Portrayals of Feminine Skills and Attibutes as Sources of Strengh and Power

"Similarly, the Kyoshi Warriors have a fighting style that turns feminine accessories like fans into key weapons in their arsenal. When Sokka meets them, he has to be more feminine, rather than less, to become a more skilled fighter. If we had more portrayals of traditionally feminine skills and attributes as sources of strength and power, I think showing women as strong when they take on traditionally male attributes or roles wouldn’t feel like lazy shorthand and instead could be part of a Balanced Action Diet. We need Michelle Yeohs, Sigourney Weavers, and Hit-Girls along with our Angelinas." via ThinkProgress by Alyssa Rosenberg on 9/7/11

 I am going to use this quote as a jumping off point for my blog post today. One of the comments at the Geek Girl Con that I attended this past weekend was basically this point.


Lazy shorthand of creating a strong female character from this article seems to be the tough strong woman such as Ripley (Alien), Sarah Conner (The Terminator; The Sarah Conner Chronicles), and Starbuck (Battlestar Galactica). These are traditional the examples of a strong female character. And they are strong. And they are awesome. But what do they all have in common? They all subscribe to a patriarchal view of strength--physical prowess, tough attitude, and militaristic influences.

On a message board for the Fable II Xbox game, one poster asked, "Can I have a Female With Max strength stats without her being all bulky and stuff?"


I think the question should be, what makes a strong female character. And that the one of the better answers would be one that follows a more feminine strength, like the Kyoshi Warriors and the Japanese war fan weapons they use. 

To take it further one could say a female strength can come from even more traditionally feminine characteristics. What would these be?


Or you could go in another direction and define a strong woman as one who was strong, but not necessarily male or female. Then you would move into androgyny. How would this be defined?