I really like two things: feminism and cartoons. In fact, I like the latter thing so much that I’ve literally spent thousands of dollars dedicated to learning more about them. Now, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “but Lindsay, why didn’t you just go to a state school like your grandpa wanted?” and to that I say “well, dear reader, you see I am not good at math or science, and most state schools require you take both each year and you see, dear reader, I did not want to do that”. But it doesn’t matter how I ended up in art school, all that matters is that I’m here now and I’m spending thousands of dollars to watch cartoons and confuse my relatives. I like to think that my considerable amount of student loan debt makes me somewhat of an expert on good cartoons, so here’s a list of some of the most bad-ass cartoon ladies.
Katara from Avatar The Last Airbender
Katara is one hell of a character and her existence alone is enough to place her on this list. Not only is she a superbly written non-white female character, but she’s also highly respected within the show’s cannon. Katara, both literally and figuratively, fights the patriarchy and we get to see more of her influence in the Avatar spin-off, The Legend of Korra, where Katara continues to be a bad-ass. Not only does Katara literally tackle misogyny (on a kids show!) but she also takes time to fully realize her romantic feelings for the main character. Katara is a character that reads as a simple love interest but ends up being so much more.
Lana Kane from Archer
Listen, I’m a big fan of Archer, but I’m also willing to point out that some of the jokes in the earlier seasons (and, sadly some in the newer ones) did not age well. Still, Lana Kane manages to be a voice of reason in a show with so many dysfunctional characters. Lana subverts the annoyingly prevalent “strong, sassy black woman” trope that often reduces black female characters to a side-kick role, and while Lana is strong and humorous, she also has depth and an interesting character arc that is actually explored. I’m not 100% certain, but I think a lot of what makes Lana such an important feminist character can be credited to the great voice work Aisha Tyler does.
Louise Belcher from Bob’s Burgers
You thought I was gonna say Tina, huh? Every other one of these types of articles I read always includes Tina Belcher and okay, Tina is cool, but she’s had her moment and it’s time for everyone to stop overlooking Louise. Listen, Louise is a god damn gremlin. There’s no doubt about that, but that’s such a weirdly important thing to see on TV. Young girl characters are often portrayed as one of three defaults; the mean girl, the boy crazy girl, or the weird girl, but girls are rarely shown as hyperactive little kids who cause mayhem and havoc. It’s so refreshing and important to portray girls as having an actual childhood where they do weird things and aren’t just a love interest, and that’s why Louise is on this list.
Diane Nguyen from Bojack Horseman
Listen, I just binged-watched all of the newest season of Bojack (and then wrote a review on it) so I have a lot of feelings related to this show, but I’d be lying if a driving force of my viewership of Bojack Horseman wasn’t influenced by Diane’s bad-assery. Diane Nguyen is a flawed character and that’s fucking amazing. Very rarely are female characters allowed to be flawed, or make mistakes, or mess up without being punished within the universe they occupy. Sure, Diane has a tough life, but so does everyone else in the show. What matters is that Diane is allowed to make mistakes, be flawed, and mess up just like every other character is and still be taken seriously and not just written off.