fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2563 ]

[ SECRET POST #2563 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2563 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

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02.

[ao no exorcist]

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03.

[Leverage]

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04.

[Doctor Who, Sherlock]

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05.

[Star Trek: The Next Generation]

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06.

[Frozen]

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07. http://i.imgur.com/NKDHxDP.png?1?4348
[Big Bang Theory; warning for suicide/depression]

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08.

[Amy Poehler]

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09.

[Deep Space Nine/Babylon 5]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 035 secrets from Secret Submission Post #366.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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In pop culture, particularly fictional characters, who do you think are good female role models for kids to teen age? What (preferably famous) female characters do you see as either positive role models, or good characters that break confining stereotypes? And why?

(This isn't meant to be a SJW or rad!fem discussion. I was just talking with a friend about the movie Frozen and how the strong female characters were awesome and how much I wish that movie had existed when I was little. Then was thinking of what would be a list of movies/books/whatever that I'd want show to my potential sons and daughters.)

Ahsoka and just about every other female character on TCW.

Lot of characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Xena.

Every female in 'Legally Blonde.' I recently watched it and the women in that movie are really strong and supportive of each other.

Sailor Moon and the rest of the senshi.

The only thing coming to my mind right now is Miss Frizzle from The Magic Schoolbus. That show may be long gone, but I remember having quite a few of the MSB educational computer games and badly wishing that I could have a teacher like her (yes, that included the magic schoolbus, but also the fact that she was just so enthusiastic about teaching and learning. None of my elementary school teachers were like that).

side note: Magic School Bus was on Netflix when I looked the other day and I got so excited.

Is it bad that the first thing that came to mind were Daria and Jane? Not exactly a show I'd let kids watch, LOL. Well, maybe the Noggin butchered ones...

I'm drawing a blank sadly.

Off the top of my head:

Hermione comes to mind first- academic, kind of a nerd, still saves the day.

When I was a pre-teen, I discovered Mercedes Lackey, and she has a ton of awesome female characters (For a while, I wanted to be Kerowyn, more or less.) a number of which are strong in non-actiony ways.

Tiffany Aching from the Discworld YA novels is great, and I kind of wish Pratchett had written those a decade earlier, so she could have been a role model for me rather than a really nifty character.

Ooh, and from Discworld, I also think Susan Sto Helit is kick-ass.

Seconded Tiffany Aching. She is such a good character; she's not just a character who's a witch, she's a girl who's a sister, daughter, friend, and witch, and I wish I had her when I was growing up. She's the kind of rounded, 3d character my younger self would have adored.

Any of the female protagonists from Studio Ghibli movies especially Kiki.

Ooh, good answer. If I remember right, Hayao Miyazaki is a strong feminist, isn't he? Lots of his movies (most?) star female characters, and I love how "real" they are.

-Katniss Everdeen: I don't think she's a "good role model" but I think she's a famous character that subverts stereotypes and is probably an action warrior character who boys probably also want to be, and is non sexualized, so...
-Disney characters including Mulan, Merida, and if side characters count, even The Lion King (I grew up on The Lion King, and Nala was awesome and probably an influential character for me, loved her)
-Korra from Avatar, if we're focusing on main characters

Hmm, I'm blanking on other "famous" characters...

MLP:FIM has good FC's (I haven't watched the previous gens so I can't comment.)
LOK has none.

Sailor Moon and the other scouts.
Xena and Gabrielle
Sam from Wishbone
Lisa Simpson, The Simpsons
Francine and Muffy and the female characters on Arthur are great
Mulan
Lilo and Nani from Lilo and Stitch
Pippi Longstocking
Anne from Anne of Green Gables
Eliza from The Thornberrys
Kikki from Kikki's Delivery Service
Natty Gann from The Journey of Natty Gann
Doc McStuffins is great for younger kids
The Magic School Buss has a lot of great female characters, including Miss Frizzle
The Powerpuff Girls

...I'll stop there. But they are all strong diverse not-perfect characters that I think make excellent role models.

Re: this list got kind of long

(Anonymous) - 2014-01-09 02:47 (UTC) - Expand

Re: this list got kind of long

(Anonymous) - 2014-01-09 17:22 (UTC) - Expand

In cartoons: Kim Possible, and Usagi/Serena or just about any of the heroines on that show (Sailor Moon)... I haven't watched cartoons for a long time, so that's about all I can think of in that vein at the moment.

In other pop culture: Diana Scully rates up there with the greatest women characters on television along with Kathryn Janeway, and Xena.

In videogames: I'll go with Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine (Resident Evil), Alice Murray (Army of Two), Keira Stokes (F.E.A.R. 2), Ayla and Lucca (Chrono Trigger) for ass-kickingest females. The honorable mention goes to Samus of Metroid fame, because her shit got straight fucked up in the last game that featured her.

Re: "Good" Female Pop Culture Role Models for Kids?

