This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UPR chapter.
Television throughout the ages has evolved in its portrayal of female characters. Women are no longer reduced to being the nagging wives, the love interests, the secretaries, or the token characters. Here’s a list of characters from the last two decades of television that personify female empowerment and break down sexual, racial, professional, and social barriers.
1. Margaret “Peggy” Carter (Agent Carter)
In this spin-off of Captain America, we see Agent Margaret “Peggy” Carter adapting to post-WWII life as a single woman and a Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) agent. Peggy is brilliant, feminine, resilient, courageous, powerful, and absolutely unapologetic and proud of the woman she is. From watching her shoot down her chauvinistic co-workers to saving the entire city of New York, Peggy, with the help of her friends and partners-in-crime Edwin Jarvis and Howard Stark, is a force to be reckoned with without losing her humanity and relatability. She is truly an admirable character and a great role model in the male-dominated Marvel Cinematic Universe. As a bonus, the main villains of the show’s two seasons have been impossibly smart and visionary, albeit evil, women.
2. The women from “Grey’s Anatomy”
I’m not the biggest Shonda Rhimes fan but it can’t be denied that she has been a pioneer in how diversity and equality are portrayed on television. On the long-running medical drama, they presented complex, successful, brilliant, top-notch female surgeons of all shapes, sizes, sexual orientations, and races. They all function as their own person, rather than someone’s love interest, and are in all aspects equal to their male counterparts. It doesn’t stereotype, minimize, glamorize, or exoticize any group. Its great messages regarding friendships, motherhood, family, healthy relationships, sex, and gender roles are still breaking glass ceilings almost 11 years
3. Leslie Knope (Parks and Recreation)
What isn’t there to love about Leslie Knope? She’s hardworking, loving, quirky, feminist, and incredibly optimistic. She’s unstoppable and a perfect example that if there’s a will, there’s a way. Nothing anyone says or does deters her from achieving her goals. She’s also a fantastic and supportive friend, the world’s greatest co-worker, and the most upstanding citizen. We all need a Leslie in our lives, someone who sees the bright side in every situation, pushes to keep trying, and calls us a “poetic, noble land-mermaid” when we need it most. Leslie, however, is far from being a pushover and is quick to shoot down haters and naysayers alike. Her drive and desire to change the world around her is inspiring, as is her professional hard-earned success.
4. Zoë Washburne (Firefly)
In this space-western cult classic set in the year 2517, spaceship Serenity’s Captain Mal Reynolds isn’t half the man he is without his lieutenant and best friend Zoë Washburne. She’s fearless and tough, loyal and witty. She’s a leader and a team player, always standing by the other passengers on the ship. She’s a wife and a soldier and is not obligated to choose between either of those roles. Zoë’s also half of a groundbreaking and beloved interracial marriage, rarely seen on American television. Her relationship with her husband Washe is sincere, loving, and heartwarming. They are very different people but thrive on their dissimilarities. The show does not make out her feelings for her husband to be a weakness or a subtraction to her badassery.
5. Claire Beauchamp (Outlander)
Claire is a WWII British nurse who while on vacation with her husband is transported to 1743 Scotland and finds herself in the middle of the Jacobite rebellion. Among the characters she meets she encounters her husband’s ancestor, the cruel and evil “Black Jack” Randall, and the Scottish heartthrob Jamie Fraser. Claire is brilliant, beautiful, strong, resourceful, determined, and both in 1940’s United Kingdom and 18th century Scotland, her own powerful determined person. She demands respect and isn’t afraid to take charge and speak her mind. Despite her situation and the periods she lives in, she’s anything but a damsel in distress. One of the reasons for this show’s popularity, especially among feminists, is it’s tasteful and realistic portray of sexuality, as included among other elements, Claire is a sexual woman with needs and is not inhibited or ashamed to have them met.
6. Brienne of Tarth (Game of Thrones)
Scorned all her life for her size and “unfemininity”, Brienne is an anomaly in Westeros. Through hard work and determination, she has become one of the most fierce, loyal, and brave knights in the Seven Kingdoms. Despite her incredible physical and emotional strength, she is not portrayed as unfeeling or unwomanly. Brienne knows love, loss, shame, gratitude, disappointment,and loneliness, but all of this makes her stronger. Her presence is refreshing in a show where women are constantly brutalized, violated, and murdered every other episode. Brienne is not a victim, despite many circumstances she has encountered, and nothing can stop her from attempting to keep her oaths.
7. Donna Noble (Doctor Who)
Donna Noble made a comeback to the show after a great appearance in the show’s second Christmas episode and thank our lucky stars she did. As opposed to the Doctor’s two previous companions, who fell head over heels for him, Donna was the first companion who was a true female friend to the Doctor. Their clashing personalities and her lack of an inferiority complex brought forth some of the best dialogue during David Tennant’s run as the Doctor. Donna started out as a woman with very little ambitions besides getting married and having a steady job, but slowly evolved into the brilliant, adventurous,compassionate, hard-headed, better half of the Doctor she was meant to be, the “most important woman in the whole of creation.”
8. Michonne (The Walking Dead)
The Walking Dead has a serious problem with its female characters and it always has. Amidst the apocalypse, women still find the means and time to shave their body hair. They are always reduced to love interests, caretakers, or troublemakers. Michonne is one of the few that breaks the mold. Having lost those dearest to her, she learned to survive and fend for herself in zombie-infested Georgia. Originally a lone wolf, she became a part of the group, developing loyalty and a sense of duty to those around her. Michonne is a skilled fighter and warrior, a leader, strong both physically and emotionally. She thinks her actions through and carefully calculates all her moves. She’s wise, kind, and motherly. She’s stern and brutally honest when she has to be. Viewers have slowly witnessed her become a better version of herself. I sometimes wonder why she isn’t the one leading the whole gang.