Female character meme 1-4
I can never do this once a day posting, so I'm going to do this like I do other memes.
Day One: Favorite lead female character
Jane Tennison from Prime Suspect
”You know, it'd be a huge miscalculation to undermine my authority.”
One of the very, very rare gems in the flood of crap on television. A female anti-hero who gets to save the day but not herself!
She is still terribly unique as a female character because she's not a female character. She's a character, a person. Jane Tennison doesn't give a crap about what it means to be A Woman unless it causes her some pain in the ass such as having to handle idiots, sexism and unwanted pregnancy. Frankly, we have lots and lots of female characters who are proud to be women (and who all define what it means to be a Woman in various ways). We have very few female characters who are completely indifferent to their genitals and their sex appeal and I love Jane Tennison so madly because she is one of the happy few. She fights relentlessly for herself in a male-centred work-place and raises hell if her competence is not acknowledged.
Jane is wonderfully flawed: brilliant, uncompromising and fucked up and utterly unable to correct her own worst mistakes. She's self-centred, drinks too much, smokes too much, pushes people away and buries herself in her job. The show brilliantly shows the twisted appeal of this too: men want to be with her and she wants to be with them, too, but they're never the most important people in her life so they leave, one by one. She can have the best of intentions but she still never comes through for anyone, unless it's job-related and she may feel guilty about it but at the end of the day, she truly expects people to understand that they can't be as important as her job is to her. I really appreciate how that aspect is handled and that she's just as inexplicably desirable as a similar male character would have been.
By the end of the series Jane breaks my heart because she's lonely in such an ugly way, barren of all traces of romanticism. She's not sad because she's an old woman who hasn't got a family - she made the choice long ago not to have one - which is alarmingly often the case with female characters. She's sad because she's screwed up her life and you can't really see how it could have been much different either although you wish it because you don't want anyone to sit all alone in a bar with nothing left. And yet, if anyone can handle that bleak prospect, it's Jane. She doesn't want your pity.
Jane Tennison goes where few female characters are allowed to go and Helen Mirren, of course, is amazing in every detail and every scene.
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
I think she actually counts as one of the main characters, but this is an ensemble show so she's not the lead. Whatever.
Kara Thrace on Battlestar Galactica
”Me in a dress is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
I didn't want to include her since I'm not yet done with the show (haven't watched Season 4 yet) but then I thought it would be weird to leave her (and my answer to #3 below) out. That said, I'm aware my opinion of her might change and I'm not going to say a lot about her other than this:
I loved her the moment I saw her, but the thing that really sold her to me completely and utterly was the revelation of how she bears the guilt for Zak's death. It's just so human and flawed and oh, Starbuck. I also adore her relationship with Col. Tigh and - to a lesser extent - Adama.
And then she goes and escapes from that moon (?) in a Cylon ship and my heart grew twenty sizes. It's so devastatingly rare to have a scene like her return - complete with people who risk everything because they Belive in the Hero, to grumpy ones like Tigh shaking his head in impressed disbelief - where the hero is a woman. SO RARE. And she gets to return being all “yeah, I did it cause I'm AWESOME.”
♥
Day Three: A character you had to learn to love
Ellen Tigh on Battlestar Galactica.
“You don't want to frak with me, Bill. Try to remember that.”
I admit, the first time she appeared on the show I was underwhelmed. Such a boring cliché, I thought. But then the show started giving me glimpses of the woman behind that annoying Evil Seductress crap and I got a deeper understanding of her. And I haven't even watched season 4 yet so don't spoil me but the fact that the only time I've cried so far on the show was during the scenes with Ellen and Saul on New Caprica says something.
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Elinor Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility
“What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering?”
