You know the woman, the hardened stone-faced one who dresses like a man and likes "boy things". The one who never has an emotion that isn't anger. The badass woman. Except, there's a problem isn't there? yes, there is. She may be a great character, funny, interesting, exciting. There's nothing actually wrong with this character. But...is this a woman? Can a person who shows no vulnerability, who dresses and acts in a way that is stereotypically masculine, really be called a woman? She is female, that is determined by biology. However, a female need not be a woman. Now, are there people who are really like this female character? yes, of course. But are they women? debatable. A real life person, should be allowed to define themself: but a fictional character needs to be defined appropriately by their author. This type of character really should be written as transgender or third-gender, this is the 21st Century and we can say those words in public.
Readers, for better or for worse, look up to fictional characters. What message are you sending to your reader? Are you sending a message to a reader that affirms their gender identity? Or are you telling girls that the only way to get respect is to be masculine? Are you telling women who usually would show their feelings, dress and act in a stereotypically feminine way, that they are not strong? Are you sending the message that femininity is weak? if so, you are not writing a feminist text. A feminist text affirms femininity, not just female characters. Now, am I saying that you should never write a female character who is "one of the guys". No, of course not. Those characters can be very good: they can be interesting and funny and cool. Just apply a little thought to what the character's gender identity actually is. But, what if you do want a badass woman. How do you write someone who is badass, and a woman?
Tyrande Whisperwind, leader of the night elf civilization in the Warcraft mythos provides an excellent example. She is, without question, a badass. She rides a sabertooth tiger, uses a magic bow, and commands a ghost eagle. She is an effective combatant, using both her weapons and her magic to do damage to the enemy and make her allies stronger. However, it is important that we first meet her alongside her husband Malfurion Stormrage and while playing as his twin brother Illidan. One of the biggest problems with the usual stereotype of the "badass woman" is that she has no emotional expression. Usually this is because she is isolated from others. She generally has no family or friends, nobody that she is truly close to. Tyrande isn't isolated at all, quite the opposite. She is the motherly leader of a whole society, with a small but important and complicated family. Malfurion and Illidan have grown apart over the years, but they are in some ways so much alike: and Tyrande's presence helps to highlight that fact. They are both arrogant in their own ways, and both so convinced of their own rightness that they are both blind to each others' perfectly valid points.
Tyrande is notably selfless, lacking the arrogance and need to be correct that her husband and brother-in-law both display. If this were a typical fantasy, we would expect Malfurion to be the leader with a grandiose title. But Warcraft is not a typical fantasy. This society is gynarchal, that is it privileges women. Women make up the clergy, who control the elite military units (which are thus, all-female) and in addition are more likely to be given positions of political leadership. But this is not the only reason that Tyrande is the leader. Tyrande emerges as the de facto leader of the night elves, or Kaldorei as they call themselves, during the War of the Ancients. This war overthrew the previous government, led by Queen Azhara and the Highbourne because they collaborated with an invading army.
True, she was the high priestess in the Sisterhood of Elune: the main religious organization in this society. However, that is not the only reason that she becomes the de facto leader of the Kaldorei rebellion. Her intrinsic talents justify her leadership position: something that is very important when writing any leader. Tyrande's intrinsic talent is her ability to see the big picture, and stay focused on it. This is an important trait for a leader, obviously. Of course, Tyrande has flaws: she is xenophobic to the point of paranoia, and blindly utilitarian. The festering trauma of Queen Azhara's betrayal causes Tyrande to distrust anyone or anything that resembles the Highbourne even slightly: without giving consideration to how the situation might be different. This extends to being willing to execute her own brother-in-law. Even though Malfurion convinces her to spare him, she values him only insofar as he is useful to her despite being an actual family member.
However, because of this story of the War of the Ancients, Tyrande's flaws are sympathetic. We understand why she acts the way she does, even if we wouldn't agree with her actions. She is someone we can criticize and yet profoundly respect. She has worked hard to not only achieve victory for her people, but to subsequently create a mostly harmonious civilization. Tyrande has no title, even though she does the job of being a Queen. This puts her as not just a leader, but a specific kind: embodied by the real life George Washington and the mythical Cincinnatus. While this type of character is hardly unusual in fantasy settings, what is unusual is that this character is a woman.
Tyrande puts her own pride aside to join the Alliance of Lordaeron: and forms a great professional relationship with the human King Varian Wrynn. While some of her people look down on the humans, elves being so long lived see them as childish, but Tyrande notably does not. Of course, she challenges him: but her challenges come only from a genuine desire to help him make the best decision possible for the Alliance. She isn't constantly pushing her people's agenda, or trying to steal the spotlight the way some other leaders in the game do. Her ability to always see the full context of someone's actions, means she is respected-one might even say revered-across all of Azeroth regardless of faction: one of only a few mortal characters to have that distinction. A truly strong and heroic woman.
