Good Series For Female Characters

[havocthecat]

So, in light of the recent wanking about mysogyny and gender (and also in light of recent discussions with cat_latin), I'm looking to make a list of good series for female characters. I've tried to include series that don't have any - or maybe not too many - skanky racial or gender issues (sorry Heroes and Gateverse), and which have well-done CoC as well

Comments

Re: ahem.

[havocthecat]

To be honest, I didn't include X-Files for a number of reasons, even though I adore Scully and Reyes both:

Maggie Scully was in only 16 eps of nearly 200. That's not to say she wasn't significant to Scully's life, but it wasn't enough of a showing for me, even though she was a strong female character. There's sort of a history of a lack of recurring female characters in the same number as there are recurring male characters as well. (Um, yes, I've been referring to the IMDB while typing up this comment.)

Melissa Scully was murdered (after 4 eps). She was awesome, and then she died. As did Marrita (10 eps), who was apparently, also evil. And Phoebe Green (only 1 ep, so no IMDB listing for her in the XF character list) was also evil and a bitch, and yet they made a specific point of showing how integral she was to Mulder's life because she was so mean to him. As was Diana Fowley (only 7 eps), IIRC. Mulder's ex, and evil, because apparently all of Mulder's exes turn out to be evil?

Scully was kidnapped by aliens, which ended up being - not entirely, but a lot - about how Mulder was affected by Scully's loss, and then when she came back, there was a huge plot arc (after the cancer arc) about how they took her ovaries, and she can't have babies, and so on, and so forth, and-- It was a complicated version of rape as character motivator, which is a turn-off right away for me.

The entire series' premise is all about how Samantha's kidnapping affected Mulder. (Young Samantha, 5 eps, adult Samantha, 4 eps, for a total of 9 eps.) Now, you can argue a good point that Mulder is one of the main characters of the series, except that it's a bad start to a series when there's a female character who got shoved in a refrigerator years ago, timeline-wise. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this letter from Gail Simone. Also the wiki article is good.)

Plus there was the time that Scully tried to do her own thing, and went on her vacation, but she was essentially punished for doing that and for having sex when the guy she had a one night stand with (I can't remember his name, sorry) went batshit insane and tried to kill her (so he could subsequently cut her into pieces and incinerate her body), and all the "Oh, Mulder..." of the later seasons. Also, I adore Reyes, but her unrequited longing for Doggett got on my nerves.

Now! That's not to say you don't have good points. You do. I personally thought that XF could go either way, and decided that I didn't feel right putting it on the list.

Re: ahem.

[azarsuerte]

*nod* Pretty much everything you mention here (and a few other things) were the reason why the Harem of X-Files Other Women Defenders was created. Aside from Scully, the female characters in that show were so marginalized that the instant one of them appeared on screen, unless she was related to Scully, she was instantly hated by the fandom as a "threat" to the MSR. To me, that does not indicate that the show was *at all* empowering of women, especially since so often they justified the fans' hate by turning the characters evil in the end (a la Marita and Diana, although Marita actually *didn't* die--she was alive in the series finale).

Re: ahem.

[havocthecat]

Oh, crap, you're right, Marrita didn't die. X died. (Yes, let's kill off the black man. The one who was interesting, and mysterious, and had his own motives for doing things that didn't necessarily all involve being the Magical Negro stereotype. *sigh* Good move, XF producers.)

Nothing else to say to the rest of your comment but: Yes. Sad, but true.