All my life, I've felt like Elinor does when her temperament is clashing against Marianne's and Marianne deems her dispassionate and heartless. I think part of the reason I loved the Ang Lee adaptation so much is because it pinpointed this and made me realise it. Elinor is rational and calm, logical and reserved and my favourite portrayal of her is Emma Thompson's because it goes straight into my heart - yes, Mariannes of the world, you're not the only ones who feel things but you blather so much about your feelings that nobody else gets a say - and makes me smile.
Emma Thompson makes Elinor funny and sarcastic, intelligent and strong while keeping her own personal feelings bottled up inside. She's the period drama version of all my favourite characters who are all doomed to be trapped in a world full of passionate, emotionally driven Mariannes flailing about with their hearts on their sleeves, FEELING things and setting the rules for how people ought to react. Elinors of the world are the ones to handle the consequences of drama, plot the course and carry everyone through. We don't faint and weep in public, we excuse ourselves and go clench our teeth in private. And occasionally we burst into hysteric fits when we get something we long since stopped hoping for and things just work out, for a change.
All the days are here:
Day One: Favorite lead female character
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
Day Three: A female character you hated but grew to love
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Day Five: Favorite female character on a male-driven show
Day Six: Favorite female-driven show
Day Seven: A female character that needs more screen time
Day Eight: Favorite female character in a comedy show
Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
Day Ten: Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show
Day Twelve: Favorite female character in a movie
Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book
Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character
Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Day Sixteen: Favorite mother character
Day Seventeen: Favorite warrior female character
Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character
Day Nineteen: Favorite non-human female character
Day Twenty: Favorite female antagonist
Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon
Day Twenty-Two: Favorite female character you love but everyone else hates
Day Twenty-Three: Favorite female platonic relationship
Day Twenty-Four: Favorite female romantic relationship
Day Twenty-Five: Favorite mother/daughter and/or sister relationship
Day Twenty-Six: Favorite classical female character (from pre-20th century literature or mythology or the like)
Day Twenty-Seven: A female character you have extensive personal canon for
Day Twenty-Eight: Favorite female writer (television, books, movies, etc.)
Day Twenty-Nine: A female-centric fic rec
Day Thirty: Whatever you'd like!
Day One: Favorite lead female character
Jane Tennison from Prime Suspect
”You know, it'd be a huge miscalculation to undermine my authority.”
One of the very, very rare gems in the flood of crap on television. A female anti-hero who gets to save the day but not herself!
She is still terribly unique as a female character because she's not a female character. She's a character, a person. Jane Tennison doesn't give a crap about what it means to be A Woman unless it causes her some pain in the ass such as having to handle idiots, sexism and unwanted pregnancy. Frankly, we have lots and lots of female characters who are proud to be women (and who all define what it means to be a Woman in various ways). We have very few female characters who are completely indifferent to their genitals and their sex appeal and I love Jane Tennison so madly because she is one of the happy few. She fights relentlessly for herself in a male-centred work-place and raises hell if her competence is not acknowledged.
Jane is wonderfully flawed: brilliant, uncompromising and fucked up and utterly unable to correct her own worst mistakes. She's self-centred, drinks too much, smokes too much, pushes people away and buries herself in her job. The show brilliantly shows the twisted appeal of this too: men want to be with her and she wants to be with them, too, but they're never the most important people in her life so they leave, one by one. She can have the best of intentions but she still never comes through for anyone, unless it's job-related and she may feel guilty about it but at the end of the day, she truly expects people to understand that they can't be as important as her job is to her. I really appreciate how that aspect is handled and that she's just as inexplicably desirable as a similar male character would have been.
By the end of the series Jane breaks my heart because she's lonely in such an ugly way, barren of all traces of romanticism. She's not sad because she's an old woman who hasn't got a family - she made the choice long ago not to have one - which is alarmingly often the case with female characters. She's sad because she's screwed up her life and you can't really see how it could have been much different either although you wish it because you don't want anyone to sit all alone in a bar with nothing left. And yet, if anyone can handle that bleak prospect, it's Jane. She doesn't want your pity.
