My thoughts on Girrrrrrl Power (fictional female characters on television I like and admire)

[koalathebear]

Yesterday, I was giving someone some Supernatural fic recs and I went to make sure I'd recommended the correct author. While I was there, I noticed that the person had written a lot of posts about Bones in her journal. I was really delighted until I realised that she was only watching the show because of David Boreanaz and absolutely hated the

Comments

[bennet_7]

Interesting post Koala. It's interesting to me how female characters can be so divisive in fandom (more so than male characters) - I've really noticed it with VM where a lot of the fans just hate Veronica now.

And on an entirely different subject, have you ever watched the US version of The Office?

[koalathebear]

I haven't watched either of The Office's unfortunately, but I gather that it's slightly black humour and I frequently am not very good with black humour :D I kind of see the gloomy black bit and the humour flies right by on fleeting wings of irony :D

[alexandral]

EEEEE! Girl Power!!!

6. I love the cliché of the woman being better than her male peers in a male-dominated area. Female pilot, female on a boy's hockey team - you catch my drift.

I agree with many of your points, but this cliche is making me a little angry recently (And there it is the same with number 3). I will try to explain why, if I can. What worries me is that in some perverse way it is gender discrimination. This somehow implies that to be considered a valuable person a woman have to be BETTER then a man in some area which she is not even suited to physically. And whatever they show in films, when RL marital arts are concerned a trained man will always win a trained woman (and this is why they don't even attempt to put a man against a woman in sports like boxing , because this is obvious).

[koalathebear]

I agree with you, and I suppose the reason why I like it is that it is pure fantasy, along with a man being able to fly through the air with a cape, so and so having super powers. :D I studied judo for six years and when you're a kid, girls and boys are the same. Unfortunately, when I got to around 15/16 and the guys were all hitting their growth spurts and getting bigger - it was like you said, trained guy will be able to defeat trained girl. Martial arts help a woman when she's highly trained and against a man who is either not trained or who is less trained than her. If you pit a woman and a man against each other of equal training, chances are the guy will win unless the woman pulls a swift one on him. It's even the case for martial arts that were designed especially for woemn, eg wing chun. It's sad but true :'( Soooooooooo, i think it's my inner frustrated ninja that adores seeing kickass females on the screen who can whip a dozen guys with their awesome martial art powers ;) Guilty pleasure, unrealistic I know :D

[alexandral]

I don't see it necessarily as implying a value judgment that a woman has to be better than a man to be as good as a man.

But why then we have so many kick-ass heroines? What I think - many people they only like heroine if she is able to be able to do this. How many heroines are out there who are not exceptionally good at marital arts but who are an exceptional person whom the young girls will want to follow, to make their idol? How did this happen? What happened to being a good mother?? To the inner-qualities? The media of today is trying to masculinise female characters, IMHO. If it was more balanced I could have liked it, may be. But not all the time.

For example - from the top of my head I can't remember any heroine in the recent Western media who is not "better then a man in a man's field" and who creates a cult to follow. Women are either objects of possession for men, or they HAVE to be better to be noticed.

[alexandral]

I apologise so much - I got carried away!! It is really one of my bee-in-the-bonnet things. :D

[shadowserenity]

I love your summary of Elizabeth. She's much cooler than she's written most times.

I don't have anything else to add because I completely agree with you - especially with your list of essential traits (although once I like a character, I like how they look too. I love what sets them apart from everyone else. Like with Elizabeth, she's not pretty pretty, but she's beautiful all the same).

[koalathebear]

I'm happy that you also like her. I know so many people don't like her. I think she's one of the more frequently criticised characters on SGA but I do like having a strong, female character who isn't all militant and kung fuey :D

I'm always amazed at how difference Elizabeth is from the actress. The actress comes across as kind of airheady and always widening her eyes, and Elizabeth is so calm and serene :D I wish I had that kind of poise and composure!

[weissman]

That was pretty cool and as usual very insightful. ou know who my favorate character is, but that's too easy.

Bob

[koalathebear]

Yes, your crush on Roslin is common knowledge around the traps ...

;)

[weissman]

:) :)

Funny, as Bob has soda come out his nose.

Bob

[ancarett]

A great post! I would add that I find I cannot be a fan for shows where there isn't at least one compelling female character. Supernatural doesn't interest me at all because I know there aren't any women characters in the leads. Once upon a time, Quantum Leap left me cold for the same reason.

[koalathebear]

I agree - there are very few shows that I like that have no strong female characters. Heroes might be an exception because it's such a strong ensemble cast that I can cope with the fact that the two lead females are kind of ho hum.