6 Indomitable Fictional Women For International Women’s Day

I’m sure you know an indomitable woman. Perhaps you are one.

Literature has always been one of the greatest windows to real women in media – with the paucity of good roles for women and women of color in film and the over sexualization that permeates the music industry, women are canned and pressed and packed into roles in relation to men – the mother, the virgin, the whore.

But literature bypasses all that. We not only get a platform for a variety of women’s voices in authorship, but in characterization too.

Today I am giving you a list of Six indomitable fictional women, many who were created by indomitable women writers. I’d love for you to comment and share an indomitable fictional woman that is close to your heart.

Onward!

Olive Kitteridge from Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout: Olive herself is nasty, irrational, vulnerable, cruel, kind, indifferent, empathetic and crushingly honest. In short, she is a human being. This novel in stories deals with the solar system of people that orbits around Olive’s life, from her son to the piano player at the hotel that she and her husband frequent. The actual reading of this novel took me so long because I wanted to suck every word up.

Batsheba Everdene from Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: You thought I was going to go for another Everdeen, weren’t you? Hardy always writes fascinating women, but he really outdid himself with Batsheba. For somebody who is shaped by men  – from her author to her suitors to the uncle that left her a farm, Batsheba is remarkably self possessed, and allowed her flaws within the space of the narrative without being punished for it. What’s more, she is allowed her happiness.

Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel in Ms. Marvel:No Normal by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by Adrian Alphona: For all you superhero junkies out there, you’ve probably heard they’re doing a Captain Marvel movie – well, Captain Marvel used to be Ms. And Kamala Khan is her successor. But the best thing about her is that she’s us – she’s a teen obesssed with superheros, writing superhero fanfiction and dealing with her strict Muslim parents. In a sea of extremely unrealistic teen shows and fiction (seriously, where are those kids’ parents?) Kamala sticks out not only as a real teen, but as a kickass superhero.

Jessie from Running Out Of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix: Jessie is technically a child, but she is astounding enough to not only accept (spoiler alert!) that she is not actually living in the 1840s but in the 1990s, but to leave their family’s settlement and escape it to call for help in a world that she knows nothing about makes her an indomitable woman in my book.

Lily from Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See: Forget the fruity name of the book – it belies the harshness of the lives of the women depicted in this story set in 19th century China. Lily spares us nothing from the horrifying rituals of foot binding, the abuse that she endures from her in laws, and the starvation that she is forced to live through. To say nothing of what she sees happen to other women. The axis of this story is about Snow Flower, her laotong or ‘old same’. The enduring friendship of these two women throughout their lives brings out the greatest parts of Lily and the worst. Lily’s obsession with social order and reputation would probably make her a villain in any other story, but seeing her grow up and grow old shows so many different shades of a woman that a lesser author would make one note.

Annie Sinclair from Annie Between the States by L.M. Elliot: The Civil War is a topic that most people tire of hearing about by Middle School. And the Southern Belle trope? We can all watch Gone With the Wind! But Annie isn’t a Georgian Belle. She is an upper middle class girl from Northern Virginia, right in the midst of the war. Her family pledges Confederate, but her mother tends any sick man that comes to the door. The great thing about Elliot is how she marries history to fiction, using real historical facts and figures to flesh out what this family must have been like. Annie’s love of literature is woven in perfectly, with her bonding with her two love interests through Keats and Shakespeare.

And here we are! If you have any other indomitable women that I haven’t shared (and I know I can think of more!), please shoot me a comment.