# Tell me about your favorite strong female characters from NON-fantasy & SF literature. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396 "2013-03-19T20:53:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/41 "2013-03-21T17:35:11Z")
Another vote for Ree from _Winter’s Bone_. That girl does not fucking give up. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/42 "2013-03-24T03:22:28Z")
How about Lisbeth Salander from the Millennium Trilogy (_The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo_, etc.)? She’s brilliant, tough, loyal, and resourceful. She goes through some horrific experiences, but she doesn’t break. She just keeps fighting back–using her body and her brains. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/43 "2013-03-24T06:06:02Z")
Joan Hess wrote a couple of mystery series, one starring Arly Hanks (and featuring her mother, Ruby Bee Hanks) set in Maggody, Arkansas, and one starring Claire Malloy (and featuring her daughter, Karon Malloy). Both series are quite funny. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/44 "2013-03-24T07:33:23Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Dagny Taggart. Every one of Rand’s books has a strong female. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/45 "2013-03-24T16:36:40Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Every one of Rand’s books has a strong female. True. I’ll see your Dagny Taggart and raise you one Dominique Francon. Also, lesser well know, Detective Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels from J.A. Konrath’s series of hard-boiled crime novels (Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, etc). Tough, no-nonsense police detective who uses both her brains and her fists to solve grizzly murders. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/46 "2013-03-24T18:36:29Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > How about Lisbeth Salander from the Millennium Trilogy (_The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo_, etc.)? > > She’s brilliant, tough, loyal, and resourceful. She goes through some horrific experiences, but she doesn’t break. She just keeps fighting back–using her body and her brains. Seconded. Just saw the Daniel Craig movie remake, and it’s pretty good. Haven’t seen the Swedish original yet. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/47 "2013-03-24T18:39:53Z")
Veronica Mars. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/48 "2013-03-24T19:27:44Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’d say so. Tell me what’s so great about her. She has sex with her boots on. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/49 "2013-03-24T21:52:54Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Well, Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With The Wind is classic ‘strong female’. She went from spoiled young Southern Belle to enduring the Civil War, pressed into service as a nurse for a while, suffering penury and doing hard manual labor on Tara after the war, marrying and giving birth three times, buying and running the sawmill, enduring the disapproval of the faded society matrons, losing her daughter…just goes on and on. And yet she endured and overcame grievous obstacles as no proper Southern lady could be expected to do. She saved her family, saved Tara, married Rhett, made a ton of money. All at a price, of course, but her final words were ‘tomorrow is another day’. I’d like to see a novel of Scarlett in her old age. She was sixteen when the Civil War started, which means she was born in 1845 or so. If she lived to be one hundred she’d see the end of WWII. Harder to live to old age then, but hey, I had a gread-grandmother who died, at ninety-four, in 1962 ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/50 "2013-03-25T16:39:42Z")
I am ashamed of all of us – but particularly **Evil Captor** , who may or may not have posted in the thread yet, I dunno, I don’t know how to work the scroll wheel on my mouse – for not mentioning Robert B. Parker’s Rita Fiore. Smart, tough, and unapologetic about being free with her sexuality. I love Susan Silverman & everything, but I though tas much as fifteen books back that Spenser should really be with her. Except Rita probably can’t be tied down. I’m with Spenser in thinking that Rita and Hawk have done it on several occasions and simply not told him about it. They’re both ethical sluts. ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/51 "2013-03-25T17:00:03Z")
Amy Dorritt in Dicken’s “Little Dorritt”. Everything about her life should make her a beaten-down mouse - born in debtor’s prison, mother dead early, father helpless and dependent, worthless older siblings. But Amy is the one who holds the family together, works but has to lie about it so as not to “shame” the family, is emotionally mother to other characters, and when the family fortunes are restored, is the only one who can keep it real and in perspective. She is my altogether favorite Dickens character. Other Dickens female characters may be brave and noble, but are rarely as tough and resourceful as Amy consistently remains. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/52 "2013-03-25T17:14:28Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I’d like to see a novel of Scarlett in her old age. She was sixteen when the Civil War started, which means she was born in 1845 or so. If she lived to be one hundred she’d see the end of WWII. Harder to live to old age then, but hey, I had a gread-grandmother who died, at ninety-four, in 1962 Not a bad idea. Confederate Gen. James Longstreet’s young wife helped build bombers during WWII. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/53 "2013-03-25T17:57:31Z")
Jenny Fields in _The World According to Garp_. They don’t come much stronger–she decided she wanted a child, but didn’t want the baggage of a man. She had her child, and went on to found a home for troubled women, while writing a book about how she was regarded with distrust because she didn’t want to be a typical wife. Her actions might not seem so odd today, but _Garp_ begins just after WWII, when they were decidedly out of place. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/54 "2013-03-25T23:41:48Z")
Shakespeare had a few. Beatrice (_Much Ado about Nothing_), who gave better than she got with Benedick, comes to mind, as does Viola (_The Merchant of Venice_), who saved her lover’s friend from Shylock’s knife. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/55 "2013-03-26T16:05:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Shakespeare had a few. Beatrice (_Much Ado about Nothing_), who gave better than she got with Benedick, comes to mind, as does Viola (_The Merchant of Venice_), who saved her lover’s friend from Shylock’s knife. Portia, not Viola 🙂 Although Viola qualifies too. She’s shipwrecked in a foreign country by the storm that (she thinks) has killed her beloved twin brother - she’s totally on her own, no friends, no backup, nothing. Also, it’s a country where basically nobody has a firm grasp on reality or any kind of self-awareness; everyone’s operating in a great big swirl of illusion about themselves and the world\*. And Viola not only instantly finds a way to get herself a job; even though that job involves disguise and subterfuge, she manages to keep a hold on reality and on her real identity. If you look at her language, she never lies. Everyone else is talking bollix of various forms\*, but Viola - who can’t afford to reveal the truth - says things that, while they’re deceptive, are literally true. (‘My father had a daughter loved a man, as it might be, perhaps, were I a woman, I should your lordship…’) And she even keeps her sense of humour, while everyone else is taking themselves enormously seriously. I love Viola. She’s my favourite character in all of Shakespeare. \*Except Feste, who’s a whole other question ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/56 "2013-03-28T15:00:33Z")
Zan Hagen, from R. R. Knudsen’s children’s books about a high school girl who competes against boys in sports. _Zanballer_ (football), \*Zanbanger \*(basketball), \*Zanboomer \*(baseball and cross-country), and _Zan Hagen’s Marathon_. Also, Fox Running and Sudden Hart from Knudsen’s novel _Fox Running_, about two young women who run Olympic track. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/57 "2013-03-29T00:05:57Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > She has sex with her boots on. Yeah, but Dagny Taggart wore heals and a cape . . . and did it in the filthy bowels of the railroad terminal. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/58 "2013-04-02T19:32:16Z")
In Karen Cushman’s novel _The Midwife’s Apprentice_, both Alyce (the apprentice) and Jane Sharpe (the midwife) are very strong female characters. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/59 "2013-04-02T19:43:11Z")
Milady de Winter, from Dumas’ the Three Musketeers. Again, not a good person, but strong? Any woman who can routinely put Athos in his cups, seduce her overly moralistic jailer, and keep Rochefort (and possibly Richelieu) dangling, is a distinct personality to say the least. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396.md?page=2)