Every time some idiot online whines about how sexist science fiction “has always been,” my first thought is “STFU, you know nothing.”
And that’s usually the case. They know nothing.
A lot of the current generation who use Communist terms like “sexism, racism” etc, to describe things they don’t like … well, those people often think that history started with them.
After all, the number of idiots hired for Current Gen SF brands boast about how they are the first of anything?
Like Jennifer Lawrence describing herself as the “first female action star.”
Or how the lead of Star Trek Dumpster Fire… er, Discovery … said she was the first black and first female character in the entire Star Trek franchise. Meanwhile, Uhura, Sisko, and Janeway exist.
But that’s what you get when you try to talk to folks who know nothing outside of their little bubble — which is starting to look more like they’re vacuum packed.
Of course, when someone whines how sexist SF is, it is usually in defense of some garbage movie.
Captain Marvel sucks? You’re sexist.
Don’t like how they screwed The Little Mermaid? You’re racist and sexist.
You get the idea.
I have mercifully forgotten most of the films that have come out in the last few years, so you can generate your own list, of course.
Then again, I put in a lot of work generating a similar list in the “What’s Woke” article.
The first and immediate response to idiots like these is to cite Ellen Ripley of the Alien franchise.
In fact, so many people have cited her so often, the Lefty douchebags have come up with memes declaring how "Ripley is the only one anyone can think of."
Oh? Really?
In a world where grifters like Anita Sarkeesian, Gail Simone, and Sweet Baby Inc turn everything they touch into crap, usually with large helpings of Ninth Wave Feminist BS, I figure we need a quick retrospective of where women have been in SFF.
And maybe we can pull them away from Current Year nonsense.
Ellen Ripley, Alien franchise
Let’s get this out of the way.
Ellen Ripley started life in the script written as a man. I don’t know how much of that was kept in the final production after they hired Sigourney Weaver. I never could get into Alien, since it was just a haunted house movie in space. (Literally. Some even cite a specific French film.)
Aliens, on the other hand, this I could get into. Space marines versus living tanks with acidic blood? I’ll at least give it a try.
Aliens gives Ripley an interesting dynamic. She squares off against marines, where even the female member of the team has more testosterone than most men, and she does it with banter and her general knowledge—she beats up no one with her fists. She can be as mentally tough as the men when needed, and tougher in that she knows what to expect and can act more decisively than those around her.
I found the more interesting thing about her was that she was still clearly a woman. She had maternal instincts, as we saw with the young Newt—the sole survivor of a colony overrun with the title Aliens. And as tough as she was, as soon as Newt was in danger from the Alien Queen, Ripley became the most heavily armed Mama Bear in existence.
Yeah. This is pretty much what I think of with Aliens.
Okay, and this…
Some people say you can’t hear photos.
What? You mean we could get an emotionally complex human being in 1986 Scifi? Say it ain’t so.
It’s so. Cry harder.
Also, there was Private Vasquez, played by … a Goldstein? Huh. Hollywood casting indeed.
Sarah Connor
Come with me if you want to live.
Yes, I’m thinking of Sarah Connor from The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
As we all know, there were no other Terminator films to star in.
… Okay, I also liked The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but that’s a different mess. (I so wanted Summer Glau to have a TV series that worked. Sigh.)
Anyway, we know the story. Sarah Connor is living her life, just another waitress making her way through LA in the 80s. Out of the blue, she’s being hunted by a neigh-unstoppable killing machine from the future who looks like an Austrian Mister Universe. Sarah is rescued by a bodyguard, also from the future, and the entire film is almost one long chase.
The evolution of this character is something else. In the first film, she really is a damsel in distress. She is almost The Damsel.
And then, we get our final reversal. Despite being trapped, she gets the third line1 in the movie everyone knows, and takes out the mechanical assassin.
In T2, knowing everything she does about the nightmare future that’s coming, she does everything in her power to prepare her son for warfare against an AI army of killer machines.
The Sarah Connor Terminator 2 is no shrinking violet. Despite being locked up in a mental ward for years, she keeps herself in fighting trim. She’s able to take out bigger opponents using surprise, weapons, and training. (Her human opponents are pretty useless, come to think about it. I may have to watch the film again. It’s been a while.)
Heck, there’s only one real moment in T2 where she seems scared: When she runs into a carbon copy of the machine that tried to kill her last time. Can’t imagine why that would unnerve her. Right?
But, like Ripley, she’s strong when she needs to be, and she is the most badass mother ever. At just the possibility of a future that threatened her son, she declared war before the war began. And by the end of the film, she nearly kills the primary antagonist. (Just a few more shotgun shells…)
Oh no! An emotionally complex and capable woman who’s a badass without needing to throw down with a man five times her size?
Again, cry harder.
Lara Croft
Let’s go with another easy one. And we’re going from the complex to the simple.
“But Declan, you fat bastard,” you say, “wasn’t Lara just a male fantasy? Wasn’t she just glorified wish fulfilment?”
You mean the rectangle hips and the triangle chest were supposed to be attractive? Seriously, by that standard, geometry is considered porn. Heaven forbid! You f**kers seriously think that this was sexy?
