That's more people than fucking Charles Bronson killed in all the Death Wish movies combined.

[redbrunja]

First, check out this awesome post about Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a famous Solviet sniper in WWII. (The tone cracks me up.)

Which leads to... inspired by hungrytiger11 , I was thinking of doing a thirty-day meme about women. However, while she is just picking a new, awesome lady each day, I thought it would be fun to do that with a little more structure. Some possibilities for categories that I came up with were:

Best HBIC.
Best Nonaction Girl
Best techie.
Best badass normal.
Favorite girly-girl.

What are your suggestions, flist?

Comments

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, that's an awesome idea. *__*

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I adore this idea.

Smartest? Best mom? Best friend? Best character arc? I don't know. These are the things that have popped into my head.

I don't think your link is working, which is a shame, as I would like to read about this sniper.

[lady-tigerfish.livejournal.com]

I'd second "smartest," only make it something like "best brains of the operation," so you could celebrate women who have that role in particular.

I also like character arc, and I'd love to see a focus on a woman who got a good redemption arc in particular. It seems like writers love to give a bad boy a good redemption arc (I've finally started watching TVD, and already from their actions in late season one it's become clear to me that that's what they're going for with Damon--although I admit the boy's still kind of a hard sell for me >>;;), but I see this a whole lot less with female characters in general.

I'd also suggest a "best antagonist" category; good, complex female antagonists ought to get more love than they do.

Other than that? Hmm...a "most resourceful" category could be fun...and while you're going with straight-up ability categories like "best tech" and such, I could dig categories for female magic users and superheroes, respectively. Maybe a best adventurer/explorer too? A "coolest kid" category would be neat too, what with all the Alices and Dorothies in the world.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I love all of these-especially the best redemption story. Our stupid culture makes it much, much harder to redeem a woman, so when it happens, it's awesome.

And YES to antagonist. YES.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of "brains of the operation" and "best redemption arc" (which you're totally right, isn't done enough for women, and when it is, it's usually in Capulet Counterpart form [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CapuletCounterpart]).

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Those are all good ideas.

(And that link isn't working because I forgot to add it in.)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I'll try to actually think about it for more than ten seconds and come up with some more stuff.

Aha! Well, that will indeed make it unfollowable.

[plural-entity.livejournal.com]

That's an awesome idea. And if you did it, I would probably steal it. Haha.

Hmm. If you're struggling to find catagories, you can get into just basic ones.. Best Blonde, Best Redhead, Best Brunette, Best Nontraditional. You could also include in it girl situations. Best female kill, Best girl-uses-boy, Best lie, Best improvisation of item in purse as weapon.

I beg you to put "Best female couple" on there.

[lady-tigerfish.livejournal.com]

"Best female couple" heartily seconded.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

That would be awesome! I actually want to get a couple of people on my flist doing this as well.

Best improvisation of item in purse as weapon.

Best use of Stiletto heels.

I beg you to put "Best female couple" on there. -waves a Willow/Tara flag-

Might do, might do. (But would it be limited to canon couples?)

[nimblnymph.livejournal.com]

Favorite Cougar

Favorite Mother/Mother figure

Lady You'd Hang Out With

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I like favorite Cougar.

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

Best cop / detective.

Lady you find sexiest / most attractive.

Favourite geek girl.

Best story arc / character development.

Favourite female supporting character.

Favourite WOC.

Favourite TV character.

Favourite movie heroine.

Favourite book character.

Favourite YA heroine.

Best woman / girl from manga / anime.

Best woman / girl from comics / superheroes fandom.

Best female villain.

Funniest fandom girl.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oh, those are AMAZING suggestions!

[greynonentity.livejournal.com]

Lyudmila Pavlichenko... my favorite sniper ever~<3

-Kowareta

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

She's pretty badass.

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

I'd totally do this :)

Best sister

Best female friendship

Woman you'd want to have your back

(I see a lot of great ideas already!)

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I really like best female friendship.

[chomiji]

Best mentor/teacher

Best provider of tough love

Best example of character growth

Best leader/ruler

Most kick-ass crone

Most hated by the fandom but who's really awesome when you think about it

Best sidekick

Sidekick who deserves her own spin-off (some sidekicks like being the sidekick, though)

Best up-and-coming/most potential

Character who most deserves a second chance

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Best provider of Tough Love could be no one but Izumi.

