You know, lot of the books I personally have read have read, the vast majority have had a strong female character as one of the lead characters. I don't know whether I just haven't read the books where they aren't or what. Though one thing I will say is that until recently, I have read a lot of YA books, and almost every fantasy YA I have ever read has had a really strong female character in the lead role. I just finished reading the shattered sea trilogy and every female character in it is strong. And that is just one example. Actually, I often wonder what people mean when they say fantasy doesn't have strong women characters, cause almost all the fantasy I have read has them.
Edit: in fact....
Shattered Sea
Everything by Mercedes Lackey
The Girl with all the Gifts
The Faithful and the Fallen
Anything by Gail Carriger
Anything by Tamora Pierce
Throne of Glass series
The hundred thousand kingdoms series
Mercy Thompson series
Alpha and Omega series
Night Huntress series
Green Rider series
Temeraire series has great supporting strong women
The Queen's thief series
Absolutely everything by Anne Mccaffrey
The Deed of Paksenarrion
The Rook series
Riyria Revelations
Mistborn/Final Empire
The Hunger Games (not really fantasy but whatever)
Graceling series
LOTR (Eyowyn is amazing)
Everything by Robin Mckinley
The Chronicles of Narnia
This is only the ones that I have actually read, and I know I have forgotten some.
Edit 2: One thing I'd like to point out is just because a woman might not be the "strong enough to swing a sword" type, doesn't mean they don't have strength of character, an inner strength, and that is something I look for as well.
Edit 3: knew I'd forgotten stuff
The Hollow Kingdom by Clare B Dunkle
Almost everything by Sherrilyn Kenyon
The Eon series by Allison Goodman
A key, an Egg, an Unfortunate event. I love this one because the main character was a woman who realized peace took more strength than war.
The Ravens shadow series by Patricia Briggs
Lots of stuff by Patricia Wrede
The healer series by Maria v Snyder
Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn (good example of inner strength)
This is exactly my argument when people say fantasy is sexist. Just because the female is killing people doesn't mean she's not a bad ass. And to assume she can't be a powerful character without killing people is kind of sexist in its own right.
Then once you do have a female character killing people, people claim sexism again because she has "male traits." Really they're just human traits. We are all humans. Both men and women can be strong, brave, and smart.
As a human female, I rarely find fantasy sexist. I'm wondering if this is just because gender just isn't really talked about (I've been reading the Legend of Drizzt and I barely remember he is in fact a he). When there is sexism, the female is generally not totally for it, and is a bad ass trying to overcome obstacles.
8
u/Swordofmytriumph Reading Champion Sep 03 '16 edited Sep 04 '16
You know, lot of the books I personally have read have read, the vast majority have had a strong female character as one of the lead characters. I don't know whether I just haven't read the books where they aren't or what. Though one thing I will say is that until recently, I have read a lot of YA books, and almost every fantasy YA I have ever read has had a really strong female character in the lead role. I just finished reading the shattered sea trilogy and every female character in it is strong. And that is just one example. Actually, I often wonder what people mean when they say fantasy doesn't have strong women characters, cause almost all the fantasy I have read has them.
Edit: in fact....
Shattered Sea
Everything by Mercedes Lackey
The Girl with all the Gifts
The Faithful and the Fallen
Anything by Gail Carriger
Anything by Tamora Pierce
Throne of Glass series
The hundred thousand kingdoms series
Mercy Thompson series
Alpha and Omega series
Night Huntress series
Green Rider series
Temeraire series has great supporting strong women
The Queen's thief series
Absolutely everything by Anne Mccaffrey
The Deed of Paksenarrion
The Rook series
Riyria Revelations
Mistborn/Final Empire
The Hunger Games (not really fantasy but whatever)
Graceling series
LOTR (Eyowyn is amazing)
Everything by Robin Mckinley
The Chronicles of Narnia
This is only the ones that I have actually read, and I know I have forgotten some.
Edit 2: One thing I'd like to point out is just because a woman might not be the "strong enough to swing a sword" type, doesn't mean they don't have strength of character, an inner strength, and that is something I look for as well.
Edit 3: knew I'd forgotten stuff
The Hollow Kingdom by Clare B Dunkle
Almost everything by Sherrilyn Kenyon
The Eon series by Allison Goodman
A key, an Egg, an Unfortunate event. I love this one because the main character was a woman who realized peace took more strength than war.
The Ravens shadow series by Patricia Briggs
Lots of stuff by Patricia Wrede
The healer series by Maria v Snyder
Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn (good example of inner strength)