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The prettiest she got was on the box.
I don’t know about you, but I suspect — just suspect, mind you — that this was not nearly enough to justify over two million in sales on the first game.
Perhaps—just a guess, mind you—the game was fun.
Maybe the character was charming.
Lara Croft was written as a woman. She was flirty, but it was usually as a weapon within dialogue.
It’s James Bond banter in an Indiana Jones setting.
She wasn’t deep, but she was fun …
Also like James Bond, come to think of it.
She was also supposed to be smart enough to translate multiple languages, solve complex traps and problems, and survive bear attacks with a lot of gymnastic backflips, and a pair of desert eagles.
And she didn’t have to take down a single person in a direct fistfight.
I’m looking at you, The Last of Us II, you piece of…
Oh, yeah.
While I think of it.
Speaking of video games heroines:
Babylon 5
This needs its own section
I could probably write a book around Babylon 5. I technically did, but let’s not go there. But this has two entries.
Delenn
Like every other character on Babylon 5, Delenn had an interesting evolution. She went from planetary leader on a spy mission, to outcast, to military leader, to basically leading half the galaxy.
It was a wild five years.
But Delenn was a very well rounded character. She was spiritual, she had secrets, was only feminine, she was smart, and when she needed to, she would start wars … and then finish them.
Remember what I said about hearing images?
Okay, if you haven’t seen Babylon 5…
Now, for fans of Babylon 5, this is a common example.
I’m also fond of this one.
Also, any time Delenn had to deal with human language, or even … other human problems.
If you haven’t watched Babylon 5, I recommend you do so.
Commander Susan Ivanova**
While Delenn was a well-rounded character, Ivanova was a little broken in places. She was very Russian. At times, she was Jewish. She brought a sardonic edge to most situations. She only got into two fistfights that I recall, and one was with another woman (Babylon 5: Thirdspace).
She had some daddy issues, but that’s because the writer had daddy issues even worse. So let’s not go there. (I read his biography. I understand him more than I ever wanted to)
Ivanova had a bunch of flaws, and some of it involved drinking (because Russian). But she was solid, and she put up with no garbage whatsoever.
And then there’s this little see. Again, chewing some scenery, but I’m not sure I care. It was so much fun.
**Side note:
“Oh, Ivanova is gay! How woke!”
Oh, shut up. It was never stated, and it never fed into her character. Despite IMAX-level projection by LGBTQ-BS (and later, even writer J. Michael Straczynski), it was perhaps implied in two episodes that she might be bi, and it never came up ever again.
It also wasn’t shoved down our throats in Every. Single. F**king. Episode.
Col Samantha Carter
Stargate SG-1
“You blow up one sun, and suddenly everyone expects you to walk on water.” ~Samantha Carter
If you saw the film Stargate, the TV show was very similar. Take air force teams to go through a portal to other planets in an effort to take out an alien race that pretend to be deities from the ancient world.
Samantha Carter was the brains of the operation from a science perspective.
Yes, she was a pretty blonde with a horrible, air force haircut. But most of her time on screen was saving either the team or the galaxy. Yes, she had great bone structure, but she was too busy making Star Trek’s Scotty look like an underachiever.
And yes, she did blow up a sun once.
But she was badass. And charming. And wiped out half of the galaxy’s badguys at least once.
(I feel like there should be an honorable mention for Morena Baccarin’s Aria. She was a villain, but she seemed like such a normal person … until she talked about taking over the galaxy and subjugating everyone as slaves. I don’t know how much was the character, and how much was the delivery.)
Oh, and there’s Teyla, from Stargate: Atlantis, who was so well-written and acted, she was girly and kickass, with some wise woman thrown in for fun.
Supergirl
We’ve never had a bad Supergirl, really.
Bad Supergirl film and TV scrips, yes. But never a bad Supergirl.
There was even a while when I liked The DC CW TV show… but like everything CW touched, it turned stupid, lame and gay.
Person of Interest
Again, it’s own section
This is a TV sci-fi show that doesn’t get enough love. It’s not a study in how to make strong female characters: it’s a study in good characters. Yes, it got weird somewhere around mid-season four, but I digress.
Ever have a TV show where almost everyone is working off some sort of redemption arc? I don’t mean two characters, but six main characters, all at the same time? And despite the heavy body count, everyone … kind of … had a happy ending?
Detective Jocelyn Carter
Goes from Javert (or Gerard) to one of the team, she might be the only one without a redemption arc required. She’s lawful good without being boring. And after binging every episode she’s been in lately (I found the show free on FreeVee) I don’t think she had a word of dialogue that relied on her skin tone.
Yes, this Carter was played by Taraji P Henson. She left Person of Interest for the Fox show Empire, and played in eight movies during the series run. But from what I could tell, she could have been played by an actress of any ethnicity, and I don’t think a word of dialogue needed to change.
There was also Root, and Shaw, and Paige Turco’s fixer.
