This generation's badass kickasses

puppetwithnostrings
Jul 2, 2015
3 min read

Katniss Everdeen, Tris Prior, Clary Fray... our generation has had the pleasure of honoring some of the best, most inspiring women in young adult literature. We've been lucky enough to have such strong, leading female protagonists to look up to and admire, aspire to be. Their recent popularization in both the media and books, one could say it has even led to a feminist revolution. Subconsciously, the whole world has been exposed to these new ladies, and these new ideals. As kids grow up in the same environment where Tris Prior was created and loved, they will stop using 'you fight like a girl' as an insult and eventually become smarter than previous generations ever were.

Before I start let me just say that I'm on no side of this argument. I'm simply posing these thoughts so that they're left fresh in your brains.

Now, don't get me wrong, I couldn't be happier with this revolution. However, welcome to the reigning confusion that is my mind. There are contradictions. Hear me out before you get all defensive of your favourite YA heroine. I am in no way trashing the characters and going against what they stand for, I still think their impact on our society is life-changing. Yet I am going to question the whole question of feminist leadership itself. Apart from being written beautifully and having astounding character development, what do all these characters have in common? They can fight. They all use a form of combat or violence and are immediately seen as strong and powerful. What if 'The Hunger Games' had taken a different turn, and Katniss would have had Peeta's powers with words and drastically changed a whole system solely through the power of speech? Would she still be seen as this potent female leader? I'm not saying no, but I'm not saying yes either. Why do we have to masculinize women in order to create these ground-breaking characters? Aren't we good enough as we are?

At the same time, I disagree with myself. The whole word in itself, 'masculinize' shouldn't exist. Who ever decided that fighting was more of a manly trait? That having short hair means you're a 'tom-boy'? This all goes back full circle to the gender barriers. We need to take down these strict walls we've put up between the two sexes, classifying anything and everything into whether it's socially acceptable for boys or girls. Why can't learning to use a knife, a bow and arrow, (not to mention seraph blades and steeles *winks at Shadowhunter fans*) learning to fight be considered what all women should do. Why is the term 'manly' represented positively, while 'girly' is an insult to most people? In a world where we are even forced to use the word 'masculinize' then yes, praise these lovely ladies for at least trying to change the way in which we genderize and stereotype specific actions.

I think the main answer for this debate is simply one: we need more Hermione Grangers! JK Rowling created the most perfect example of the female heroine we need. Never, throughout the series, did Hermione stop her reading and her studying to change the boys' perception of her. Never did she look or act 'more like a boy' to be accepted. I think we can all admit we all want to be a bit Hermione Granger-ized in our lives...

Next, another big question is if fighting even is the right answer to change the world like it is in all of these dystopian and fantasy universes, but we can discuss that another time.