Strong female characters and how not to write them.
In this blog, I will be pointing out all the strong female leads and co-stars of films and TV series I have seen. This is not a look at the quality of the shows and films. its to merely point out there strong females predate the current generation of films and shows.
Some of us who may be too young to remember but strong females have always been around as far back as the 1960s
1961 Emma Peel Avengers
1966 Nyota Uhura Star Trek the Original series and films.1977Princess Leia, Star Wars
1979 Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley Alien
1981 Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark,
1984 Diana Prince AKA Wonder Woman
1984Sarah Connor the Terminator films,
1991 Special Agent Clarice Starling, Silence of The Lambs.
Some of us who may be too young to remember but strong females have always been around as far back as the 1960s
1961 Emma Peel Avengers
1966 Nyota Uhura Star Trek the Original series and films.1977Princess Leia, Star Wars
1979 Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley Alien
1981 Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark,
1984 Diana Prince AKA Wonder Woman
1984Sarah Connor the Terminator films,
1991 Special Agent Clarice Starling, Silence of The Lambs.
1993 Special Agent Dana Scully The X-files.
1995 Xena Warrior Princess series1995 Seven of Nine Star Trek Voyager
1996 Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
1998 Pru Halliwell Charmed.
1995 Captain Kathryn Janeway.
1999 Detective Olivia Benson Law& Order SVU.
1999 Trinity The Matrix.
2001 Sydney Bristow Alias.
2001 Harmine Granger Harry Potter.
2001 Arwen Lord of the Rings.
2001 Letty Ortiz
2002 Zoe Washburne Firefly
2003 Selene Underworld2004 Kara Starbuck Battlestar Galactica.
2004 Guinevere of King Arthur film.
2005 Cristina Yang Grey's Anatomy.
2005 Elektra from the movie Elektra
2010 Carol from Walking Dead.
2011 Lisbeth Salander The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo.
2012 Katniss Everdeen The Hunger Games.
2014 Black Widow and Maria Hill Captain America Winter Soldier
2014 Gamora Guardians of the Galaxy.
2014 Sgt Rita Edge of the Tomorrow
2015 Naomi Nagata, Carmina Drummer, Crisjen Avisarala and Bobby Draper.
2016 Jessica Jones
2017 Wanda Maximoff of Avengers Infinity War
2018 Queen Lagertha The Vikings.
That about covers the list of strong females throughout Tv and movie history. Now, what do all these characters have in common with each other? The writers and directors focused on their characters and storytelling. Focus on Gender, Race, Sexual Orientation and Nationality second. Character and storytelling come first in my opinion. However, this is just my two cents. And a good character needs conflict be it internal or external or both. Without these things, you end up with cardboard cutout characters or Mary Sue's Yes that label applies to both male and female characters. But again just my opinion write your novels how you see fit. Anyway, feel free to leave your thoughts and comments in the comment section.
Lilith Cohen Merchants of Death is available on Kindle and print on Amazon.
1995 Xena Warrior Princess series1995 Seven of Nine Star Trek Voyager
1996 Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
1998 Pru Halliwell Charmed.
1995 Captain Kathryn Janeway.
1999 Detective Olivia Benson Law& Order SVU.
1999 Trinity The Matrix.
2001 Sydney Bristow Alias.
2001 Harmine Granger Harry Potter.
2001 Arwen Lord of the Rings.
2001 Letty Ortiz
2002 Zoe Washburne Firefly
2003 Selene Underworld2004 Kara Starbuck Battlestar Galactica.
2004 Guinevere of King Arthur film.
2005 Cristina Yang Grey's Anatomy.
2005 Elektra from the movie Elektra
2010 Carol from Walking Dead.
2011 Lisbeth Salander The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo.
2012 Katniss Everdeen The Hunger Games.
2014 Black Widow and Maria Hill Captain America Winter Soldier
2014 Gamora Guardians of the Galaxy.
2014 Sgt Rita Edge of the Tomorrow
2015 Naomi Nagata, Carmina Drummer, Crisjen Avisarala and Bobby Draper.
2016 Jessica Jones
2017 Wanda Maximoff of Avengers Infinity War
2018 Queen Lagertha The Vikings.
That about covers the list of strong females throughout Tv and movie history. Now, what do all these characters have in common with each other? The writers and directors focused on their characters and storytelling. Focus on Gender, Race, Sexual Orientation and Nationality second. Character and storytelling come first in my opinion. However, this is just my two cents. And a good character needs conflict be it internal or external or both. Without these things, you end up with cardboard cutout characters or Mary Sue's Yes that label applies to both male and female characters. But again just my opinion write your novels how you see fit. Anyway, feel free to leave your thoughts and comments in the comment section.
Lilith Cohen Merchants of Death is available on Kindle and print on Amazon.
Great list. Of course there are more. I'd add Policewoman, Cagney & Lacey, Sergeant Bates from Hill Street Blues, Gemma Teller from Sons of Anarchy and a bunch from Game of Thrones.
ReplyDelete- Joseph Wegesa.