On strong women...

[miss_atom]

Prepare yourself because this is going to be totally meta and breathtakingly wise :D (lol, at this point please take a moment to not over-estimate the intelligence of my ramblings)

I have spent some time thinking recently about what ~type of woman~ I want to be and what my personal strengths and weaknesses are. Now, unsurprisingly, my head

Comments

[everythingshiny]

i know this is a lameass comment on that huge post, but the "strong female character" doesn't exist. but there are millions of strong female characters to look up too on tv. and buffy was both strong AND girly AND she had a family AND she dealt with shit AND she loved.

There aren't many female characters on TV i don't think are strong IN SOME WAY.

[miss_atom]

I agree.

It's just that I see all these posts bahing women for being weak or 'bitches'. I mean every week I see 'I wish betty draper would die in a fire' on my tumblr dash and I just think GRRRRR.

Then this unusually long post came out.

[everythingshiny]

arrrgh. misogyny amoung women is the worst thing.

[duh_i_read]

Surely all fiction is about representing an idea of the real world, using it as a vehicle for opinions and new ideas.

I've only herd talk of this flow chart, but not that i see it, i'm less then impressed. I mean, i see what they are trying to do, but way to dismiss so many female characters.

I can't help but love female characters a lot of people hate and minor characters no one remembers but me.

[miss_atom]

I love all women in the world. That flow chart sucks.

I can't help but love female characters a lot of people hate and minor characters no one remembers but me.

Me too! Sometimes it takes only 2 seconds of screen time and I have decided I love a character, then they never come back! haha!

[snapplesons]

I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ON THIS SUBJECT (as you might've guessed), BUT IT IS PAST MY BEDTIME. BACK TOMORROW.

[snapplesons]

Also, the lady I had for Feminist Fictions used to talk about how much she loved Buffy... but then she'd say she felt it was actually (and partially) unproductive to the values of feminism.

But I don't want to tell you why! Last time I told you about X-Files being sexist, it made you a little sad! (REMEMBER, OMG THAT WAS WHEN WE WERE IN LONDON TOGETHER. BEST TIME EVER.)

[miss_atom]

PLEASE SHARE. It did make me a little sad about xf :( my poor bb Scully but then I got over it because her awesome transcends lame writing!

Seriously though I am always interested in hearing a feminist perspective on pop culture!

(YES I REMEMBER THAT TIME. THE GOLDEN SUMMER OF MY YOUTH!! ILU)

[snapplesons]

(When I can't get up for work tomorrow, I'm blaming it on you! I should've been sleeping by now

[derevko_child]

I don't understand what people want. What is a strong female character? I mean, seriously. They have so many definitions that it just borders on ridiculous because there aren't a lot of women like that in real life. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be looking for strong women in fiction, but sometimes, the expectations are just so high, it's like, you're just bound to fail.

I actually find Olivia Dunham a strong woman. And there's kinda a reason why she's like that (I'm not going to spoil you because I want you to watch the series *wiggles brows*)

I know a lot of this doesn't necessarily apply to my flist and none of this is a criticism of any of you. I know so many of you love flawed female characters; you love Adelle and Irina, Laura 'Air-lock' Roslin and Sophie Devereaux, Helen Magnus and Dana Scully, and Cara and Kara!

I know everybody in this list (AND I LOVE THEM TO BITS) and if I watched Sanctuary and LotS, I know I'd love the Helen and Cara too!

[mareeana]

Honestly, I don't know that I've ever used the expression "Strong Female Character." I'm going to fall harder for one of the female characters on a show than for the others 99,9% of the time and I'm not really fussed about exactly how her awesomeness comes out. My definition of awesome encompasses a lot of things and it includes characters from Olivia Dunham to Sophie Devereaux (is she not a Strong Female Character then? This concept completely escapes me.) And I hate this supposed division into weak and strong. Which is basically what I took from this post: what the hell makes a character strong or weak?

Olivia Dunham though. That post making the rounds about how she was so much better than everyone because she didn't wear heels was misogynistic and it bothered me but it was not at all representative of the entire fandom (or of Olivia.) She is a flawed character. She's vulnerable and has an amazing speech about how she does bring emotion to her work and how that makes her better at her job. (With a bonus "men always say that about

[miss_atom]

THIS COMMENT IS, LIKE, A SUCCINCT WAY OF SAYING WHAT I MEANT.

this bothers me a lot because I get overly attached to so many of them and I love my bbs. And because misogyny in general makes me angry and I'm saddened to see how much of it comes from women.

Truth. I love the women character's I love and most of the time I don't know what it is that draws me to them. Just something. Then women characters actions are always overanalysed because apparently they have to conform to the idea of strength but nobody really knows to what that is. grrr. It's lose-lose-lose for women :((((

I, of course, meant no offense to Olivia and in my brief watching of Fringe I did like her it was just that that post made me cross. I am glad it isn't representative of the fandom.

I am often very tempted by mad men!

(AND SOPHIE DEVEREAUX IS THE BADDEST BADASS OUT DER. Peace.)