By Hayley Charlesworth
I have a bit of a problem with the term Strong Female Character. As a comic book reader, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across writers and artists merely drawing a woman in a thong kicking ass and calling it empowering. It isn’t. Strong female characters are women who are given as much emphasis, character depth and attention as male leads. A strong female character can be a woman who doesn’t need a man or a woman who is desperate for a man. A woman who saves the day or a woman who needs saving. It all comes from making the character a person.
Buffy Summers was not a strong female character because she was the Slayer, but because she was complex. She was a hero and a saviour, a teenage girl in love, a sister, a daughter, a student, a teacher, and many other things besides. She made mistakes, and she faced up to the consequences of those mistakes. That is strength.
I have a bit of a problem with the term Strong Female Character. As a comic book reader, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across writers and artists merely drawing a woman in a thong kicking ass and calling it empowering. It isn’t. Strong female characters are women who are given as much emphasis, character depth and attention as male leads. A strong female character can be a woman who doesn’t need a man or a woman who is desperate for a man. A woman who saves the day or a woman who needs saving. It all comes from making the character a person.
Buffy Summers was not a strong female character because she was the Slayer, but because she was complex. She was a hero and a saviour, a teenage girl in love, a sister, a daughter, a student, a teacher, and many other things besides. She made mistakes, and she faced up to the consequences of those mistakes. That is strength.
Take Monica Gellar, from Friends. Yes, it is implied that she could beat some of the men in a fight, and she is intelligent, dedicated to her career as a chef, yet desperate for a married life with kids. Too often, we’re told to view a woman who views domesticity as the ideal as weak. But Monica is anything but. She perseveres through a string of failed relationships, until she finds love with Chandler, refusing to compromise her goals (such as breaking up with Richard because he doesn’t want children.) When she discovers she can’t have children of her own, she doesn’t give up, and eventually adopts twins. Still, she isn’t defined by her role as wife and mother. When Chandler’s job takes him to Oklahoma, Monica chooses to stay in New York to pursue her career in a new restaurant, and that’s not seen as a bad thing.
Then there’s Topanga Lawrence of Boy Meets World. Topanga’s main role in the series was to play Cory’s love interest, and eventual wife. But Topanga was a well-rounded character in her own right, with her own goals and aspirations to perform academically to the best of her ability and establish a good career for herself. She had her own storylines, and unlike many love interests, ties to the other characters that didn’t revolve around her dating Cory. This was lampshaded when Topanga and Shawn thought they couldn’t be friends anymore because Cory and Topanga had broken up, and resolved itself in Shawn liking Topanga for her own merits, not because she was dating his best friend. Crucially, Topanga was written to be just as funny as Cory, Shawn and Eric, a trait which is sadly lacking with many women in sitcoms.
BBC’s Merlin gave us two very different, but equally strong female characters. As a High Priestess of the Old Religion, Morgana was the only character who could match Merlin in magic ability, and was a foe that couldn’t be brought down for three whole seasons. She commanded armies, brought Camelot to its knees twice, and did it all without breaking a sweat. And yet, unlike many other Merlin villains, she frequently showed flashes of remorse and doubt, humanising her and making her much more interesting to watch. On the other hand, there’s Gwen. Less physically strong and capable than Morgana, she had the greatest mental strength of all the characters, graduating from lowly servant to Queen thanks to her strong sense of compassion, wisdom and justice. By the series end, Gwen is the sole ruler of Camelot, and implied to lead the kingdom through its golden age.
That’s not to say that badass women aren’t strong, just not when that’s their only defining trait. In just 14 episodes of Firefly, Zoe Washburne is established as a fierce fighter and a second-in-command who at times is more capable than her leader, Mal Reynolds. She is also a loving wife to Wash, and will fight to the ends of the 'verse to protect her husband. Her love for Wash was so strong that she actually defied orders to marry him. To take another Joss Whedon example, while in Buffy, Cordelia Chase was a bit of an airhead, by her exit in Angel, Cordelia was a higher power, the only person capable of setting Angel back on the path he’d deviated so wildly from. Whedon clearly realises that a strong woman is one that is multi-faceted, shown even during Natasha Romanov’s fairly brief screen time in The Avengers.
Finally, a short exploration of one of the strongest, and most underrated female characters in all of television: Martha Jones. Martha walked the entire earth to save the Doctor and the world, and when it was over, she walked away. Unlike many other post-reboot Doctor Who companions, Martha knew she didn’t need the Doctor for her life to have meaning, and also recognised how unhealthy it was to pine after the Doctor when his thoughts still remained with Rose. She even became a Doctor herself, and worked her way up to one of the most important positions in UNIT. She showed fear on many occasions, but combatted that fear to save herself and others. When facing down The Family of Blood, the Doctor entrusted his entire fate into her hands. And yet, her legacy is to be less beloved than Rose and Donna (who, don’t get me wrong, were also great characters in their own right.) That is a real shame.
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