Female icons in fiction: why we need more of them

Image via Wikipedia

 

Image via Wikipedia

Let me be quite frank about this.  These are women who present a positive influence that not only women can look up to, but all genders.  Characters that are not simply pretty delicate flowers that some male hero needs to rescue, not at all.  Because these icons I speak of can rescue themselves.  Sure, there’s women out there that have no problem with being rescued and they have lots of role models to look to, in books, television, comics, film and so much more.

But there’s also a large number of women that don’t want or need to be rescued.  Believe it or not, guys, but not every woman wants to be rescued.  And if you believe they do, then you’re not looking at the big picture.

Every so often, a female character comes along that breaks the boundary and is someone worthy of looking up to.  There are many out there right now that I can name, beginning with Wonder Woman.  She’s not the only one.  It might surprise you to hear, but another would be Anne of Green Gables.  Sure, you really can’t compare Diana, Princess of Themyscira with Anne of Green Gables, the two are worlds apart in what they do.  But they’re still positive role models.

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The list is extensive and includes, but is not limited to:

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Zoe Washburn
• Xena, Warrior Princess
• Dora the Explorer
• Barbara Gordon, Oracle (before the DCnU reboot)
• 

  Image via Wikipedia

  Captain Kathryn Janeway of the USS Voyager

• Kinsey Milhone of the Alphabet Crime series of novels by Sue Grafton
• Hermoine Granger of the Harry Potter books (and to be honest, most of the girls in the series were strong role models)

The list could go on and on.  Already, I know the usual comment from detractors.  “Isn’t that enough for women?  Do they really need more?”  For each strong, positive role model a woman has, there has to be about twenty positive male role models.  Here’s the catch, though.  A lot of those positive female role models can be good role models for men as well.

Women should never be used as sex symbols alone in fiction.  This is dangerous because it sets up bad examples for men, and often times women in real life become objectified because of that treatment.  Women are not simply objects to be compared to fruit or candy or some precious gem.

Fiction needs more strong female roles.  And don’t confuse the term “strong female role” with something akin to a Boris painting.  There’s a lot more to a strong character than just how badass or sexy they look.  Some of the sexiest characters are the ones fully clothed and use a superior intellect and knowledge of their opponent than how to seduce or pummel into the dirt (see the afformentioned Janeway and Granger).

But it would seem that mainstream media, whether that be in television series, comic books, movies or even advertising, would rather portray a women in a certain aspect that they believe the public is comfortable with.  That view gets worse when speaking about women of colour.

As a society, we need to utilize the medium of story telling, whether printed or digital, text, audio or visual, to tell more stories about women.  Good stories that women of all ages can look up to, and that men can learn something from.  Because right now, we aren’t treating women very well, which not only distorts the view of women currently living in this world, but also distorts how we view the history of women.  History has a large number of women that achieved many great things.  Marie Currie, Laura Secord, Irena Sendler, and many others made great strides in history.

It’s time we started treating women better.  In our everyday lives as well as how they are viewed in fiction.