Women of the Year: A Retrospective 2016

Okay, so I have one more thing to post before getting to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

For the past year I've been choosing one woman per month to showcase on my blog, and it's though it's been a difficult task, happily the difficulties have arisen from a surplus of great female characters, not an absence. Now that the year has come to an end, I've posted my twelve Women on the Month on Tumblr, and I thought I'd expand the project to some of the ladies who didn't make the cut – not because they weren't fab in their own way, but because – well, when you limited yourself to only one per month, not everyone can be included.

So here's my list of the great female characters I discovered or revisited this year; those who I found the most inspirational, the most enjoyable, the most well-rounded, the best written and performed.

And yes, there are some obvious entries missing (Jessica Jones and Supergirl for example) simply because I haven't had a chance to catch up on their shows yet (or because I plan on giving them fuller attention next year), and you don't need to scroll down far to see that this list is also very white. Unfortunately this is a matter of popular entertainment's ongoing problems with representation – but please keep in mind that this is just the honorary list of the year's female characters. In my official monthly entries I made sure there was a more diverse selection of women included.

Imperator Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road

The premise was simple: in a post-apocalyptic world a single woman makes the attempt to rescue five young and unwilling wives of a brutal warlord. But on simple premises are complex characters built. One-armed, shaven-headed, steely-eyed Imperator Furiosa is a force to be reckoned with, yet not without moments of emotional and physical compromise.

That she is a respected commander within Immortan Joe's patriarchal hierarchy is incongruous, but speaks of a fascinating backstory that the film feels no need to delve into. Her affection and guardianship of the wives is endearing, but there's anger boiling beneath her calm exterior.  She forms a deep bond with Max, but it mercifully never tips into romantic interest. And Charlize Theron threw herself completely into the performance, from shaving her head to rolling around in the dust each morning.

Plus, her existence enraged all manner of on-line misogynists. What better indication could there be that she's fantastic?

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games franchise wrapped up this year, and it's worth celebrating its female protagonist – not just for the mountains of money she raked in at the box office, but for the simple fact that she's not a strong and infallible freedom fighter, but simply a teenage girl; one who's only in this fight because she wanted to save the life of her sister.

Although part of me still wishes for a POC actress to have played the part of Katniss (which would have only enriched the subtext of the games and the callous commodification of its participants) Jennifer Lawrence understands Katniss – that she keeps things to herself, that she's innately selfish when it comes to her loved ones, that she's not in it for your revolution.   

Her PTSD isn't skipped, and neither is her struggle to perform as a symbol of propaganda or the gender-flipped dynamics of her love story with Peeta. For all that, she's a valuable addition to literary/filmic heroines who aren't just heroines – but people.

Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens

On that note, how could I not add Rey to the party? She is 100% convincing in her purity of heart and commitment to her purpose; her loneliness so palpable I swear I could feel it emanating from the screen. I don't think I've felt so deeply attuned to a fictional character since first watching Belle from Beauty and the Beast back when I was a kid, but on watching this I was struck by how important and iconic she already is. Little girls (and boys) will be emulating her on the playground for generations to come.

There was a heavy burden on Daisy Ridley's shoulders to be the protagonist of a whole new trilogy of Star Wars films, but she doesn't play a false note throughout the entire film. Her expressive face reflects the joy, fear and wonderment of the audience. She's never once a distressed damsel. Her bravery and capabilities never feel unrealistic, but neither does the narrative ever undermine her abilities, emotions or understanding of right and wrong.

The moment Luke's lightsabre nope'd its way out of Kylo Ren's grasp and flew to the true north of Rey's hand brought tears to my eyes. I'll never forget how I felt in that moment, not as long as I live. And we get two more movies worth of this!

Peggy Carter from Agent Carter

Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter might be the Marvel franchise's most popular heroine, but it's still something of a miracle that her show was not only renewed, but greenlit in the first place. Let's face it, the films aren't hugely interested in their female characters, and even Peggy herself wasn't fully fleshed out in the first Captain America movie (though perhaps that's a debate for another time).

But someone out there knew they had struck gold with Hayley Atwell, and that there was potential to be mined with Peggy and her history with SHIELD. After appearing in the Marvel One-Shot Agent Carter (and with subsequent cameos in Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron and Ant Man, she's appeared across more of the franchise than some of its head-lining stars).