Lois Lane
No, I’m not touching any modern Lois Lanes, since they all feel like they’re “made for modern audiences.” But considering that Lois Lane started as a knockoff of the “spunky female reporter” created by the Torchy Blane film series, she hasn’t done bad for herself. Even when she was created in 1938, she was fearless.
It’s one of the few times I never saw a reporter go through a redemption process — after all, in the 1930s, they knew that reporters were the scum of the Earth. (The most sympathetic portrayal of a journalist, It Happened One Night, still had to have the protagonist evolve into a human being. Citizen Kane was more accurate. F**king Hearst…)
Anyway, in an era where reporters writ large were obviously the scum of the Earth, she didn’t require a redemption arc.
Jim Butcher.
No, Jim Butcher hasn’t gone trans.
Go through everything Jim Butcher has written. And I mean everything. I’m not sure there is a single woman who is not some variation of badass.
No, I’m not going to go through all of them. That really is a book.
The Dresden Files
Every woman in every Harry Dresden novel is a badass.
Karrin Murphy — cop, martial artist, and wants to be Batman with guns. And may have managed it.
Lara Raith — vampire mafia boss
Gard — Valkyrie. Enough said.
Justine — I’d also simplify her job as a spy. Fixer might be more accurate.
Mab / Maeve / Pick one — Fae Queen, mistress of air and darkness, etc. Utterly terrifying. Not quite all-powerful, but close enough for government work.
Molly Carpenter — weapon of mass destruction
Codex Alera
Amara: Spy
Isana: technically a medic. Still wouldn’t mess with her. Long, long story. Think “blood bending” from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Kitai: She had all of our hero’s strengths, with a superpower of pragmatism.
Invidia: Not quite the ultimate evil. But close.
The Vord Queens: The ultimate enemy, they look like the Flood from Halo. Or the Zarg. But she had a personality, and was more human than some of the human villains.
Cinder Spires
I cannot go through this like I did with the other two. I only read the first one when it came out. (Nine years ago.) But it opened with a woman telling her mother she is going to join the army, and she does it at blaster point. Then it spirals.
Alias
Hey, remember when there was a science fiction spy thriller on air for six years? It’s before Jennifer Garner married Ben Affleck. It may have been the start of her career.
Jennifer Garner played Sydney Bristow. And despite how she was presented on the show, I’m not going to say that she was the most beautiful woman on Earth. But she was definitely kick ass. I remember her fights being less “I’m going to square off and beat down men,” but I remember a lot of bouncing around like a rubber ball, using improvised weapons, and shootouts. People can correct me if I misremember.
Keep in mind, Black Widow was a popular character before Scarlett Johansson was even born.
And then they had to drop the ball with Black Widow. Argh.
Honorable Mentions
There are some characters that I don’t need to explain, but I do feel the need to at least mention them. Again, if anyone needs a ready reference guide to smack around modern day idiots, it might as well be as complete as possible.
Also, some of these characters might be debatable, and I don’t want to get even more lost in the weeds…
Yeah, yeah. I know. Too Late. And this has gone on WAAAAYYY too long.
Babylon 5 (Talia Winters & Lyta Alexander … told you they were debatable.)
Black Cat, Silver Sable
Dale Arden (Flash Gordon)
Princess Leia. (Not General)
Emma Peel (The Avengers)
Dejah Thoris
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Deep Space Nine (Dax. Kira)
Star Trek: Uhura, obviously
Red Sonja
Honor Harrington
Gamora. Nebula. Black Widow
Miss Congeniality
Wonder Woman
Lion in Winter
Live Die Repeat. (Or almost anything with Emily Blunt)
Leverage, Parker (this is debatable if it’s even Scifi)
Xena: Warrior Princess: Lucy Lawless. Gay? Implied, and we never needed more than that. I’d be afraid if they tried to reboot this.
Long Kiss Goodnight— Female Jason Bourne. Geena Davis was more badass in this one film than Matt Damon in every Bourne film.
Resident Evil
Underworld
Castle
RoboCop —remember Murphy’s partner?
Scarecrow and Mrs King.
Charlie’s Angels: original TV series.
Tremors: Reba especially.
Kill Bill
Mr. and Mrs Smith
Gina Carano
Catwoman
Bionic Woman
Half of Hitchcock films.
Conclusion
Notice how many of these characters are just well written. Most aren’t brawlers who can fight people in hand to hand combat. They’re not little Waifs beating up men five times their size and weight. But they don’t need to. They have guns. Or superpowers. Or cybernetic body parts. Or ship fleets. Or swords.
You get the idea. These women are well-written characters. They aren’t all three-dimensional characters, but not every character needs to be. They just have to be good as characters.
Did I leave out entries? Absolutely. But I’m not going to get into certain conversations. I’m not getting into quibbles with guys like Razorfist over which Dax was better on DS9. Or when did Kira become more of a person instead of “The always angry one.” If I listen to another paper on “how historic Uhura was,” I’m going to throw something. Obviously, there is ground that does not need to be re-trod.
Also, this is an entire list of women protagonists. I have barely touched on villains and antagonists.
To support the blog, feel free to go to my books and pick up something.
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