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You've seen it around, I know you have.
The top twenty-five awesome female characters meme.
I have great love for female characters. It's almost always a female character that gets me into writing fanfic for a show. I've never been in all-male-character fandoms, although Atlantis is rapidly heading that way. Ultimately, however, in my years of fandom, the only female character I've ever felt I've had to apologise for liking is Teyla.
Sam Carter? Faith? Zoe? Wonder Woman? Jean Grey? Brennan? Inara Serra? Elizabeth Weir? Kara Thrace? No problem. They have huge fandoms. Rabid fans. People who are willing to concede that the character might be awesome, even if she doesn't hit their particular marrowbone.
But Teyla?
Sorry, Teyla isn't awesome. She can't be.
She's "the alien in the boob tube", "Borg Barbie" without even 7-of-9's brain rattling about in her head - heck, her people are technologically equivalent to the American Indians and what crack are TPTB smoking to have her lead Atlantis anyway? She doesn't count as a kickass chick - although Elizabeth does - because she's the Token Alien.
Flip back a year and run a search on "Teyla" and "tits and ass" and you'll find dozens of people slamming Teyla - her clothing, her appearance, her role in the city, her people's technological inadequacies. It's settled down in the last year - a little. Not much, though, with the pregnancy and the reduction of her, first to "the pregnant woman who needs to just be pregnant", and now in Season Five to "the mother of the baby of Doom".
Truly told, most of the time, Teyla's acceptable to fandom only as long as she 'knows her place'. No, people don't say that outright. But it's implied in their fic and in their episode reviews. It's implied in what events they promote vs. what events they participate in. It's implied when people complained that 'Missing' didn't have enough of the guys, but didn't so much as peep at 'Miller's Crossing', 'Harmony', or 'Outcast'.
To most fans, Teyla is acceptable as long as she remains in the background to John, to Rodney, to Elizabeth, as long as she is silent and subservient to the Male Characters Of Awesome, as long as she keeps her romantic interests focused on Kanaan or Ronon - Pegasus males appropriate to her background, as long as she's promoting Earth values in Earth ways.
I adore Teyla. No ifs, no buts. She's not a perfect female character - none of them are. But my love for her comes without caveats.
And I really, really hate that I'm immediately a second-class citizen in SGA fandom because my first and total love is for her. Not for Rodney or Elizabeth, not for John/Teyla as a pairing, not for Teyla&Ronon as a dynamic duo - just for Teyla.
My top ten list of awesome - TV and book:
1. Teyla Emmagan - Stargate Atlantis
2. Sam Carter - Stargate SG1 & Stargate Atlantis
3. Faith Lehane - Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel
4. Diana/Wonder Woman - DC Comics
5. Temperance Brennan - Bones
6. Inara Serra - Firefly
7. Surreal - Black Jewels (book series)
8. Eve Dallas - In Death (book series)
9. Jean Grey/Phoenix - X-Men
10. Phedre no Delaunay - Kushiel's Dart (book series)
Further down the list are Zoe and Kara and Elizabeth and Janet, Sioned of the Desert and Nita Callahan and Sarra Ambrai and Vala Mal Doran, Angela Montenegro and Sarah Connor and Eowyn and Lyra, Claire-who-goes-through-the-stones and Delia Peabody... (I think I might have filled my top twenty-five, right there.)
And in spite of all those names, Teyla's the only one I've fangirled where I felt as though most people who watched the series expected me to apologise for liking her.
The top twenty-five awesome female characters meme.
I have great love for female characters. It's almost always a female character that gets me into writing fanfic for a show. I've never been in all-male-character fandoms, although Atlantis is rapidly heading that way. Ultimately, however, in my years of fandom, the only female character I've ever felt I've had to apologise for liking is Teyla.
Sam Carter? Faith? Zoe? Wonder Woman? Jean Grey? Brennan? Inara Serra? Elizabeth Weir? Kara Thrace? No problem. They have huge fandoms. Rabid fans. People who are willing to concede that the character might be awesome, even if she doesn't hit their particular marrowbone.
But Teyla?
Sorry, Teyla isn't awesome. She can't be.
She's "the alien in the boob tube", "Borg Barbie" without even 7-of-9's brain rattling about in her head - heck, her people are technologically equivalent to the American Indians and what crack are TPTB smoking to have her lead Atlantis anyway? She doesn't count as a kickass chick - although Elizabeth does - because she's the Token Alien.
Flip back a year and run a search on "Teyla" and "tits and ass" and you'll find dozens of people slamming Teyla - her clothing, her appearance, her role in the city, her people's technological inadequacies. It's settled down in the last year - a little. Not much, though, with the pregnancy and the reduction of her, first to "the pregnant woman who needs to just be pregnant", and now in Season Five to "the mother of the baby of Doom".
Truly told, most of the time, Teyla's acceptable to fandom only as long as she 'knows her place'. No, people don't say that outright. But it's implied in their fic and in their episode reviews. It's implied in what events they promote vs. what events they participate in. It's implied when people complained that 'Missing' didn't have enough of the guys, but didn't so much as peep at 'Miller's Crossing', 'Harmony', or 'Outcast'.
To most fans, Teyla is acceptable as long as she remains in the background to John, to Rodney, to Elizabeth, as long as she is silent and subservient to the Male Characters Of Awesome, as long as she keeps her romantic interests focused on Kanaan or Ronon - Pegasus males appropriate to her background, as long as she's promoting Earth values in Earth ways.
I adore Teyla. No ifs, no buts. She's not a perfect female character - none of them are. But my love for her comes without caveats.
And I really, really hate that I'm immediately a second-class citizen in SGA fandom because my first and total love is for her. Not for Rodney or Elizabeth, not for John/Teyla as a pairing, not for Teyla&Ronon as a dynamic duo - just for Teyla.
My top ten list of awesome - TV and book:
1. Teyla Emmagan - Stargate Atlantis
2. Sam Carter - Stargate SG1 & Stargate Atlantis
3. Faith Lehane - Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel
4. Diana/Wonder Woman - DC Comics
5. Temperance Brennan - Bones
6. Inara Serra - Firefly
7. Surreal - Black Jewels (book series)
8. Eve Dallas - In Death (book series)
9. Jean Grey/Phoenix - X-Men
10. Phedre no Delaunay - Kushiel's Dart (book series)
Further down the list are Zoe and Kara and Elizabeth and Janet, Sioned of the Desert and Nita Callahan and Sarra Ambrai and Vala Mal Doran, Angela Montenegro and Sarah Connor and Eowyn and Lyra, Claire-who-goes-through-the-stones and Delia Peabody... (I think I might have filled my top twenty-five, right there.)
And in spite of all those names, Teyla's the only one I've fangirled where I felt as though most people who watched the series expected me to apologise for liking her.
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