With this week being what it was, Kendra suggested we brainstorm a Top Five Friday post about badass women, fearless babes, and all around ass-kickers in skirts. So, the three of us came up with the following list of real women and fictional characters who remind us that we are strong and fierce no matter what.
General Nanisca in The Woman King (2022)
Yu Shu Lien in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Rani Lakshmibai in Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi (2019) and The Warrior Queen of Jhansi (2019)
Diana Themyscira in Wonder Woman (2017)
Polly Gray in Peaky Blinders (2013-19)
Feel free to share your picks for this list in the comments! And remember…
Phryne Fisher would either shoot you or flip you over her shoulder or hit you with Bert and Cec’s taxi.
The name of the Queen of Jhansi wasn’t ‘Rani’: that was her title. ‘Rani’ is the feminine equivalent of ‘Raja’. Her name as a child was Manikarnika, but after her marriage to the Maharaja of Jhansi she was re-named Lakshmibai in honour of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and fortune (apparently it was a Maharashtrian custom for women to be re-named on marriage).
Hoorah for kick-ass women! I’ll nominate Nelly Jackson from Renegade Nell to join their ranks.
Good one!
Lizzy Bennet is pretty kick-ass when she lets Darcy have it right to his face. Barbara Rose in The War of the Roses does the same thing only literally.
I’ve become very fond this year of Frances Milton Trollope (Anthony’s mother). She left her husband behind in England to work on an anti-slavery project in Mississippi and then founded a mall in Cincinnati. She wrote novels and travel literature. She notably said in 1844 that Americans were so stupid and determined to be told what they want to hear that they would happily vote for a con artist to be President. (Contemporary reviews thought that was a bit over the top.)
Frances Wright, who founded the Mississippi project that Trollope joined, was also a pretty badass lady. In fact, there were a lot of women back in those days who were very courageous for speaking out in public when a majority of men were determined to keep them quiet.
Fanny Trollope left her husband behind because he was a total waste of space. He organised sending her supplies to sell in her Emporium, but they were of such low quality and inappropriate to the area she was in that they were virtually unsaleable. She turned to writing to provide for herself and her family (see above re her husband) and became very successful, though Domestic Manners of the Americans caused great offence in the US – with some reason, as she disliked their manners, their behaviour and their institutions (like slavery, on which I’m inclined to agree with her!)
Her style was also pretty abrasive: A single word indicative of doubt, that any thing, or every thing, in that country, is not the very best in the world, produces an effect which must be seen and felt to be understood. If the citizens of the United States were indeed the devoted patriots they call themselves, they would surely not thus encrust themselves in the hard, dry, stubborn persuasion, that they are the first and best of the human race, that nothing is to be learnt, but what they are able to teach, and that nothing is worth having, which they do not possess.
Wow. That quote is terrifyingly on point! Here we are, 180 years later, and instead of learning humility, Americans are still insisting that this is true, and become enraged if anyone disagrees. Especially other Americans.
Susan B. Anthony comes to mind. :)
Alas, not well represented in frock flicks.
Bummer. :)
Ida B. Wells and Nellie Bly!
Eleanor of Aquitaine and Bess of Hardwick!
Biblical Judith and Deborah.
While her story just misses your cutoff date, Phoolan Devi certainly kicked ass. Look for the biopic Bandit Queen for her story!
I read a book about her life, it is great.
Admiral Malahayati! Apparently she slew Cornelis de Houtman in single combat xD
Also, Cut Nyak Dhien, Cut Meutia, and Nyi Ageng Serang.
Pretty much the women soldiers of the Aceh Sultanate and Mataram Sultanate.
I would say Raden Ayu Yudakusuma too, but… she’s rather questionable.