She's gusty, feminine, observant – and quite lonely. Struggling to find acceptance (or even basic respect) among her male co-workers, the 1940s provide a solid backdrop to explore sexism and chauvinism in the workplace. Her story is largely about overcoming trauma and reconciling internal/external worlds, and though it concludes with her finding closure over the death of Steve Rogers, it's clear there are still plenty of missions for Peggy to complete – and that the showrunners were clearly listening to the complaints concerning the lack of diversity in the show's first season is a promising sign for the second.

Clarke Griffin from The 100

Sometimes all you can do is your best, and sometimes not even that's good enough. If you thought the above four ladies went through their fair share of grief, despair and trauma, then clearly you haven't met Clarke Griffin yet. Thrust into a leadership role in which she more-or-less takes responsibility for ninety-nine of her peers, Clarke's journey has involved a singular goal: to keep them alive. Most of the time, she fails – and when she succeeds it usually comes at a significant emotional/mental/physical toll.

But Clarke keeps trudging onwards, guided by a moral compass that gets more dented with every episode that passes, but which she still desperately clings to as she feels the pieces of her humanity slipping away. By the time she makes her final, inescapable decision in the second season's finale, she's on the verge of a complete breakdown. That the first promos for season three suggest she's cast aside her old identity and gone into self-imposed exile doesn't surprise me in the least. But Clarke's a survivor - somehow she's going to claw her way back from this.

And while we're on the subject, I'll always admire this show's refusal to keep its female characters "pristine". They live in a brutal world, and so most of the time they're covered in a mixture blood, sweat, mud, and other gunk.

Cookie Lyon from Empire

In the lead-up to Christmas I found myself churning through the first season of Empire, a show that makes daytime soap operas feel restrained, and which is best described by its pitch: The Lion in Winter set at a record label. There are plenty of characters involved in the drama that revolves around the passing of Empire Entertainment to one of the three Lyon brothers, but there can be no question that the show is stolen – utterly and completely – by Taraji P. Henson as Cookie.

Having spent seventeen years in prison after taking the hit for her husband's drug dealing, she emerges from incarceration with only one goal: to take back what is rightfully hers. Namely, her company and her sons. It's easier said than done, but Cookie is nothing if not a Determinator.

As the season continues, we begin to realize that Cookie was much more than just a wife and mother – she was the brains and brawn behind her husband's entire music career. When she walks into a room, people immediately stop what they're doing. She has a presence that others melt in the face of. There's nobody else like her on television, and every second she was onscreen I couldn't wait to see what she'd say or do next.

Ilsa Faust from Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

The franchise is onto its fifth instalment now, but much to everyone's surprise it's still going strong – and most are in agreement that one of the best things about Rogue Nation was the inclusion of Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust. A Femme Fatale with ambiguous motivation, she eventually emerges as a trustworthy ally who saves our protagonist's life on no less than two occasions, with her own moral crisis to grapple with when it comes to the people she works for.

Tough but not infallible, her fighting prowess is based more on agility than brute force, with a pretty nifty knife fight that she wins without any assistance from another male character. There's little in the way of sexual tension between herself and Ethan, and although the camera can't help but ogle her body a little, I suppose we have to give the writers some credit for at least trying to justify shots of her in a bikini (she was timing how long she could hold her breath underwater) or a slinky evening gown (she was going undercover at the opera). Oh, and who could forget the moment she instructed Ethan to slip off her high-heeled shoes so she could run with greater ease across the rooftops?

Already there are rumours that she'll be back for Mission Impossible 6 – and as the franchise's best female character thus far, they'd be mad not to sign her on.

Anna and Elsa from Frozen

Yes, Disney's most lucrative set of princesses reappeared this year in a short film called Frozen Fever, and with a sequel on the horizon it's obvious we're not going to be seeing the last of them any time soon. I'm still rather lukewarm about the original film, and in the long-run I don't think it'll have as lasting a cultural impact as (for example) Harry Potter or Star Wars, but at the moment there's no use denying it's ubiquitousness.

And heck, if little girls are going to latch onto something in pop culture, they could do a heck of a lot worse than Elsa and Anna. I love that one of Disney's typical "fairy tale" films is based on the  love between sisters, and that it pokes fun at the franchise's familiar use of Love At First Sight (opting instead for a more low-key romantic subplot). I enjoyed Anna's cheery nature and Elsa overcoming her debilitating fear of her own abilities, and most of all I loved that the film's variation of True Love's Kiss was an act of devotion from one sister to another.

