It would depend on your definition of "feminist". In my head, while Alisa may not be herself feminist, her character is an indication of progressive thought - that it could just as easily have been a boy, but it was a girl, instead. (Not that I have any idea, never having read them.)
For a shoddy analogy along racial lines, see Up. The boy didn't have to be Asian. But damned if I wasn't deeply happy to not see Yet Another White Person on the screen.
Or, see also Ripley, in the first Alien movie. She not only could have been a man, the script was written as though Ripley were a man, so far as I'm led to understand. From her wiki page
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In my head, while Alisa may not be herself feminist, her character is an indication of progressive thought - that it could just as easily have been a boy, but it was a girl, instead.
I'm not sure there's a way to identify a feminist character.
What might be more workable is to lay out the traits that we would associate with non-feminist characters, and designate feminist characters as defying these traits. i.e:
- Some non-feminist characters are spurred into action by their love of a man. Even if every other character in the book is motivated by something else (profit, adventure, right vs. wrong, etc.), the woman is only tagging along because her boyfriend/husband is in on it. - Some non-feminist characters are perpetually being rescued, and--by extension--perpetually putting themselves in harm's way for no reason other than plot advancement. - If the protagonist is a single man, and the non-feminist character is pretty, she will inevitably fall madly in love with him. Strong female characters, on the other hand, are never surrounded by roving harems of admirers.
Of course, after awhile it starts to look an awful lot like TV Tropes...
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It would depend on your definition of "feminist". In my head, while Alisa may not be herself feminist, her character is an indication of progressive thought - that it could just as easily have been a boy, but it was a girl, instead. (Not that I have any idea, never having read them.)
For a shoddy analogy along racial lines, see Up. The boy didn't have to be Asian. But damned if I wasn't deeply happy to not see Yet Another White Person on the screen.
Or, see also Ripley, in the first Alien movie. She not only could have been a man, the script was written as though Ripley were a man, so far as I'm led to understand. From her wiki page ( ... )
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I was going to say something similar.
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What might be more workable is to lay out the traits that we would associate with non-feminist characters, and designate feminist characters as defying these traits. i.e:
- Some non-feminist characters are spurred into action by their love of a man. Even if every other character in the book is motivated by something else (profit, adventure, right vs. wrong, etc.), the woman is only tagging along because her boyfriend/husband is in on it.
- Some non-feminist characters are perpetually being rescued, and--by extension--perpetually putting themselves in harm's way for no reason other than plot advancement.
- If the protagonist is a single man, and the non-feminist character is pretty, she will inevitably fall madly in love with him. Strong female characters, on the other hand, are never surrounded by roving harems of admirers.
Of course, after awhile it starts to look an awful lot like TV Tropes...
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