National Women's Day

I'm non big on the whole "National (Whatever) Day" affair considering every solar daytime is a National Something Day.  I wonder if there's a National Walk Your Dog Day.  But I did run into i article that made me think, too genuinely appreciate women inwards this civilization that seems to endure regressing dorsum to the thought of women equally property.  (That's an aside that's neither hither nor there, exactly thought I'd throw it out there.)

This article on Flavorwire lists 10 kick-ass woman someone literary characters, some of which I concord with, too some of which are arguable.  I disagree alongside Hester Prynne, solely because I actually hated that book.  She may conduct hold come upwardly out alongside her caput held high, but I never actually read her equally a rigid woman.  I also admired Jane Eyre, but didn't especially taste her equally a character.  Considering she falls for a human who lacks whatever existent redeeming qualities, it bothers me that the mass garnered therefore much critical attention.  Granted, it was rattling daring for its day, but meh.  I preferred Wuthering Heights.


So let's see, who would I count amid my overstep 10 kick-ass rigid literary women?  Let me ponder this.


1. Fanny Price, of Mansfield Park past times Jane Austen.
 Why:  Fanny is, inwards my opinion, Austen's "new" model of the True Woman.  In an era when women were married off for coin or solid unit of measurement alliances, had no order inwards their ain lives, too were expected to endure meek too submissive, Fanny shines equally an illustration of having a volition too heed of her ain piece remaining truthful to herself too faithful to her family.  She refuses to run far the agency of her cousin's happiness fifty-fifty though his happiness would movement her grief, too she also refuses the manus of a human she knows to endure a rake despite the cognition that she disappoints her uncle.  I admire her strength, standing fast until her cognition of her suitor is exposed, too it is plumbing equipment that she therefore gets what she genuinely wants: she gets to hook upwardly alongside her love.


2 & 3. Hope Leslie too Magawisca, of Hope Leslie past times Catharine Maria Sedgwick
Why: Well, Goodreads' summary of the mass says it best.  At the optic of the novel are 2 friends whose actions too attitudes illustrate woman someone strengths too values. Hope Leslie, a spirited thinker inwards a repressive Puritan society, fights for judge for the Indians too asserts the equality of the sexes past times defying the patriarchs too choosing her ain husband. Magawisca, the fille of a Pequot chief, braves her father's wrath to salvage a white human too risks her liberty to reunite Hope alongside her sister, who equally a fry was captured past times the Pequots too has chosen to stay alongside them.  Sorry I didn't write it, but I actually liked the agency they lay this.  These 2 characters stand upwardly up for what they believe inwards during a fourth dimension when it was unsafe for women to verbalize out, especially for Native American women.


4. Isabella Linwood, of The Linwoods past times Catharine Maria Sedgwick
Why: CMS makes a minute appearance on my listing because of her penchant for writing rigid woman someone characters.  Her literature was based roughly a reformation of the True Woman, her stories virtually rigid women replacing the one-time True Woman.  Isabella is i of my favorite woman someone characters because of her pull inwards defying her father, a Tory, too defending her brother, a Rebel.  She puts herself inwards mortal danger through her political activity, too for that she replaces her weak-minded friend Bessie equally the novel True Woman.  Also, I dear this mass therefore much because of how subversive it was inwards its commentary virtually women too society.


5. Sophie, of Howl's Moving Castle past times Diana Wynne Jones
Why: Sophie is i of the most powerful woman someone characters inwards literature but because she keeps going on, driving the storey too her ain life.  She is turned into an one-time adult woman past times the Witch of the Waste too nevertheless she goes on a journeying to larn her ain trunk back.  She saves her love, too she saves others who conduct hold fallen nether the mightiness of the Witch.  She is a grapheme toward whom other characters gravitate.  She has mental attitude too spunk too she gets her sh*t done!  Also, inwards sequels to the novel, she does a non bad chore at keeping her solid unit of measurement prophylactic too rescuing them from harm.  Gotta dear Sophie, she is i kick-ass chick!


6. Jill, of The Deverry Cycle past times Katharine Kerr
Why: Jill, through all of her incarnations inwards this epic fantasy series, ever manages to present her inner strength.  She finally comes to price alongside who she is (a powerful Dweomermaster) too devotes her life to the Dweomer, giving upwardly the human she loves too the life she used to Pb to larn someone dangerous.  She is a grapheme I conduct hold admired for a long time, too conduct hold ever felt her pull equally an inspiration to myself.

7. Guiwenneth, of The Mythago Wood Cycle past times Robert Holdstock

Why: Guiwenneth, too her forms that look throughout the cycle, is a warrior adult woman who is therefore attractive to the men inwards the books that they follow her into Ryhope Wood, getting lost inwards its interior basis too living through some of her myths.  I've ever admired her mightiness to conduct hold assist of herself, remaining rigid inwards the facial expression upwardly of expiry too fear, too protecting those she loves from danger.  Even though she is herself a Mythago, she is i of the most substantial Mythagos created from the forest too reappears inwards rattling meaning ways.  I appreciate her equally a rigid too kick-ass woman.

8. Antigone, of Antigone past times Sophocles

Why: Antigone is peradventure i of the earliest rigid woman someone characters because of her challenge of politics too morality inwards ancient Greece.  This play is required reading inwards many schools, especially the ones I went to, too hats off to those schools!  If immature girls alternative upwardly on fifty-fifty a part of her determination, it's a skilful thing.  Her struggle to bury her brothers properly, too defiance of the Rex of Thebes, lands her a expiry sentence.  Instead of fighting it, running away, weeping or falling apart, she faces her fate too dies alongside dignity too power.  Her expiry shows how of import her struggle was.

For my finally two, I'm going to concord alongside the article I linked.

9. Lisbeth Salander, of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo past times Stieg Larsson

10. Katniss Everdeen, of The Hunger Games past times Suzanne Collins

Who would you lot lay inwards your overstep 10?