FUCK YOU SHE'S AWESOME meme
Oct. 3rd, 2009 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gaudiorI like this meme. I feel less defensive than some about my love for female characters, but I've been reading Joanna Russ, who talks a lot about how (at the time she's writing, mostly 70s and 80s, as well as historically) you don't find women who do things in fiction. She has this list in her essay "What Can A Heroine Do?: Or, Why Women Can't Write" in her book To Write Like A Woman, of stories you never see, including such plots as:
1. Two strong women battle for supremacy in the early West.
2. A young girl in Minnesota finds her womanhood by killing a bear.
...
and other things which, in 1971 when the essay was written, women just weren't allowed to do in fiction.
I like this meme as a celebration of how things have changed, as well as (FUCK YOU) how far we have to go.
So, yay.
From![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yhlee, originally by dsudis
So I was adding some new interests to my LJ profile and found myself feeling defensive every time I typed a female name, thinking, basically, FUCK YOU, SHE'S AWESOME, because I felt as if someone somewhere was going to be criticizing my love for them.
So, anyway, then I made a list of women who make me want to say FUCK YOU, SHE'S AWESOME. They are far from the only women who are awesome, or the only women people need to be told to step off of, but they are the top ten I feel that way about, right now, off the top of my head.
If you want to argue with me about the awesomeness of any of these women, I am afraid I will simply be referring you to the subject line. THAT IS ALL.
Because here's the thing, I totally accept that not everyone's going to like every character I love, but I'm really tired of feeling like I'm going on the defensive every time I admit to loving a female character.
Starbuck (BSG)
President Roslin (BSG)
Nanny Ogg (Pratchett)
Granny Weatherwax (Pratchett)
Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan (Bujold)
Honda Tohru (Fruits Basket)
Tenjou Utena (Shoujo Kakumei Utena)
Buttercup (PowerPuff Girls)
Willow Rosenberg (Buffy)
Setsuna Subaru (Also Lady Momoe, and, come to think of it, every single other female character in the anime Shingu, which is a far more awesome anime than most people realize)
I'm also thinking about something Lila and I were discussing recently (also related to Joanna Russ); the fact that, when we were kids, we could find very few kids' books with strong female friendships which weren't girls-books-for-girls (heavy focus on clothes, make-up, and boys, e.g., the Babysitters' Club). Which led me to dig out my first-ten-pages-of-a-terrible-novel (I have a lot of those, from high school and college) which was a kids' book about five girls in, I think, Victorian England, having an adventure. It was godsawful cliched, except that I was clearly trying very hard to write something where there was more than one way of being a girl, and just about succeeding.
Surely other people have done the same, and with better success. Can y'all recommend some kids' books which have strong friendships between girls who do things, not just girls who do girl-things?
--R
Reading: Joanna Russ, On Strike Against God: A Lesbian Love Story. Peter S. Beagle, We Never Talk About My Brother.
1. Two strong women battle for supremacy in the early West.
2. A young girl in Minnesota finds her womanhood by killing a bear.
...
and other things which, in 1971 when the essay was written, women just weren't allowed to do in fiction.
I like this meme as a celebration of how things have changed, as well as (FUCK YOU) how far we have to go.
So, yay.
From
yhlee, originally by dsudisSo I was adding some new interests to my LJ profile and found myself feeling defensive every time I typed a female name, thinking, basically, FUCK YOU, SHE'S AWESOME, because I felt as if someone somewhere was going to be criticizing my love for them.
So, anyway, then I made a list of women who make me want to say FUCK YOU, SHE'S AWESOME. They are far from the only women who are awesome, or the only women people need to be told to step off of, but they are the top ten I feel that way about, right now, off the top of my head.
If you want to argue with me about the awesomeness of any of these women, I am afraid I will simply be referring you to the subject line. THAT IS ALL.
Because here's the thing, I totally accept that not everyone's going to like every character I love, but I'm really tired of feeling like I'm going on the defensive every time I admit to loving a female character.
Starbuck (BSG)
President Roslin (BSG)
Nanny Ogg (Pratchett)
Granny Weatherwax (Pratchett)
Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan (Bujold)
Honda Tohru (Fruits Basket)
Tenjou Utena (Shoujo Kakumei Utena)
Buttercup (PowerPuff Girls)
Willow Rosenberg (Buffy)
Setsuna Subaru (Also Lady Momoe, and, come to think of it, every single other female character in the anime Shingu, which is a far more awesome anime than most people realize)
I'm also thinking about something Lila and I were discussing recently (also related to Joanna Russ); the fact that, when we were kids, we could find very few kids' books with strong female friendships which weren't girls-books-for-girls (heavy focus on clothes, make-up, and boys, e.g., the Babysitters' Club). Which led me to dig out my first-ten-pages-of-a-terrible-novel (I have a lot of those, from high school and college) which was a kids' book about five girls in, I think, Victorian England, having an adventure. It was godsawful cliched, except that I was clearly trying very hard to write something where there was more than one way of being a girl, and just about succeeding.
Surely other people have done the same, and with better success. Can y'all recommend some kids' books which have strong friendships between girls who do things, not just girls who do girl-things?
