Strong Female Characters

[aldersprig]

ysabetwordsmith has posted here (and on LJ) a discussion on this article on "What Do You Mean When You Say You Want ‘Strong Female Characters’?"

I had strong feelings about it reading Ysabet's post, stronger ones having read the article, but... putting those aside for a moment, what do YOU think? What makes a strong character?

Comments

[outlineofash]

Iiiinteresting to think about. Well, personally I consider a "strong female character" to be one that has her own drives and needs and the story uses or addresses them to some effect.

For example, I consider Rachel from The Dark Knight to be a weak female character. She has a "tough" job as an assistant district attorney, but her role in the movie is to create conflict for two male characters. Whatever happens to her (not even what she does, just what others do to her) matters because it affects Bruce and Harvey. She's just used as a tool for emotional drama.

So yeah. In my mind, strong = actively affects the story with her drives/needs. That's as restrictive as my definition gets, because frankly I find narrower parameters like "Physically capable of kicking ass and talking shit" exclusive of what strong can mean.

...I hope some of this made sense; I'm only on my first cup of coffee. :D