Poll Time! What Makes a Female Character "Strong"?

[latetothpartyhp]

So after stumbling upon yet another rant about how misogynistic fandom is towards a "strong female character" I never found particularly interesting, my first impulse was to comment with the usual "I don't think that word means what you think it means." But that would have been kind of judge-y -- who am I, after all, to decide what "strong" means

Comments

[jlvsclrk]

Fascinating questions. I think the one about characteristics perhaps should have been a ticky box, but it was very interesting to have to choose between the listed options (all I which are somewhat relevant) to give what I consider the most crucial element. I choose emotional maturity, because for me that's one of the key differences between masculine strength (traditionally viewed as rigid) and a more feminine sensibility, where you bent but don't break. Shit happens - its how you deal with it that counts.

As for romance, certainly there can be romance - why shouldn't there be? But it doesn't define the character. Buffy is a vampire slayer first, a vampire lover second.

[latetothpartyhp]

Hm. I thought I had created that question so respondents could check more than one response

[purple_moon123]

While I was going through the questions I kept think of female characters from Smallville, Legend of the Seeker, The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural. And every time I would think of SV I would go the opposite to what I was thinking with characters of other shows. Especially with the last question about female friendships mostly cuz SV couldn't write female friendships even if it bit them in the ass.

[latetothpartyhp]

Yeah, when I was thinking about how I'd answer these questions I'd preface all my thoughts with "Unlike on SV!". The sad part about that show is that I think they tried. For instance, I think we were supposed to see Tess as very complex and tormented, and God knows Cassidy Freeman did a bang-up job trying to convey that, but as written she just became a incoherent mess of whatever qualities the plot needed in a given week.

[babydee1]

I think the problem with most shows is that they have a successful season, get renewed, start struggling to fill in more episodes than they ever dreamed of or anticipated...and then employ more writers, sometimes even a completely different team from the one that made the earlier seasons a success. The result is dropped plot points, retcons, shipper-based storylines and complete recharacterisation/character regression until the story becomes completely unrecognisable. Shows that come to mind for me are Smallville, Heroes, Glee and Charmed.

Like Jen, I'd have loved to see multiple choice options for the elements/characteristics of a strong heroine. :-)

Interesting poll, thanks for posting!

[latetothpartyhp]

I agree, the shows that seem to have the most consistent characterization are the ones that get cancelled early or have a show-runner with a very strong vision. I think specifically of Firefly (got cancelled early and Whedon's still in charge of the comics), Mad Men (Weiner seems like a real control freak from everything I've read) and The Killing (U.S. version, which benefits from having a very tight story).

Of course, it helps that all of these shows feature(d) lots of women who do (and did) lots of cool things, like chase bad guys and design ad campaigns for beans.

I really did think I had created that question to allow the user to select multiple options, but sadly I can't figure out how to edit the poll. I'll probably add a multi-answer options in a different post.

[legendarytobes]

Out of curiosity can I ask where u saw this lol

[latetothpartyhp]

ONTD. It devolved into one of the usual "But this character is AWESOME!" vs. "No, she's just a basic bitch" type fights. The main problem, in my mind, was that the show runner didn't bother to give this character any story other than as a love interest to his male protagonist, so there were lots of people either supporting or complaining about the ship rather than discussing the character (go figure).

[simi24]

I surprised myself with some of my responses. That really was an interesting poll and it makes for an interesting question, What makes a "strong" female character strong?
Who would make a great example of a "strong" female character?