The fact that so many little girls are dressing up as Elsa – a character who is a Queen and not a princess, who has no male love interest throughout the course of the film*, whose most important relationship is with her sister – well, that's not something to scoff at.

*Not that there's anything wrong with having a male love interest, just that it's refreshing not to have that dynamic for a change – especially in a film aimed predominantly at little girls.

Emma Frost from Wolverine and the X-Men

I was very late to the Wolverine and the X-Men party (it aired back in 2009) but I was blown away by their take on Emma Frost. Morally ambiguous, coldly inscrutable, endlessly cunning – she was the centrepiece of the narrative in many ways, and certainly its most compelling character.

With her clipped British accent and pure white clothing, she's the epitome of an Ice Queen in every particular – except that there's a lot more churning beneath her surface than initially appears. It takes the entire length of the first season to figure out exactly what her agenda is, and I promise you'll be watching her carefully, just trying to figure her out. She's doubtlessly very manipulative, but her attempts to befriend the X-Men and assist them in their various missions appear sincere enough.

Her telepathic abilities and diamond form are utilized in imaginative ways throughout the series, and she's given a fairly spectacular role to play in the finale. After hearing nothing but complaints about Emma's characterization in X-Men: First Class, the internet had me fooled into thinking Emma Frost was a negligible figure in the X-Men franchise. This proves that definitely isn't the case.

Clare Fraser from Outlander

I can't pretend that I particularly enjoyed Outlander or that I'll be tuning in for its second season, but there is something to be said about its female protagonist. Having accidentally travelled back in time from 1945 to 1743, Clare has nothing but her wits and foreknowledge of the future to help her negotiate the strange new world she's been catapulted into.

In many ways Outlander is just as much a historical survival story as it is a romance, with Clare struggling to adapt to the social norms, living conditions and frequent hardships of life in the 16^th century Scottish Highlands. At no point does the narrative require her to pick up a giant sword and become a warrior princess: instead she must draw upon her quick-wits, medical knowledge and common sense in order to get her bearings, make herself useful to the community, and try to figure out a way back home.

She's not perfect. Her sharp tongue and quick temper get her into trouble (or deeper into trouble) on more than one occasion, and though she's kind and compassionate she can also be hugely pragmatic and ruthless when the need arises.  But I liked that the show retains her femininity throughout, for – notwithstanding a few scenes in which she wears breeches – Clare does not need to disguise herself as a man or even act like a man in order to survive.                                            

Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene

Thanks to a local second-hand book sale I ended up with half-a-dozen Nancy Drew books I'd never read before. Looking forward to a walk down memory lane I devoured them over the course of a week, finding that (as with most things from your childhood that you revisit as an adult) they haven't aged particularly well. The plots are flimsy, the characterization is weak, and the prose is completely uninspiring.

And yet as self-insert escapism, there's no fictional character more escapist than Nancy Drew.  Nancy is a teenager with complete independence and a bottomless bank account. She turns heads wherever she goes thanks to her pretty face and titian hair. There's no clue too small that'll escape her keen observation skills. She can whip up a chicken salad on the spot, and carries around a tote bag full of clothing in her blue roadster (so she's ready for any occasion). She effortlessly juggles her social life, love life, and budding career as a private investigator, and maintains a perfect balance of toughness and feminine poise.

Basically, she's a Mary Sue. And guess what? I don't care. Since the publication of The Secret of the Old Clock in 1930, over 200 million Nancy Drew books have been sold around the world. She's an icon, a role model, an unattainable ideal – and sometimes that's exactly what you need. Though there's been a lot of rewrites, reboots and new editions of the original novels across the years, each making Nancy more assertive or more fallible depending on what decade she's living in, it remains that the adventures of Nancy Drew are practically a rite of passage for many young readers, presenting them with a heroine who will always save the day, and will always be perfectly poised, well-mannered and excellently groomed whilst doing so.

Nausicaa from The Valley of the Wind

Speaking of Mary Sues, here’s another character that ticks a lot of the prerequisite boxes. She’s pretty. She’s an ace flyer. She’s a princess beloved by all her people. Animals adore her. By the end of the film, she’s been identified as the messianic subject of a world-saving prophesy. This girl can do anything.

