I had other complaints with the movie, but I really loved Wonder Woman as portrayed by Gal Gadot & directed by Patty Jenkins. It was nice to see a female character who was allowed to be a strong fighter without downplaying her femininity or relegating her to being ‘the hot one’. I also liked that it portrayed her commitment to truth and kindness as positives (a punchline sometimes, but not one at her expense). And I felt very seen by her excited gasp of ‘a BABY!’
I know people don't usually think of Tolkien when they think of "representations of women," but I am absolutely fascinated with the backstories of Galadriel and her relationship with Arwen, and with the Melian and Luthien relationship. Tolkien says so little, but there is so much in those stories about comfort and loss between mothers and daughters, and about the courage of love, that rings true to me, both as a mother of three daughters and the wife of a cancer patient.
When Melian sees her daughter's doom, as a mother it both breaks my heart, but also helps me find the courage to let my daughters go someday to fulfill their own purpose.
And the Beren and Luthien / Arwen and Aragorn stories - choosing a brief but true love and the possibility of a long grief - gave me a lot of courage to walk down the aisle with a man who was six weeks off a liver resection and who had been given "maybe a year or two" to live. (Happy ending - he was a Sloan Kettering immunotherapy miracle. He's still here :) )
So those representations of women will always have a special place in my heart.
Somehow when the original question was asked, I didn't think of one of my favorite books, an older Newbery Honor winner called "The Perilous Gard" (I think it would be classed as YA at this point, though it's much better written than most YA). It was the first book where I can remember really identifying with the heroine--a young Tudor-era woman who is strong and doesn't fit into most feminine stereotypes, but who isn't treated as superior for that reason and is not trying to use her "different-ness" to prove anything.
I had other complaints with the movie, but I really loved Wonder Woman as portrayed by Gal Gadot & directed by Patty Jenkins. It was nice to see a female character who was allowed to be a strong fighter without downplaying her femininity or relegating her to being ‘the hot one’. I also liked that it portrayed her commitment to truth and kindness as positives (a punchline sometimes, but not one at her expense). And I felt very seen by her excited gasp of ‘a BABY!’
The National Museum of Women in the Arts might be a good source for you:
https://nmwa.org/art/collection/
I know people don't usually think of Tolkien when they think of "representations of women," but I am absolutely fascinated with the backstories of Galadriel and her relationship with Arwen, and with the Melian and Luthien relationship. Tolkien says so little, but there is so much in those stories about comfort and loss between mothers and daughters, and about the courage of love, that rings true to me, both as a mother of three daughters and the wife of a cancer patient.
When Melian sees her daughter's doom, as a mother it both breaks my heart, but also helps me find the courage to let my daughters go someday to fulfill their own purpose.
And the Beren and Luthien / Arwen and Aragorn stories - choosing a brief but true love and the possibility of a long grief - gave me a lot of courage to walk down the aisle with a man who was six weeks off a liver resection and who had been given "maybe a year or two" to live. (Happy ending - he was a Sloan Kettering immunotherapy miracle. He's still here :) )
So those representations of women will always have a special place in my heart.
Somehow when the original question was asked, I didn't think of one of my favorite books, an older Newbery Honor winner called "The Perilous Gard" (I think it would be classed as YA at this point, though it's much better written than most YA). It was the first book where I can remember really identifying with the heroine--a young Tudor-era woman who is strong and doesn't fit into most feminine stereotypes, but who isn't treated as superior for that reason and is not trying to use her "different-ness" to prove anything.