance of surviving.
Also, let’s not forget Mrs Incredible aka Elasti-Girl. Just look at how she handles having her plane blown out of the sky, saving her kids, and getting them to safety. That’s not just being a heroine, it’s being an incredible (tongue is in cheek) mom and leader too.
Is Elasti-Girl not on this comment thread? If not, she’s on the overrated heroines thread.
I’ll have to check out Spirited Away.
And Buffy is complicated. Overrated in one sense, underrated in the other. See the companion piece to this one.