The Legend of Korra followed, for four seasons, a combative, kind, pugnacious, cheerful, compassionate, and above all, complicated young woman. She is visibly muscular, dark-skinned, and struggles with mental illness. She is, by divine right, the most powerful person on earth. Her story is further dominated by women of color: international leaders and housewives, children and the elderly, villains and saviors, married and single, docile and taciturn.These women were spiritual leaders, military dictators, police chiefs, heads of state, former criminals, and more. In the show’s final moments, our heroine is heavily implied to be bisexual as she walks off into her happy ending hand in hand with a gorgeous young captain of industry.
This was a cartoon on Nickelodeon.
You no longer get to complain about how hard it is to create female characters.
Anipoke_PR sharing some more screencaps for today, it actually is four screencaps but the rest are kinda not interesting, but THIS STOLE MY HEART ❤️❤️ Look at them!!!
Can I just say, I love the designs of Mei’s friends and just how different they all are.
You’ve got Priya who’s clearly of Indian descent. Her hair and facial features are great. Her deep voice, love it. The fact she’s more developed than the others because some girls just develop faster. Her interest in the gothic scene while not being decked out in black or regarded as creepy by the others.
Abby, boy is she a character. She’s a short, chubby gremlin of a girl who would not hesitate to cut a bitch. She’s mischievous and loud. And she’s not at all insecure about herself. She’s the type to say ‘Yeah I’m here, deal with it’. Also she speaks Korean when she’s mad, and idk I just like that about her.
Then Miriam. You cannot tell me this girl is not queer-coded, but I digress. Her braces, her little braids, her tomboyish outfit. Being the ‘normal’ white girl in her friend group (which I think why Ming judges her a little more than Priya and Abby tbh) there were plenty chances for her to be kinda mean and rude about their quirks, but she’s not cuz she’s as goofy as them. She loves them all as they are. Yeah she kinda gets on Mei, they all do, and appropriately holds her accountable later on, but she still doesn’t love her any less.
Honestly love that these girls are Mei’s best friends. You cannot ask for a better friend group.
This is a question that is almost always asked about female characters in children and YA books and films. Are they a good role model? Bella Swan, Katniss Everdeen, Tris Prior and Hermione Granger (and every Disney princess). We always look at the most prominent girls in YA in terms of what they teach to teenage girls.
Some of that is warranted. First of all, there aren’t as much variety to female roles as there is to male roles in fiction. Male characters are allowed to be complex, and morally grey, and have weaknesses, because there are enough heroes to balance out anti-heroes, enough good boys to balance bad boys. This creates a need for good female role models. We don’t have enough of them, so wee need to be good ones.
But it’s time to move away from that question.
The problem with that question is that it assumes that while “[white] boys will be boys”, girls need to be taught how to be “good” girls - whether that means quiet responsible chaste girls who will be good moms and wives someday or strong independent feminist girls who don’t need boys. Much has been said of Hermione as a role model, but nobody is really asking the same of Ron.
I quote this a lot because it was a revelation to me, but author Helena Coggan said “Teenage girls don’t look for role models; we look for precedents.” We spend a lot of time worrying about what Twilight teaches to girls. And we forget that Twilightwasmeaningful for millions of girls. Girls have looked at Bella and thought “I’ve been there”, “I feel that way”. And while YA girls like Katniss Everdeen or Tris Prior have many qualities girls can look up to, would they matter if it weren’t for the fact that they also feel real and relatable? That they are notperfect?
Role models are good, but girls don’t pick up books because they want to be taught how to be. They pick up books to find out they’re not alone.