On the surface, Rin Tohsaka the protagonist of Fate: Stay Night, could not be more different. She seems like a fairly traditional Japanese high school girl, living in a fairly traditional Japanese town. The story seems to be set in the 1980s, amid Japan's explosive but uneven economic growth, since there are electric heaters and televisions but no desktop computers or cell phones. But, Rin Tohsaka has a secret. She is a mage, indeed her family are famous as mages. A mage, is a person who can summon and control spiritual beings known as Servants. The central conflict of the story, is the Holy Grail War. Yes, the words "servant" and "holy grail" actually appear in the Japanese text: and yes, Japanese is one of those languages that doesn't distinguish 'r' from 'l'. I can only guess that the writers intended for the voice actors to want to murder them.
Speaking of murder, that is what this Holy Grail War is about. It is about killing other mages and their Servants. Seven mages are chosen to summon seven powerful Servants: only one can claim the Grail. While it is possible to knock a mage out of the tournament by making them lose their Servant, this is prohibitively difficult. What this does, is set up a story that questions the very notion of heroism. The Servants are all heroes of the past from around the world, but despite their talk of honor and heroism: what they are doing is little more than a glorified bloodsport. Rin herself is inexperienced, and makes some rookie mistakes. However, even over the course of a few episodes she grows to the point where she initiates another mage into the tournament. Rin is a strong character, and endowed by the writers with some traits usually associated with male characters: such as a sense of honor and duty. She grows into the trope of the samurai warrior: placing duty to family before personal preference, and honor above all else. By "honor" I mean that Rin follows a code of ethics for fighting, it's not made totally clear whether this is a personal code or something taught to her by her absent father.
But at no point is she coded as unfeminine. She wears a dress, a red dress in fact. She flirts with male characters. The high pitched Japanese voice acting helps a lot in her characterization, by never letting her be seen as masculine even as she acts aggressively. The writers can let her be a little bit masculine as she grows from schoolgirl to commander, but they feel no need to present her as unsexed. There are several scenes where she is carried by her Servant, recalling the romantic ending sequences of old Hollywood movies: but hilariously recast as a vehicle for some indulgence in kung fu movie physics. There is sexiness in this anime, it's about high school after all and emerging sexuality is thus a part of it. But, there are none of the upskirt or cleavage shots that have become standard for the genre. Characters flirt through words, and posture.
The show uses the honorifics of ordinary Japanese language to characterize the different girls. While I don't know precisely what these words mean: it's easy to get the feeling for them by listening to the tone of voice. Rin speaks softly but with purpose, she never speaks unless she needs to and never says more than that she means to. She speaks to everyone with respect, but reserves deference for the teachers. Emiya, the naive quiet boy with a special gift for fixing electrical appliances, speaks in a way that shows his lack of confidence. Emiya's adopted sister runs around calling everyone "senpai" which anyone who has been on the internet knows is a bit extreme: indicating that she is trying too hard to be liked. These three main characters all have a strong sense of duty, but to different things. Emiya feels a duty to help those in need, because he was orphaned as a child and brought up by a stranger. His sister feels a duty to her household, to keep it clean and pretty and in accordance with tradition. Rin feels a duty to bring glory to her family, and succeed where her father did not. To highlight this, the show gives them a perfect foil: an incompetent adult.
She isn't grossly negligent like some of the adults in 90s YA novels: but she is absent-minded and thus irresponsible. She isn't their parent either, which takes the edge off somewhat: she's the daughter of the absentee landlord for Emiya and his sister's house, and one of the teachers. As such, she has privilege: and she exercises it by refusing to be responsible for herself, or others. She doesn't cook her own dinner or breakfast, and she doesn't really try to keep the kids from going out when the city issues a warning. Her lack of a sense of duty to those who are under her care (since she is the only adult present), makes the childrens' sense of duty more obvious. Privilege, what is supposed to be the reward for doing your duty: is blinding her to her real duty. Rin on the other hand, having lost the privilege that her family once clearly had (the house she lives in is large and ornate, obviously a manor house of some kind), has a strong sense of duty to the only thing her family has left: their name. Emiya, forced to depend on the generosity of strangers for most of his life, has a strong sense of duty to help society in any way he can. His sister simply wants other people to like her, and being dutiful helps her accomplish that. This story is one of recovering the most important aspects of the past that is about to disappear, and holding onto them while going towards the future. It is about being a samurai, and a modern woman: about being a hero, in a corrupting and degrading world. A story for our times, and a story for the ages.
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