Yet for some reason, Nausicaa is spared the usual “Mary Sue” accusations. Perhaps the reputation of film-maker Hayao Miyazaki helped, perhaps it’s the sheer likeability of Nausicaa herself, but this is one of those rare female characters who manages to retain her popularity despite being practically perfect in every way (not even darling Rey was spared the inevitable "Mary Sue" griping, so it's worth celebrating the existence of a female character whose awesomeness doesn't seem to be questioned). Nausicaa is a fully-fledged heroine: efficient, cool-headed, intelligent and compassionate, whose heroism is not based on being a warrior but a peacemaker.

As it happens, she's the protagonist of my favourite Studio Ghibli film. Set in a post-apocalyptic world thousands of years into the future, most of the globe is overrun by toxic jungles that produce spores deadly to human beings. Added danger comes from the insect life that now dominates the earth, particularly those known as the Ohmu. They look rather like giant pill-bugs with bulbous eyes that change colour depending on their moods, and it is their dead bodies that produce poisonous spores that make life so difficult for what remains of humanity.

Nausicaa is a princess of the Valley of the Wind, a place made safe from the spores by the wind that drifts in from the sea, and one of the few people brave enough to venture into the toxic jungle on her glider. I mentioned Rey earlier because I'm fairly certain Nausicaa at least partly inspired our latest Star Wars heroine, with an early scene in particular bearing a striking resemblance to Rey sitting outside the fallen AT-AT she calls home. So if you're looking for another female character to tide you over until the next Star Wars film, try tracking down Nausicaa – a young woman who takes it upon herself to mend the breach between three warring communities… and pulls it off through sheer force of will.

Clariel by Garth Nix

I'm cheating a little with this one, as I read Clariel back in 2014 – but she was such a great character that I'm including her here. Clariel is a prequel to Nix's fantastic Old Kingdom trilogy (one that's high on central female characters) in which the titular Clariel is forced to move with her parents to the busy city of Belisaere. There her important family quickly becomes the target of violent agitators, but Clariel – who only wishes to become a forester and live in solitude – has little interest in getting involved.

Clariel makes for an unorthodox heroine, and not strictly an appealing one. Asexual and aromantic (that is, uninterested in any forms of intimacy), she borders on anti-social at times. But I always welcome a female protagonist who doesn’t feel any compulsion to be likeable — either to the reader or other characters, and she’s sharply written as a young woman driven by her desire to live alone in the forest, only for her growing (though unwelcome) sense of responsibility to spur her into action against her enemies.

But Nix never undermines her love of seclusion or her consistency in rejecting overtures of love. She never meets “the one” who makes her reconsider her decisions, and she politely but firmly shuts down any attempts to make her change her mind. It’s rare to find a female character that is so confident in who she is and what she wants, making her story a unique one amongst the huge variety of YA books out there.

Unnamed Heroine from The Sleeper and the Spindle

This Christmas I treated myself to Neil Gaiman's The Sleeper and the Spindle, a fairy tale novella illustrated by Chris Riddle. The Queen of a faraway land is about to be wed, until three dwarfs bring her news of a sleeping curse in a neighbouring kingdom; one that's slowly seeping out into the rest of the world.

The Queen orders her mail shirt, sword, provisions and a horse, riding out to investigate with the assistance of the dwarfs. Gaiman offers no explanations or justifications as to why his protagonist is a woman – she just is, and the story proceeds without commentary on it. Though she's never given a name throughout the course of the story, there are several clues that hint as to her true identity, and she overcomes plenty of obstacles on her way to the castle where the spell was first cast.

On browsing opinions of the book on Amazon.com, my favourite negative review makes the following criticism:

"[Gaiman] reworks the stories to be female empowering because he’s a savvy businessman who knows a major chunk of his audience is made up of women."

What a strange thing to do – write a book that will appeal to a major chuck of his audience. What are authors trying to achieve by catering to half the human race? Madness!

***

Although I'm well aware that works still needs to be done when it comes to rectifying the imbalance between male and female characters in fiction (especially when it comes to WOC and LGBT representation), I'm a glass-half full type of person, and I think it's been a great year for stories about women. There were plenty of others I could have included here: the Clone Club from Orphan Black, Lily/Brona from Penny Dreadful, Leslie Knope and April Ludgate from Parks and Recreation – but when I started this project I challenged myself to showcasing only one female character per story.

But this was the year in which discourses about visibility and representation grew louder than ever – and for the first time it feels as though those in positions of power are starting to listen. It's a slow business, and a frustrating one – but if 2015 is any indication, then progress is being made, and things are getting better. What can I say, I'm an optimist.