--R
Reading: Joanna Russ, On Strike Against God: A Lesbian Love Story. Peter S. Beagle, We Never Talk About My Brother.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 02:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 02:49 pm (UTC)(You probably know these already, but they popped to mind)
"A Little Princess", Frances Hodgson Burnett
(resolution is passive, but much of the story is about girls' friendships, and the girls do act, within their sphere.)
"Little Women"
Maybe these don't fit your bill... after all, they're books for girls. But the "girl-things" are very real things, like working for a living, telling stories, helping people who need it, publishing fiction, starting a school, traveling to Europe, fighting and making up...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:35 am (UTC)It does, but... so passive, and so limited. I loved the book when I was younger, and it's a great story about trying to deal with being trapped in your role... but it's not subversive about it (in the end, she's rescued and put back in her right place, not by breaking out of her role, but by doing it so well that she's recognized as worthy), and... well.
Little Women came up in the conversation with Lila. You're very right that the things they do are real-- and, in fact, that girl-things are important and worth doing. Lila pointed out, though, that there is a real feeling that getting married is the thing to do, and other things are nice and interesting, but just steps on the way. (She was particularly struck by the bit where Amy burns Jo's manuscript, and everyone expects Jo to forgive her for it.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:54 am (UTC)Along the lines of being women trapped in a marriage economy (which, for better or worse, the March girls still are), Eve Sedgwick has a famous (notorious?) article called "Jane Austen and the Masturbating Girl" in which she argues that the relationships between women in Austen's novels, and particularly "Sense and Sensibility", are so much more intimate than the heterosexual relationships, both physically and emotionally, that they are, in a very real way, the true core of the book. I would argue that Little Women is similar. Sure, there's pressure to get married; but that is a fact of their world, no less than putting food on the table (and in fact very much like it.) Other than Jo's failed relationship with Laurie (and the name! "Laurie"!), I would argue that the heterosexual relationships that come into Little Women are like afterthoughts-- they don't have much to do with what we find memorable and interesting in Little Women, or what makes the book worth reading. Who much cares about Mr. Bhaer, in the end? Who even remembers the name of Meg's husband? We care about Beth's piano, Jo selling her hair, Amy burning the manuscript, these things. In terms of teleology, marriage is the end; but the end of the story is only a formalism here, I think, more than in most marriage-plot novels.
Amy burning the manuscript... is another issue. The family expects Jo to forgive her, but I think Alcott, and the book, are undecided (or at the very least conflicted) on the matter. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 03:09 pm (UTC)http://www.amazon.com/Betsy-Tacy-Tib-Betsy-Tacy-Books/dp/0064400972
Best I remember managing as a kid. And *maybe* Caddie Woodlawn?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 04:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 11:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-10-03 03:09 pm (UTC);)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 07:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:37 am (UTC)(Not exactly meant for a kid's book, but still awesome!)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 02:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:36 am (UTC)(I loved the book, though, and I agree that she totally did stuff!)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 09:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 11:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 03:14 pm (UTC)Most of Noel Streatfeild's books are stronger on family relationships than friendships, but they are mostly about kids training to be professional singers/actors/dancers, and I can only think of one that has anything like a romance.
L.M. Montgomery books usually end with a wedding, but the Emily books in particular are about a young woman who wants a career as a writer ad stands up to a lot of family disapproval to make her way.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 03:23 pm (UTC)There's also Angua from Discworld. She's one of my favorites. And, seriously, Donna Noble from Doctor Who. She's very much a woman, but is one of those strong, very sure of herself women. She's a little ridiculous, but fainting buttercup who does nothing she ain't.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 05:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-10-03 06:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 11:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:40 am (UTC)Snerk. It's very true.
And there's the thing in the manga, and a bit in the anime, where you see how much being Little Miss Positive Attitude is a defense against her own fear and shame and loneliness... and yet, it's a real thing, which helps other people. So she's way complex. And cool.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 02:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 10:42 pm (UTC)What else...mostly YA stuff. Margaret Mahy's Dangerous Spaces was about the conflicted but eventually friendly relationship between two teenage girls who have to live together and solve paranormal mysteries after one of them is orphaned. Jane Yolen's Sister Light, Sister Dark series.
I can think of more examples in Saturday morning cartoons, actually--there are non-girly female friendships in Recess, Time Warp Trio, Pepper Ann...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-12 03:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-03 11:16 pm (UTC)http://www.amazon.com/All-kind-Family-Sydney-Taylor/dp/0440400597
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:42 am (UTC)Cool!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 01:52 am (UTC)In the same vein, the Nancy Drew mysteries have strong female friendships.
Little Women, Little Men, An Old Fashioned Girl, and Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott
A number of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum focus on the friendships among Dorothy, Ozma, and Glinda.
Sorcery and Cecilia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
The Circle of Magic books by Tamora Pierce are about a group of friends--three girls and one boy--who use their magic together to solve problems.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 02:05 am (UTC)I think she's writing vampire romances now... pity.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 04:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-04 04:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-05 04:52 am (UTC)Matt