Strong female characters who embrace their femininity
The ‘strong female character’ trope is a familiar one. Ass-kicking, gun-toting, take-no-prisoners women like Ripley from Alien or Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games trilogy tend to be where our minds go when we hear the phrase: strong female character.
While characters like Ripley and Katniss are examples of this character type at its best, this trope has also led to characters who are boring and formulaic, and worse, it also plays into the whole poisonous issue of gender equality when strong female characters who are also strong feminine female characters aren’t given their due.
So, as both a skirt-wearing, pink-loving girly-girl and a strong woman, here are some of my favourite strong female characters who embrace their femininity…
Sansa Stark from the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin
Look, I’m going to start with Sansa Stark, because I’ve been part of the Sansa Stark Defense League since way back in 2011 when I regularly had to go in to bat against angry fans who hated her more than Joffrey for the simple fact that she liked pretty dresses, knew embroidery, and was naive enough to believe that just because the family she’d been brought up in was honourable so was everyone else. As a character she’s come into her own in recent seasons of the TV show, and she’s undoubtedly one of the major power players in Westeros. She didn’t do it by picking up a sword and learning how to fight – she did it by learning the game and playing it better than anyone else. And she still likes her embroidery and her pretty dresses, so stuff the lot of you who wanted her dead in season one
Flora Poste from Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Before Flora shows up in the village of Howling, Sussex with nothing but her common sense and an expensive, all-rounded education, her distant relatives, the Starkadders, were living in grim, miserable, desperate poverty – of the Wuthering Heights ‘loam and lovechild’ variety. Flora enthusiastically applies her practical know-how, innate empathy, cool head and sensible nature, and propels the whole inbred lot of them right into the twentieth century. By the time she’s ready to pursue her own happily-ever-after with the charming Charles Fairford every Urk, Reuben, and Micah is far better off.
Annabel Grey from A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee
The titular heroine of Karen Foxlee’s novel, A Most Magical Girl, is Annabel Grey. Raised to be a prim and proper Victorian young lady, it comes as a surprise to discover that she’s actually the last in line of a family of powerful witches. Forced to reassess her own identity, she manages to overcome a terrible case of imposter syndrome to save the day. It’s refreshing to see a ballsy children’s book character who is polite and well-mannered, kind and empathetic – and who isn’t afraid to cry but always picks herself up again to go save the world.
Lady Helen Wrexall from the Lady Helen series by Alison Goodman
You think fighting vampires, demons, and succubi is difficult? Try doing it in petticoats and with the weight of nineteenth century societal expectations on your shoulders. Lady Helen Wrexall already has her hands full dealing with nailing the perfect curtsy and negotiating a scandal-free entree into Regency Society. The last thing she needs is a sacred duty to defend mankind against demonic forces, but alas that’s exactly what lands in her lap when the mysterious Lord Carlston shows up on her doorstep with a story about her disgraced mother and a destiny that cannot be refused. Soon Lady Helen finds herself juggling her responsibilities to the perilous Dark Days Club, with her own hopes and expectations for her future.
Alianne of Pirate’s Swoop from The Daughter of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce
Any list of Strong Female Characters worth its salt needs to include Alanna the Lioness, Tamora Pierce’s legendary lady knight. Lesser known, but a good deal closer to my heart, is Alanna’s daughter, Aly. At the age of 16 and squabbling regularly with a mother with whom she has little in common, Aly sets off to find herself (or at least have a good time) and instead gets kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in the Copper Isles. There she uses her innate cunning, aptitude for codes and languages, and political nous to play a critical role in the local indigenous people’s fight for independence – proving for once and for all that you don’t have to bind your boobs and pretend to be a man in order to win a war.
Anne Shirley from the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
Anne Shirley fought poverty, prejudice, sexism and presumptuous little boys named Gilbert to become a well-loved and respected teacher, writer and university graduate. She’s empathetic, dreamy and a little bit vain – and just about the furthest thing you can get from a tomboy. She’s also one of the strongest female characters in fiction. She’s fiercely intelligent, a loyal friend, steadfast in her beliefs and she knows her own worth in the world. Throughout Montgomery’s books, Anne is always a positive and enriching force on the people around her, and I think she’s one of the most important female role models I had growing up.
Sophie Hatter from Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
As the eldest of three sisters, Sophie knows that her role in life is to live a boring, dutiful life and leave the adventuring to the youngest member the family (as per the traditional fairytale trope). She’s capable and sensible, as well as a talented seamstress and hat-maker, so when she’s cursed into a premature old age, she resolutely up sticks and bullies her way into a position as the cleaning lady for the enigmatic and chaotic wizard, Howl, in the hopes that he might help break her curse. Of course, it ends up being practical Sophie who saves the day, the kingdom, and even the wizard himself.
