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Who Gets To Be a "Strong Female Character?" (Heavy Lifting With a Contested Trope)

Prerecorded panel to premiere at Comicazi. Available on YouTube later.

The idea of the "Strong Female Character" as a feminist requirement for storytelling has been around long enough to become as much of a benchmark of a text's quality as the Bechdel Test before it. But what do we really mean when we describe a female character as "strong"? That she's self-sufficient? Courageous? Emotionally tough? Complex? Can bench 400 lbs? Is Wanda Maximoff allowed to play, or just Carol Danvers? Join our panel for a lively discussion of this trope's meanings and implications across comics, film, tv, and fiction, from perspectives ranging from creators to academia and journalism.

Panelists:

  • Marianna Martin (PhD Cinema & Media Studies; Broad Universe Motherboard)

  • LJ Cohen (Author)

  • Randee Dawn (Author, Journalist)

  • Trisha Wooldridge (Author, Editor).

Watch the panel on YouTube