The persisting problem of what makes a heroine

[oursin]

Somewhat appositely, given matociquala's post yesterday and the rather similar meditation on badgerbag's blog, an article in today's Guardian on fictional female heroes.

I think this omits quite a lot of fondly remembered female figures, and rather disses on the stories in girls' comics (hello? the Silent Three? and other adventurous protags?). Were active heroines

Comments

[antisoppist]

She's also forgotten super-heroine Valda with her magic crystal and the secret of eternal life, though googling reveals her to have been in Mandy, which is odd, as I have no recollection of ever having read Mandy.

[ankaret]

Did she recharge herself by standing about in a bluish-white flame in a cave? Because I have definite memories of something along those lines.

Then again, I also have memories of a bizarrely Sheri S. Tepper like thing in which all boys were spirited off to live in barracks, so I might just be hallucinating.

[antisoppist]

I don't remember the cave but she did stand about in a very short dress holding her crystal up to the sun. Less the secret of eternal life and more the secret of solar-powered rechargable batteries.

[mrissa]

By the time she brings up Miss Piggy, she's lost me completely. If she was ever correct about how rare strong/tough female characters were, by the time the Muppet Show came on in the '70s, Miss Piggy was the least among options!

And you're right, Swallows and Amazons forever!

[sollersuk]

Comics certainly did not get enough of a look-in, and they affected more people than books did, particularly in my childhood. I forget which comic it was in (Dandy or Beano I fancy) but I particularly loved "The Shipwrecked Circus" when I was small because the person who often got them out of trouble was the acrobat - might have been trapeze artiste (bear with me, this was over half a century ago) who was a small girl. I never was much good at gym things, but she was a great role model.

And what about (in one of the girls' comics) "The Four Marys"? There was someone for almost anybody to identify with! School story, full of resourcefulness (and rule bending)

[sollersuk]

Swallows and Amazons? Absolutely! I yearned to be like Nancy, though I was very aware that I was in reality a lot more like Dorothea.