(Anonymous) - 2014-01-09 02:58 (UTC) - Expand

Re: "Good" Female Pop Culture Role Models for Kids?

dancing_clown - 2014-01-09 03:18 (UTC) - Expand

Tamora Pierce's heroines on a whole, I think. I haven't read every series of hers, though.

Samantha Carter (Stargate SG-1/A)
Uses her brain just as much -- usually more -- than her brawn. Is a scientist and a soldier and awesome.

CJ Cregg (The West Wing - for teens with political interests, not kids necessarily)
Smart as whip. Knows how to talk to people -- and how to work a conversation where she wants it to go. Stands up for her convictions.

Princess Leia (Star Wars)
A senator, a princess, and a high-up leader in a rebellion against an evil empire who takes saving her captured man into her own hands. And that's just the movies, let alone the slew of books where she's a chief of state and a mother and a sort-of Jedi. (Some of this may end badly, I'm not sure, but there are a great many books before that).

I'm sure I have more -- I used to have a list of Awesome Fictional Ladies in my head (and perhaps somewhere buried in my LJ), but that's all I can think of right now.

Re: "Good" Female Pop Culture Role Models for Kids?

(Anonymous) - 2014-01-09 17:29 (UTC) - Expand

Watching Alien/Aliens at an extremely young, formative age basically set my bar for female characters in media for the rest of my life.

As you might expect I spend a lot of it disappointed.

Cassie and Rachel from Animorphs made the biggest impression on me as positive female characters when I was young. They broke a lot of stereotypes as individual characters and two-girl ensemble cast characters. The girl with the "girly" style and hobbies (Rachel) is the tough, brave one (and is always over people assuming she's shallow and stuck-up for being pretty and into fashion), while the "tomboy" (Cassie) is the timid, caring one who has a romance subplot with the team leader (and she also happens to be black without being presented as a token black character at all).

Re: "Good" Female Pop Culture Role Models for Kids?

weaselbee - 2014-01-09 01:53 (UTC) - Expand

Re: "Good" Female Pop Culture Role Models for Kids?

sarillia - 2014-01-09 01:57 (UTC) - Expand

Professor McGonagall
Delenn from Babylon 5
Ellen Harvelle from Supernatural

Adventure Time has a lot of diversity in female characters.

The girls in frozen
Katniss
Hermione
mmmmmm what other movies are there...
Xena
Buffy
Mulan
Is the girl in How to Train Your Dragon cool? Haven't actually watched it
oh yes Animorphs!
mmmmm Avatar and maybe Legend of Korra season 3 if it turns out ok

...oh the girl innnnnnn I don't remember what it's called, it was motion stop with zombies. she was practical for a stereotype

can't think of anymore

Re: "Good" Female Pop Culture Role Models for Kids?

(Anonymous) - 2014-01-09 03:58 (UTC) - Expand

Re: "Good" Female Pop Culture Role Models for Kids?

caerbannog - 2014-01-09 08:33 (UTC) - Expand

Re: "Good" Female Pop Culture Role Models for Kids?

intrigueing - 2014-01-09 03:59 (UTC) - Expand

Re: "Good" Female Pop Culture Role Models for Kids?

caerbannog - 2014-01-09 08:34 (UTC) - Expand

Avatar: tLA has some good ones

Saddle Club Series (more kid than teen, but I liked that the girls were all different [I identified with Stevie most!] but they all loved horses and worked hard)

American Girl series (again more for kids, girl protags and history learnin' too)

I watched musicals all the time growing up and those are very rarely sausagefests. Some of them are...not good (I never stopped being pissed off, even as a kid, at how Sandy in Grease changed herself for a man, ugh) but many more of them have a big variety of interesting, fun, and admirable female characters. (Dolly in 'Hello, Dolly!' is a POWERHOUSE, Millie in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers takes that whole household of rough men in hand and changes them for the better, Maria basically improves everyone's live in Sound of Music, Sarah and Adelaide in Guys and Dolls are so different but equally fun....)

Jane Austen books/movies (I watched the P&P miniseries like a million times when I was a kid/teen...my kid brother liked them too, oddly enough)
Suite Life of Zach and Cody is surprisingly good about a lot of things (I especially appreciated the avoidance of stereotypes in a lot of ways--the blonde was smart, the ditzy heiress was asian, the persnickety white-collar hotel manager was black)

Un Lun Dun (book) has a great female character at its head.

Little House on the Prarie--my dad read all the books to us and we watched the tv show some...Laura is a badass, never doubt it.

Re: "Good" Female Pop Culture Role Models for Kids?

(Anonymous) - 2014-01-09 02:49 (UTC) - Expand

For some reason, Matilda was the first thing that popped into my head.

The second was Mia from The Princess Diaries, because she learns from her mistakes, goes through hard times and still pretty much stays true to herself. She also calls out her best friend (the only character I didn't like) for being unnecessarily mean to her. (Also basically anything Julie Andrews does ever)

My favorite princesses were Belle and Jasmine and I think they're both pretty good role models. More recently, the Frozen ladies, Tiana and Merida are all great role models too.

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