No interesting female characters, my ass

[darkemeralds]

Do yourself and your heart and mind a favor, and go take a look at this wonderful post by copracat, featuring icons of strong female characters.

Then peruse the comments, where lots more awesome women characters are represented. It made my day.

Comments

[executrix]

While I agree that it's a fabulous post, I think there are arguments from both the left and the right on this. Not just "I don't want Girl Cooties in my TV show!" but "Just giving a woman a machine gun is no substitute for a character with history, agency, credible motivations, and lines that are not limited to Repeating Everything The Computer Says."

Also, I think that RL women are awesome in a tremendous variety of ways, and TV seldom shows that. Some heroes kick people in the face. Some refuse to move to the back of the bus. Some come up with a solution to the crisis that keeps anybody from getting killed. Some discover vaccines. Some make sculptures. Some of them raise six kids with little money and less help. We're a lot more likely to see the first kind on TV than the others (admittedly, because a lot of important things are really hard to dramatize well).

[darkemeralds]

Can't disagree with a word you say. My own reaction to the array of images in that post--being that they are explicitly journal icons and of a fannish nature--was to begin enumerating all the female characters I could think of. I looked through all the groupings and started spotting lots that weren't covered.

In short, the post oriented my mind and internal perceptions more clearly to the presence of excellent female depictions, even if they were minor roles, one-shot guest spots, or Red Shirts of various kinds.

It made me realize how much difference it makes (to me, personally) just to see women represented in media in ANY role that isn't as an object of the male gaze.

I was thinking this morning on my way to work (listening to an old BBC Radio dramatization of Fellowship of the Ring) about the first time I ever heard a woman's voice on the radio. When I was a little kid, I honestly believed that women simply couldn't talk on the radio--that it was not possible. I remember how startled I was to hear my first female DJ.

It's good to remember sometimes how much things have changed in my lifetime.

[executrix]

Even though there is no possible way I could care less about spectator sports, I still feel good when I see a woman sportscaster on TV.

[darkemeralds]

Precisely. (And I have to hand it to the kind of female sports interviewer who braves the locker room with aplomb...and a microphone)

[alexseanchai]

I so needed this today. Thanks.

[darkemeralds]

\o/

[sporky_rat]

The only person I haven't seen represented (and I can't believe I don't have an icon of her either) is Warrent Officer Ellen Ripley.

She kicks ALL the patriarchy.

[darkemeralds]

Good heavens. Could Ripley really be missing? That must be remedied stat!

[sporky_rat]

Or Sarah Conner from the original Terminator/Terminator 2.

[darkemeralds]

The iconic hard-ass female image of the 80s.

[sporky_rat]

Not the best Riply icon, but she'll do for now.

[darkemeralds]

Oh, lovely! Both of them look so...businesslike. \o/

(Are they up for sharing? I would love to use them, with credit.)

[sporky_rat]

Oh sure.

(When do they not businesslike?)

[darkemeralds]

Thanks!

And yeah, these women always mean business.

[alex_beecroft]

I don't recognize many of those characters. Perhaps I should do a grid of my own. It would certainly have my icon in it. I can't believe they missed out Ivanova!

[sporky_rat]

I knew I forgot someone!

[alex_beecroft]

I love her "God sent me" speech. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8oF0i5nvPI

She had got to the point where she could completely carry even that off. Positively magnificent while always believably human.

[darkemeralds]

AWE. SOME.

[darkemeralds]

There was an Ivanova in there somewhere--one of the groupings in the comments had an Ivanova icon. She was a wonderful character!

And you should by all means do a selection of your own. I've begun collecting more female-character icons and it's really opening my eyes.

[alex_beecroft]

I've done one here,
http://alex-beecroft.livejournal.com/204233.html?#cutid1
but I seem to be missing icons for a lot of other characters I also like. I know I had an Eowyn one, and as people have reminded me I could do with a Ripley, Sarah Connor, Lara Croft and River Song one as well. (Not to mention Tiffany Aching and pretty much all of Pratchett's female characters.)