When I was in sixth grade, my dad introduced me to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It was a television show he and my mom had watched a few seasons of, and it was a show he thought I’d really enjoy.
Boy, was he right.
I immediately fell in love with the show. You could even say I was obsessed (and a lot of my friends in middle and high school would agree). The characters, the plots, the setting and the whole idea of the show I just fell in love with.
But something that stood out particularly strongly to me was the female characters.
I’ve always been a fan of strong female characters – the ones that don’t take crap from anyone, can fend for themselves – but also the ones that hold true to their femininity as well, and don’t just reject it because it makes them look “weak.” Joss Whedon had a lot of those written into "Buffy," and I don’t know where I’d be without them.
Strong female characters are idols for young girls.
They’re who we look up to, who we idolize and dream of being. We want to grow up to be just like them – to be able to look people in the eye and say no, to fend for ourselves and be totally cool while doing it. Girls who get told they’re too “bossy” love the female character that’s in charge, girls who love video games love when their hero is a woman. Not having these characters to look up to be awful.
And that’s exactly why we need more of them.
When I look at television shows these days, I definitely see more strong female characters. But they're still few and far between. Female characters need to continue to be in the television shows that are being created -- they need to be woven throughout the story, so that girls still have someone to aspire to be like. No one's asking for them to be the main character (though that would be ideal), but to have more of them? Absolutely.
"Why do you write these strong women characters?"
"Because you're still asking me that question." Joss Whedon said it best.
When I went through middle and high school, I remember dreaming of being like Buffy Summers or Willow Rosenberg, Cordelia Chase or even Faith Lehane (though not entirely). They all had aspects of the woman I wanted to be. Kind, badass, independent and feminine. And sure, there were moments where they weren't exactly what every feminist today would have wanted in a character, but they were incredibly important to their time and shaping future characters.
So really, are we asking for too much when we say we want more?
