Girl Power (The Sequel)

For this post, I'm going to have a little help. Please welcome my lovely fiancee', Anna Smith. Say hi, sweetheart.

"Yo!"

Yes, I know, she's a conversational mastermind.

Anyway, since I had to cut the list short the other night due to it being 5am and my brain deciding to short out on me, I'm coming back to it, because I feel it deserves it.

And for those of you who want a good read, check out Anna's Blog!

Now, let's dive right in!


Mulan

C'mon, you knew she'd be on here. Admit it!

Anyway, Mulan is one of the few Disney female characters to notably hold her own, not only in combat against male characters, but in a male-dominated world altogether. The Han Dynasty era of China was, as you might have guessed, an era where women were little better than second-class citizens, so a woman being in the military was unheard of. But Mulan don't give a darn!

She starts the film showing how bad she is at being a typical girl in her society, and she's made to feel inferior for it. However, by joining the army in her father's stead, she discovers that she can find happiness without catering to the societal structure for women of her time. But, just because she picks up her dad's sword and kick Hun butt left and right doesn't mean she loses her femininity. Quite the opposite in fact. While in the army she meets Li Shang, and they later get married (but for the love of God don't suffer through the second movie like I did to figure that out). Mulan shows us that a woman doesn't have to be a "girly-girl" to be feminine.


Clair Huxtable

Clair Huxtable is a force of nature. This is a woman with five kids and a full-time job--as an attorney, no less. She enjoys the same power and prestige as her husband (which, if you look at TV families, is pretty rare). She manages an impossible balance between work and household duties (I'd use the phrase "second shift" here, but people's eyes tend to glaze over when they hear feminist phrases like that). 

Though Clair was often showed filling traditional "mom roles," it was clear that she was not second-in-command to Cliff, but she was his partner. And she made sure everyone knew it.

Like this.

Clair may not have fought off an army or defied the social scripts of her society in quite as drastic a way as Mulan, but there's no denying that Clair was strong.


Big Barda

If you're not familiar with Barda, here's a picture for reference.

Yeah, she's kinda boss. When Jack Kirby left Marvel (because they were scumbags) and created the New Gods for DC, Barda, along with her husband, Mister Miracle, became two of the fan favorites. Unlike Scott (Miracle's real name), she's not the elusive escape artist; she'd rather pound the crap out of everything in her way. That makes her really fun. She's also bigger and stronger than her husband, but neither of them seem to care. 

It's really hard to tell you just how awesome Barda is, so I'll let this next clip do the talking.

And with that, we'll go ahead and call it a night. Thanks for taking the time to follow along with the extended list, and maybe in the future we'll touch on this again.

Goodnight everybody!

Girl Power

In today's post, I'll be talking about a few strong female characters. If you haven't read or watched or played anything with these characters, you should fix that. I'm sure I'll overlook more than a couple on this list, so if you know of something I should've included, please let me know.

Alright, here we go...




Buffy

This first one is probably the most blatantly obvious choice, so I thought I'd get her out of the way first.

Buffy is among the most iconic female leads of all time, and for good reason. She's the stereotypical pretty, blond cheerleader you see in a ton of highschool movies even today. But, there's a little more to her than you'd catch at first glance. Yes, she's pretty and athletic, but she also kick the crap out of monsters after nightfall, keeping the world safe for the rest of us to walk around without fear of getting our blood sucked.

One of the defining features of Buffy that people tend to overlook due to her "I am woman, hear me roar" traits is that, even though she can beat monsters down all day, she's not perfect. For one, she's not the brightest bulb in the box academically, quite the opposite. The girl would probably flunk out of most of her classes if it wasn't for her good friend Willow always being on hand to tutor her when necessary (and it's necessary a lot). Put the girl in a fight, her mind works great, but put her in front of a blackboard and ask her to write out the Pythagorean theorem, you might as well be asking her to cure cancer.

Her academic shortcomings aside, Buffy had proven herself a more than capable fighter time and time again, despite overwhelming odds. She's stronger, faster, and more able-bodied than any man (or woman for that matter) in her world (until you get to the last season, but I digress). She remains one of the poster girls for strong female archetypes, and I don't see any reason why that should change.

I could go deeper into her character, but I don't really see any need to, since most of you are probably familiar with her anyway.


Death (The Sandman)

There was no way I was going to make this list without Death. When Neil Gaiman first introduced Death in Sandman #8 in the late 80's, he did something no one had ever done before: he played Death as a cute, perky Goth girl.

Death always wears a smile as she goes about her job with a smile and sunny disposition, in contrast to her brother, Dream, who tends to be all morbid and mopey 24/7. Her smile can light up a room and she just happens to have complete control over the fate of your soul. The first time you see the girl she's quoting Merry Poppins and then she takes Dream along while she goes on her route for the day. She's just so freakin' adorable!

The fact that Death always seems to be so cheerful might be because Neil Gaiman wanted to point out that death is a natural end to all things and nothing to be frightened of. This is highlighted when, in issue #8 Death says, "... Gets me down, too. Mostly they aren't too keen to see me. They fear the Sunless Lands. But they enter your realm each night without fear," to which Dream replies, "And I am far more terrible than you, sister."

Death also seems to be the one of the Endless (the seven siblings which include Dream) with the most compassion. Not only does she sometimes apologize to her charges that their time is up, but there's also a moment in the series where she berates Dream for his treatment of a young woman long ago, where he had her forever imprisoned in hell just because she wouldn't be with him. Most of the Endless don't really have much regard for humans, Death and Dream being two exceptions, but Death is more self-aware than Dream.

No matter how you look at her, Death is easily one of the most powerful female characters in literature, and how could she not be, considering she's, y'know, Death.


Moiraine Damodred 

Finally, a Wheel of Time character! And not just any WoT character, but my personal favorite in the entire series.

When we first meet Moiraine (assuming you start with book 1 and not the prequel) she's a mysterious woman who appears with a stone-faced (not literally) guard named Lan, in the small town of Two Rivers mere hours before it's attacked by a force of Trollocs. At first the group is mistrustful of her, upon learning she's Aes Sedai (you'll have to look them up), but in seeing no other alternative, they follow her anyway.

For the next several books she does nothing but try to help out Rand, Perrin and Mat, but these dumb kids all suspect she's manipulating them with her "Aes Sedai wiles" and rail against her at every turn. She remains steadfast, however, and is determined to do everything in her power to keep them safe and ensure the survival of the human race during the Last Battle.

Moiraine is unique among Aes Sedai in that she is a faithful backer of Rand, knowing he's the Dragon Reborn. Unlike most of her colleagues, she knows that he can't be kept on a leash for the Tower's uses, and fights not only to keep him alive for the Last Battle, but to keep him out of the Tower's clutches.

Throughout the series she shows much patience and wisdom (and more than one instance of powerful magic displays that decimate slews of Trollocs) and without her, it's safe to say that the three blockheads from the Two Rivers wouldn't have survived even to the end of the first book. Heck, she even takes on the Forsaken (the most powerful magic users from the Age of Legends) on more than one occasion and comes out on top, even though she's not the strongest in the One Power.




And that's all I've got for tonight, folks. It's after 3am and I'm hours past exhausted. But, if there's enough interest here, and I get enough feedback I'll come back and update this post in the future. Until then, goodnight all!