Stronk Female Characters (Who Are Also Feminine)

The Strong Female Character. She is strong, she is fierce, she can compete with the men on their own turf. She Isn't Like Other Girls. Or she embraces her femininity and uses her sexuality as a weapon, turning the thing that draws men who wish to control her upon them, flipping the tables so that she is the one who is in control.

It's all so tiresome. There seems to be the idea pervading our culture that the only way a woman can have value is if she's a man or a sex object. Often when a character who doesn't fit either of these categories (*cough* Sansa Stark), her strengths are overlooked and her flaws emphasised, perpetuating the idea that femininity equals weakness and the most valuable values are the ones seen as masculine.

So here are several of my favourite characters who I feel are strong whilst also demonstrating their femininity, in no particular order after the first. It is perhaps no surprise that most of them are mothers.


1. Doctor Janet Frasier (Stargate SG-1)

 


How could I put her anywhere put the top? The first Chief Medical Officer of Stargate Command is definitely a strong character. She's a non-combatant -- her focus is on saving the lives of the teams that come running or stumbling back through the gate. But that doesn't mean she is weak, or can be cowed. If she needs to order you to stay somewhere or do something, she will, and you will obey whatever your rank is. She became a mother when SG-1 rescued a girl on an offworld mission, bringing her adopted daughter Cassandra into her life.


2. Pastor Anna Volovodov (The Expanse)


She may be kind, she may be compassionate, she may ask That Guy not to kill someone, but she isn't a pushover. It doesn't matter if you're the most powerful man on Earth (or his puppet), you cannot cow her into submission. She's no fighter, but she will not stop fighting for what she believes in.


3. Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard (Once Upon A Time)

She almost doesn't fit here, if we exclude characters who do any fighting at all, but her archery skills are not central to her character. Nowhere near as central as being a mother is, even if she's sort of younger than her daughter (don't ask, watch -- it would take too long to explain relationships in OUAT). A friend to all living things, it is no surprise that she ended up as an elementary school teacher when the curse hit. She is compassionate and forgiving to a fault (literally -- many problems could have been avoided if she didn't plead with her husband to keep the bad guys alive), and has an incredibly nurturing personality.

 

4. Sansa Stark (Game Of Thrones)

Yes, Sansa Stark. Possibly one of the most hated characters amongst the Game of Thrones fandumb, for making the sort of mistakes at the age of eleven that her father kept making (trusting the vipers of King's Landing) and not speaking up against the Crown Prince she was betrothed to. Usually contrasted with her sword-wielding Frey-killing tomboy assassin younger sister Arya, Sansa likes (or at least did at the start; she has suffered much since then) dresses, embroidery, tales of romance, and all the things a highborn lady should. But her femininity goes deeper than the performative. Unlike her sister, she does not fight with swords, but with words and courtesy. Whilst other men and women would have fallen to pieces under what she endured at the hands of the Lannisters, and likely gotten themselves killed by Joffrey, Sansa whilst only in her early teenage years at best endured and survived... and became the only person to ever persuade Mad King Joffrey to spare the life of someone he was intent on murdering. She won the game of thrones without magic, without dragons, without gold.

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