Before Black History Month comes to a close – and with Women’s History Month ahead – I want to talk about some of my top five Black female characters in live-action TV (not necessarily characters I, as a white viewer, feel qualified to judge as Good or Bad Representation – just characters whom I enjoyed watching).
1. Zoe Washburne (Firefly)As with most of Joss Whedon’s work – and for some extra reasons having to do with the show’s unapologetic Orientalism – I think the cultural re-evaluation of
Firefly has, overall, been a good thing. I still think that Zoe was and is a standout character: capable, tough, loyal, loving, sexy and funny, in ways that balanced each other and (although at least as much credit has to go to Gina Torres as to Whedon and the writing team) made her feel like a whole and authentic person.
2. Martha Jones (Doctor Who)In her long-running
TARDIS Eruditorum project, Elisabeth Sandifer describes Martha as
“the forgotten companion – the one that didn’t quite work. That’s not to say that she doesn’t have her fans and admirers, nor that those fans are wrong. But they are swimming against the tide…” Sandifer does her best to back up that thesis in her discussion of Martha’s narrative role on Doctor Who, and I don’t think she’s entirely wrong, either, but Martha is still one of
my favorite characters. She’s brave and clever and adventurous, like many of the Doctor’s companions, but is also willing to push back when he’s taking her for granted, despite her doomed crush on him, and cares as much about her family on Earth as she does about her travels in other worlds. Watching her pine for the Doctor while he’s still fixated on Rose is sometimes frustrating,, but that makes her choice to walk away from the TARDIS on her own terms – after traveling over a post-apocalyptic earth and laughing in the face of the near-omnipotent being who tried to take it over – is deeply satisfying.
3. Lynn Stewart (Black Lightning)I love all the members of the Pierce-Stewart family, but – even based upon the season and change of
Black Lightning that I’ve seen – I really appreciated the direction that the show took Lynn’s character. Not only was she the civilian partner of a superhero, and the non-powered parent of super-powered children, who knew about her family’s abilities (instead of being kept in the dark like many wives and girlfriends in this genre), but she had an entire storyline that wasn’t primarily about her husband but about
her, her medical expertise, and her relationships with other supers and a morally ambiguous scientific colleague. I would definitely love to finish the show at some point soon, and even if something infuriating happens to Lynn in the episodes that I haven’t seen yet, she’ll always have had that.
4. Monica Rambeau (WandaVision)Monica was first introduced as an adorable child in the Captain Marvel movie.
WandaVision revisits her as an adult re-acclimating to her life after Thanos’s Snap (which happened in another movie that I did not watch, but I understand the basic gist) was reversed. I like how she’s integrated into the story, first as a victim of Wanda’s illusion and then as one of the people investigating it, grieving but still determined. I agree with the observation in
this video essay that her motivations and moral compass – both of which were very sympathetic – started to fall apart toward the end as it became more evident where the
show’s sympathies were weighted,, but she’s a wonderful character up until that point.
5. Spanish Jackie (Our Flag Means Death)Whether her character was collecting husbands or noses, Leslie Jones stole every scene that she was in. No notes.
Characters whom I considered listing include
Amanita Caplan (Sense8), Aisha Robinson (Cobra Kai), Bonnie Bennett (The Vampire Diaries), and
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pluralstories now! I’m really happy and proud of that! I feel like it’s becoming a nice mix of us finding older books, readers submitting the new stuff we don’t hear about and some really neat surprises! It’s especially the “weird” submissions I feel most excited about!
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