All the Senior Ladies!

(This month, I'm contributing to #femslash february by highlighting female character-centric and femslash-centric tags at AO3.)

(And sorry for the gap, guys! I'm posting Wednesday and today's posts back to back as a result.)

It is a truth generally acknowledged by the entertainment industry that a woman who stars in a television show or film, shall the vast majority of the time be under the age of 40. She might, on a lucky day, be as much as 50. *koff* *Susan Sarandon "too old" to play Catwoman* *koff*

60? 70? Older? Very rare.

Is that really what we want to tell young women? "Enjoy it while you can, because once you get wrinkles, your story is over." Really? And do we want to be telling older women that they shouldn't expect to see themselves in media, except as someone's two-scene grandma dispensing worn-out advice, or appearing only to die in the same chapter/episode to create emotional growth for someone else?

Ick.

Today's challenge: offer the world a leading lady or major supporting character who is canonically over 50. (And please not someone who's an youthful alien or magically appears younger for some other reason.) Any canon, any medium. Go!

Freeform of the day: Older Woman (I couldn't find a single other tag for these ladies. Even "Grandmothers" was folded into "Grandparents & Grandchildren".)

So, who's up? Got any awesome older lady pairings for everyone?

Throws like a girl, runs like a girl, kicks butt like a girl...

(This month, I'm contributing to #femslash february by highlighting female character-centric and femslash-centric tags at AO3.)

Has anyone else noticed that there's a fannish meme been going around for a while now to have grown men derogatorily refer to their own or other men's behavior as being "like a teenage girl"? When did this become a Thing? And why?

I've met so many teenaged young women, and they're all very different people, most of them quite awesome. To me, "like a teenage girl" means "like a student taking 5 languages", "like an gymnast who practices 6 hours a day", "like a philanthropist who organized her whole grade into making Valentines cards for the kids at the local Children's Hospital", "like the stage manager for her school's musical", "like a camp counselor who teaches kids how to swim", "like a folk dancer who writes dances for her group", or "like a programmer who's designing her own video game".

Every time I read "like a teenage girl" said by a character with a sneer in their voice, all it does is make me not like that character anymore. Is that the intent? Then it's working.

So, hey! Here are some tags on AO3 where I've found positive, complex portrayals of teenage women:

* Himemiya Anthy/Tenjou Utena
* Kate Bishop
* Simoun
* Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: Legend of Korra
* Young Wizards
* Sophie Hatter
* Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

(Freeform non-canonical of the day: tag search for "Teen* Girl*" [warning: not actually uplifting])

I'm sure there are lots of positive tags I've missed. Got any suggestions?