Wise Women of Fiction: Embracing the Legacy of Old Iconic Characters

 

Strong female characters, this is something I never thought I'd have to write about, but here we are. You might be asking yourself why, and I'll tell you, I feel like in the past decade, the concept or a lot of constructs of what makes up a strong female character has been lost or warped. What I'm about to say, might wruffle some feathers, but so be it, within the past decade, the whole feminism movement has become a thing, and I honestly have no problem with it, but you would think that with this becoming a thing, that female characters would be written better, but it seems like it's been the opposite, at least from were I'm standing.  

To start this off, when I was growing up, the female characters that I grew up with, that I considered strong, a lot of them, didn't have to sacrifice their feminity in order to be strong or independent. They were still able to be feminine, and at the same time, being strong, holding their own, without sacrificing their morals or what they believe in. They were written in a way, where anyone could relate to them, girls, boys, men, and women,, they weren't shoehorned into a cookie-cutter box, only being limited to one thing. 

I grew up with so many female characters that I admired and looked up to, for a multitude of reasons, they were multifaceted, with strong morals, Sailor Moon, for example, stood by her friends and family, and her lover Tuxedo Mask, she didn't choose, she valued them all. Faith Conners from the game, Mirrors Edge, her main priority was protecting her sister Kate. Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, she loved traveling, exploring Tombs, and gathering artifacts, and she did it all on her own, well I mean she had her assistants that helped her remotely, but she stayed single throughout all of the games, she didn't need a man, she stood her ground, and handled herself, her problems on her own, without backing down without a fight. 

Motoko Kusanagi from the anime, Ghost in The Shell, she was the team leader of unit Section 9, and all the men on the team listened to her, respected her, didn't question her, dismiss her, or talk back to her, yes she dressed sexy, but people took her seriously, she was intelligent, kicked ass, and handled herself, and at the same time, worked with the team, not against it. Buffy from the show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she protected her friends, valued the men she loved, was always willing to go against the vampires, and at the same time, she dressed well in style and had fun when she could. Faye Valentine from the anime, Cowboy Bebop, she dressed sexy as hell, traveled, could handle a gun with no problem, and didn't fear fighting against anyone who got in her way. Rayne, from the Videogame, Blood Rayne, she was half human, half vampire, fought against vampires, and other monsters, didn't hurt humans, and didn't sacrifice her morals. Lain, from the anime, Serial Experiments Lain, even though she was a child, she had a lot of maturity for her age, she mainly wanted to learn as much as possible, wasn't afraid of learning more, always asking questions, to as many people as she could, and at the same time, questioning the reality that she knew. Clare from the anime, Claymore, her she always did her job, fulfilling her duty, protecting the young boy she meets along the way, Rocky, while extracting revenge for her friend Teresa who was murdered.

Seems like now, a majority of female characters are cookie-cutter characters, boxed into one little thing, either a damsel in distress, always relying on the guy, the dumb blonde, mom, wife, or some other stereotype, it honestly feels like nowadays, there isn't as much freedom when it comes to writing female characters anymore. Which is sad, because there used to be so much room for writing the female characters in a multitude of ways, but now they are limited now more than ever, which makes it a lot harder to relate to them. I can only hope that one day, that female characters will be given more room to breathe, and not boxed into one thing.