Sidekick who deserves her own spin-off (some sidekicks like being the sidekick, though)

Very true.

[arefadedaway.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, yesssss. I'm in love with this idea.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I think it's going to be really fun!

[scdsam.livejournal.com]

I almost never do 30 day memes but OMG I love this.

Best cold shoulder

Best monologues and/or one-liners

Woman whose closet you'd raid (this includes weaponry, artifacts, and I suppose clothing :P)

Most misunderstood woman

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I love the last suggestion!

[anenko.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

Woman who transcends her role as The Girlfriend and/or fanservice?

The female character whose awesomeness made you change your initial impression of her.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oooh, good suggestions.

Do you have any thoughts for Woman who transcends her role as The Girlfriend and/or fanservice?

[anenko.livejournal.com]

When I think fanservice, I think of GetBacker's Hevn (this image is definitely NSFW: http://bukkorosu.net/manga/getbackers/hevn.jpg). I don't know if she transcends fanservice, but she's a more interesting and likeable character than her design might indicate.

Maybe some of the ladies from Bleach?

Lori Baxter from Big Wolf on Campus was introduced as a girl for the two main boys to fight over, and spent a season as the hero's girlfriend. By the final season, she'd broken up with him because she preferred fighting monsters by his side as a friend. And they stayed friends.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Hvn sounds like a good choice. And hello there, soft-core japanese porn!

Lori Baxter from Big Wolf on Campus was introduced as a girl for the two main boys to fight over, and spent a season as the hero's girlfriend. By the final season, she'd broken up with him because she preferred fighting monsters by his side as a friend. And they stayed friends.

Oh, wow, that sounds like a nice development!

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Of course, of course! I understand brain-dead-ness.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Agreed about Zoe Saldana! I love that she's outspoken about how many sucky roles there are for women in hollywood.

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

So. Muthafucking. Cool.

I think it's unbelievably silly that the Soviets (as in, those guys we've spent the last 50 years demonizing) had women as snipers, pilots, and tank drivers while the US had the "WASPS" (which really just flew supplies), and eventually disbanded the WASPS when public opinion switched to thinking they were floosies, because, yeah, that's apparently more important than whether or not they do the job. It's not so important when you're staring down the barrel of a Luger and your country is on the verge of annialation, is it? Mmm? It's amazing the stupid restrictions people insist upon when they AREN'T about to be destroyed.

I love the idea of a 30 Day MEME for awesome chicks <3

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Yeah, one of the pluses of communism is that they were a bit ahead of us on the women's rights front.

I love the idea of a 30 Day MEME for awesome chicks <3

Me too!

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

One of the things that's always pissed me off about that is the fact that, because communism supported women's equality, that all "patriotic" factions in the US actively tried to prohibit movements in that direction. Nobody wanted to be "communist" so it seems like, for the longest time, being "feminist" meant the same thing to the uneducated and over-propagandaed masses. Even today you'll see people claiming that equality is a strictly communist ideal and every move in that direction is a move towards communism, because, you know, it's not like it says anything about equality in our constitution or anything.

It's my theory that, globally, the US supporting rightist coups over governments in smaller, developing countries that were even slightly leftest single-handedly set back women's rights worldwide. Like Afghanistan? We did that because we would have rather had a mysogynist theocracy in power than any sort of communist government. I don't have nearly the research required to back up that thesis, but I have some rather strong suspicions that women's advancement in developing countries was one of the many things set back by our insistence on fighting communism by supporting the other extreme.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

To my mind, the amount of damage the US has done by supporting regimes that are financial beneficial to us and/or aren't communism CANNOT be overstated.

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

All these catergories are soooo cool.

This might be added into mine too. Cause, you know, I'm doing such a bang-up job of actually posting them as it is....lol.

Can't wait to see what you come up with too!

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Best Roommate

Best Mother/Daughter/Grandma -- all three categories!

Best Funky Artistic Chick

Best Shot (in honor of Lyudmilla)

Best Crusader

Best Scifi Heroine

Best At Transcending The Cliched 'Girlfriend' Role

Most Badass While Pregnant

Funny Lady Extraordinaire

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

You're the second person to suggest 'best at transcending the 'girlfriend' role'! That's definitely going on the meme.

And I really like 'most badass while pregnant.'