Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
“Do you know what it means to be a strong person?” I asked a little girl on camera a few weeks back at a shoot.
The beautiful little 10 year old girl with big brown hair and beautiful, bold eyes considered my question with a quiet grin. I had asked more than 20 girls the same question that day. None of them approached it the way she did.
“It means two things. A strong person can be strong with their body. Like they can lift heavy things and punch and kick, like, Mulan. But you can also be strong inside your body. In your brain and stuff, so you can do things that are hard in life,” said the little girl.
When we talk about strong female characters, we do tend to think of women like Disney’s Mulan. Punching, kicking, bow-wielding, spandex-wearing badasses that may or may not have super powers or kill vampires on the weekends. There’s nothing wrong with this in theory, but it perpetuates a fairly dangerous idea about what makes women strong and what qualities young girls and women should try to attain in order to be characterized as “strong” in their real lives. Looking up to a character like Katniss Everdeen for her masterful archery skill, resilience and protective qualities isn’t wrong, but it means that less overtly violent characters in our media often don’t get positioned alongside characters like her. And they certainly aren’t held up as examples of “strong female characters” in our cultural discussions on the topic.
Take some of these women, none of which have been written about as “strong female characters,” but undoubtedly have the kind of strength that our little girl at the top of our story was describing in her second assessment of the trait:
Cheryl Strayed in Wild:
In this true story turned film, Cheryl Strayed endures the death of her mother and dissolving of her marriage, but just barely. So she does something crazy: she decides to hike more than 1,000 miles to find herself again. No prior experience. No money. Just her body and her hiking pack. And it’s not pretty. It’s not glamorous. But it’s a hell of a fete and it’s the perfect example of what a strong, real life woman might do when her heart is shattered. It’s an important lesson: sometimes we discover truly how strong we are when we’re convinced we have no strength left.
Joan Watson:
It’s not a secret around here that I have a serious soft spot for Elementary’s female take on the famous Watson. However, one of the things I don’t talk about often enough is how her brute intelligence makes her a prime example of female strength. For those who aren’t familiar, prior to joining Sherlock, was working as a surgeon. She left medicine after an accident with a patient left her gutted and became a sober companion professionally. However, upon meeting Sherlock, she recaptured a passion for using her precision like intelligence and began working with Holmes as a detective. That backstory is important, because in her case, it’s about how a career-ending incident could have destroyed her. Instead, it was the pathway for becoming a new person. For using her best skills in a new way. And for realizing that we are always capable of reinvention.
Selena Meyer on Veep:
Undoubtedly the funniest character on this list, HBO’s Veep is one of the most ridiculous shows around, poking fun at politics with a thick log instead of a pointy skewer. The most profound part about it though is Selena. She is relentless, passionate, funny and unforgiving. And while definitely an asshole at times, she has a lot of qualities we just don’t see on TV enough. She is an unmarried working woman who isn’t even looking for a husband. She is entirely devoted to her career in a way that doesn’t involve her looking like shit or living a sexless life. Instead, she owns it. She isn’t remotely concerned with placating others opinions on that matter in a field where being married and staying married is seemingly a prerequisite for success. It’s an important narrative and one that exemplifies the lives of truly strong, modern, American women.
Scandal’s Olivia Pope:
Here’s the thing about Miss Olivia Pope: she is surrounded by crazy. She is surrounded by violence. She is surrounded by murder. She is surrounded by the worst possible types of human beings. And yet, despite all this, her instinct is to somehow hold onto her integrity and be a warrior in every way she possibly can, even when that means turning against her father or her lover. And sometimes she quivers. And sometimes she cries. And she is truly hurt a lot of the time. But you know what? That woman keeps going. She’s incapable of quitting despite all the odds and all the facts pointing to: get out of here, dammit. I admire that kind of resilience. And I’m so glad she is on my TV every week to remind me that yes, even Girl Boss’s cry sometimes.
Scorpion’s Happy Quinn:
A show about super geniuses was bound to end up on this list. Even though the show is known for its occasional ridiculous car chase or weird bomb explosion, the merits of this character are so far separated from those things that she is worth mentioning. Happy makes the list for three reasons. First, she is a rare example of a woman with engineering prowess in our media. And that’s not just traditional engineering - it’s a deep understanding of systems and mathematics that are core to her character. Second, she’s got a beautiful and growing personal struggle with her father, who she helps out at his shop from time to time. This brief looks into her personal life shows off a person who is committed to understanding herself, even though it’s painful to look back. And finally, she presents herself like a badass and isn’t afraid to own it. She regularly brushes off the advances of men and isn’t seen swooning, ever. This isn’t to say that romance makes you weak, but rather, it’s to mention that strong female characters are stereotypically “softened” with romance to make them more personable. I appreciate Happy for bucking this trend.
Kumiko the Treasure Hunter:
Kumiko is strange. And that’s why I love her. What do most traditionally defined strong female characters have in common? They are attractive, if not sexy. They take no shit from men, although at times this is borderline flirtatious in nature versus being a bold stance. They are emboldened by both their physical power and their sexual power. And they are often driven by revenge or a calling of some kind that is outside of themselves. Kumiko is basically the opposite of all these things. She is actively covered up for most of the movie. She has few meaningful interactions with men. And she is emboldened by her own strong belief that there is a hidden treasure in the northern woods that she must find. It’s a calling she feels deeply within herself and while the story is indie in every way imaginable, it’s still heartfelt and real and honest.
Kimmy Schmidt:
A Twitter friend recently described this subversive comedy as some weird hybrid of 30 Rock and Arrested Development. To be fair, I think this is a fairly accurate description of the show and builds off a character who would have been included here instead of Kimmy, Liz Lemon. These two women couldn’t be more different in terms of their careers and life paths, but they share a few things in a character venn diagram that are valuable: unique optimism, bold perseverance and an accepted awkwardness. It’s hard to let yourself be YOURSELF, in a world full of people who are trying to be anything but. Kimmy is distinctly admirable for making that self-acceptance journey so funny.
Carol from In a World:
This movie is one of my favorite female-led indie films from the last 5 years. Why? Because it’s the perfect example of how strong women don’t always have their shit together. But, they do have the tenacity to go after what they want. Carol’s quest to be the next voiceover trailer star of Hollywood is so endearing and perfectly balanced that you find yourself rooting her for very specific career goals. She shows that to get there, she didn’t change who she was, but rather, embraced all her own individuality. That takes a courage that’s rare to find in real life and it’s worth celebrating in our media too.
While the “strong female character” has traditionally been easy to spot in superhero and action movies, I think it’s important we begin to expand the definition. Not only will it help us to embrace a wider swatch of characters, but it will ensure that we don’t propagate the idea that brute strength and violence is the only way to be considered a badass. While some may say that it’s precarious solely because it aligns women’s value to the most commonly perceived traits in men, that’s not the only reason it’s troubling. In large part because the most difficult challenges we most commonly face in life have nothing to do with our ability to throw a punch. Sometimes, it’s the very act of not throwing the punch and instead going for a really long hike that makes a person a strong.
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