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selenak
1. Cristina Yang - portrayed by the brilliant Sandra Oh on Grey's Anatomy. A Korean-American female surgeon. The best student in her class. Dry-witted. Razor smart. Yet also vulnerable. She operated on her best friend's husband while a gun was pointed at her head. Survived post-traumatic stress disorder.
And refuses to compromise herself for anyone.
2. Bailey - by Chandra Wilson, also on Grey's Anatomy. The brilliant attending generalist surgeon, who stands up to the Chief and is called by the interns - The Nazi. She's not thin and skinny like most female actresses on these shows. Short, stocky, tough. A minority character who is not merely supporting. We've followed her divorce, her struggle to start a clinic, and she coined the term vajay-jay.
3. Kalinda - on The Good Wife - the bisexual female investigator, who can turn on men and women, also hold her own with anyone. She often is the one who solves the cases on this show. And her friendship with Alicia is a high point.
4. Mercedes on Glee - possibly my favorite character on that show, although rarely seen. She makes no apologies. Has a great voice. And stands up for herself. Telling Puck that she doesn't need him to be popular.
5. Tara on True Blood - (S1, S2 - she's a bit weaker), Sookie's best friend and a survivor of her abusive home life, she manages to survive the weirdness of Bon Temps with no powers of her own. In some respects, she's smarter, tougher, and more together than Sookie is.
[In doing this meme - I realized the characters listed above have bigger roles than minority or women of color in sci-fi or fantasy tv shows. Which is interesting. ]
Honorable mention: Gwen on Merlin - she's great, but tends to be more a romantic interest in the series, so Tara and Mercedes...came first. My criteria is the female character must be central to the show, have a large role and not be a romantic interest. Mercedes is sort of cheating.
selenak1. Cristina Yang - portrayed by the brilliant Sandra Oh on Grey's Anatomy. A Korean-American female surgeon. The best student in her class. Dry-witted. Razor smart. Yet also vulnerable. She operated on her best friend's husband while a gun was pointed at her head. Survived post-traumatic stress disorder.
And refuses to compromise herself for anyone.
2. Bailey - by Chandra Wilson, also on Grey's Anatomy. The brilliant attending generalist surgeon, who stands up to the Chief and is called by the interns - The Nazi. She's not thin and skinny like most female actresses on these shows. Short, stocky, tough. A minority character who is not merely supporting. We've followed her divorce, her struggle to start a clinic, and she coined the term vajay-jay.
3. Kalinda - on The Good Wife - the bisexual female investigator, who can turn on men and women, also hold her own with anyone. She often is the one who solves the cases on this show. And her friendship with Alicia is a high point.
4. Mercedes on Glee - possibly my favorite character on that show, although rarely seen. She makes no apologies. Has a great voice. And stands up for herself. Telling Puck that she doesn't need him to be popular.
5. Tara on True Blood - (S1, S2 - she's a bit weaker), Sookie's best friend and a survivor of her abusive home life, she manages to survive the weirdness of Bon Temps with no powers of her own. In some respects, she's smarter, tougher, and more together than Sookie is.
[In doing this meme - I realized the characters listed above have bigger roles than minority or women of color in sci-fi or fantasy tv shows. Which is interesting. ]
Honorable mention: Gwen on Merlin - she's great, but tends to be more a romantic interest in the series, so Tara and Mercedes...came first. My criteria is the female character must be central to the show, have a large role and not be a romantic interest. Mercedes is sort of cheating.
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Date: 2011-03-19 04:58 pm (UTC)They are admittedly amongst the main reasons I watch those shows.
Every episode of Glee that has focused on Mercedes has been a good episode, unfortunately they don't do it often enough. But she shines. And Grey's - Cristina and Bailey are my favorite characters. I also stuck with True Blood in S1 - mainly because of Tara. And oh...I adore Kalinda so much!
Proof that you can write a well-rounded role for a minority female character without making her just a love-interest or side-kick to a white guy or white gal.