Jane Tennison goes where few female characters are allowed to go and Helen Mirren, of course, is amazing in every detail and every scene.
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
I think she actually counts as one of the main characters, but this is an ensemble show so she's not the lead. Whatever.
Kara Thrace on Battlestar Galactica
”Me in a dress is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
I didn't want to include her since I'm not yet done with the show (haven't watched Season 4 yet) but then I thought it would be weird to leave her (and my answer to #3 below) out. That said, I'm aware my opinion of her might change and I'm not going to say a lot about her other than this:
I loved her the moment I saw her, but the thing that really sold her to me completely and utterly was the revelation of how she bears the guilt for Zak's death. It's just so human and flawed and oh, Starbuck. I also adore her relationship with Col. Tigh and - to a lesser extent - Adama.
And then she goes and escapes from that moon (?) in a Cylon ship and my heart grew twenty sizes. It's so devastatingly rare to have a scene like her return - complete with people who risk everything because they Belive in the Hero, to grumpy ones like Tigh shaking his head in impressed disbelief - where the hero is a woman. SO RARE. And she gets to return being all “yeah, I did it cause I'm AWESOME.”
♥
Day Three: A character you had to learn to love
Ellen Tigh on Battlestar Galactica.
“You don't want to frak with me, Bill. Try to remember that.”
I admit, the first time she appeared on the show I was underwhelmed. Such a boring cliché, I thought. But then the show started giving me glimpses of the woman behind that annoying Evil Seductress crap and I got a deeper understanding of her. And I haven't even watched season 4 yet so don't spoil me but the fact that the only time I've cried so far on the show was during the scenes with Ellen and Saul on New Caprica says something.
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Elinor Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility
“What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering?”
All my life, I've felt like Elinor does when her temperament is clashing against Marianne's and Marianne deems her dispassionate and heartless. I think part of the reason I loved the Ang Lee adaptation so much is because it pinpointed this and made me realise it. Elinor is rational and calm, logical and reserved and my favourite portrayal of her is Emma Thompson's because it goes straight into my heart - yes, Mariannes of the world, you're not the only ones who feel things but you blather so much about your feelings that nobody else gets a say - and makes me smile.
Emma Thompson makes Elinor funny and sarcastic, intelligent and strong while keeping her own personal feelings bottled up inside. She's the period drama version of all my favourite characters who are all doomed to be trapped in a world full of passionate, emotionally driven Mariannes flailing about with their hearts on their sleeves, FEELING things and setting the rules for how people ought to react. Elinors of the world are the ones to handle the consequences of drama, plot the course and carry everyone through. We don't faint and weep in public, we excuse ourselves and go clench our teeth in private. And occasionally we burst into hysteric fits when we get something we long since stopped hoping for and things just work out, for a change.
All the days are here:
Day One: Favorite lead female character
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
Day Three: A female character you hated but grew to love
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Day Five: Favorite female character on a male-driven show
Day Six: Favorite female-driven show
Day Seven: A female character that needs more screen time
Day Eight: Favorite female character in a comedy show
Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
Day Ten: Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show
Day Twelve: Favorite female character in a movie
Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book
Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character
Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Day Sixteen: Favorite mother character
Day Seventeen: Favorite warrior female character
Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character
Day Nineteen: Favorite non-human female character
Day Twenty: Favorite female antagonist
Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon
Day Twenty-Two: Favorite female character you love but everyone else hates
Day Twenty-Three: Favorite female platonic relationship
Day Twenty-Four: Favorite female romantic relationship
Day Twenty-Five: Favorite mother/daughter and/or sister relationship
Day Twenty-Six: Favorite classical female character (from pre-20th century literature or mythology or the like)
Day Twenty-Seven: A female character you have extensive personal canon for
Day Twenty-Eight: Favorite female writer (television, books, movies, etc.)
Day Twenty-Nine: A female-centric fic rec
Day Thirty: Whatever you'd like!