Awesome!
March 24, 2008 at 10:49 pm 4 comments
For all my lit nerd friends out there… here’s a list worth taking note of!
The Amelia Bloomer Project,* a list of kick ass female heroines in literature. Thank you, Broadsheet, for alerting me to this!
Growing up, although I found very few examples of young women I could identify with in popular culture, I discovered an abundance of them in literature. Through books I would immerse myself in a world where girls were intelligent and fearless, not perpetually lipg-lossed, fashion obsessed sidekicks. Although this may explain why I spent my adolescent as a social outcast, it also sheds light on my independence and pluckiness, traits I found emphasized almost unanimously in my favorite heroines.
As a teacher, former children’s bookstore retail clerk and all around YA Lit goofball, I have written this list a zillion times in my head and still probably forgotten some of my favorites.
So… what’s on your list, geeksters? Favorite books with badass females? favorite heroines? What’s new out there?
Hit me with it, kids!
* Named for Amelia Bloomer, one of the first American feminists and an all around far out lady. She invented the bloomers out of frustration with the lack of freedom in women’s clothing at the time. They never quite caught on but they’re still rather striking, no?
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1.
Gilly | March 25, 2008 at 1:56 am
Yeah, looking back at the books I loved as a kid, almost all of them had strong female heroines. Funny, that… In fact, it’s still true of most of my reading material. Favorites? Let’s see. The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley. Anything by Louisa May Alcott. The Wrinkle in Time books, by Madeleine L’Engle. And more recently, the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, and the Kate Shugak series by Dana Stabenow. So, what are your faves?
2.
Elizabeth | March 25, 2008 at 3:11 am
Everything Gilly said
I also liked Saturday the Twelfth of October by Norma Fox Mazer and (younger, but still) Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy books and her fantastic Nobody’s Family is Going to Change. The Harper Hall Trilogy and Dragonflight/Dragonquest by Anne McCafrey (after which Lessa receded in the plotlines, but there are strong women in all her books). Northern Girl, the third in Elizabeth Lynn’s Watchtower trilogy is the only one with a female protagonist, but all of them have very strong, positive female characters. More recently, I’ve been enjoying Laurie King’s Mary Russell books and in Iain M. Banks’ latest, Matter, the one female character is the most kickass in the book. Now that you’ve asked, I’ll probably think of more, but those are the ones that leap to mind.
3.
Ayelle | June 3, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I thought it was cool that The Plain Janes appears on this list — it was written by Cecil Castellucci, Laurent’s sister (i.e. Juror #8 in 12 Angry and the Director in OMG It’s Another Play).
4.
betholshewsky | June 11, 2010 at 2:05 am
You might want to check out the Amelia Bloomer Project blog on Word Press for information on the most recent nominations: http://ameliabloomer.wordpress.com/