Celebrating Black Women on AO3
Feb. 11th, 2013 05:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wrangletangle
(This month, I'm contributing to #femslash february by highlighting female character-centric and femslash-centric tags at AO3.)
So, this was meant to be an exercise in "Quick! Name 50 canons with black female characters off the top of my head!" It quickly devolved into 2 hours of "Omg, I knew her name, that lady in the thing with the vampires." /o\ And then a bunch of those I could name don't appear on AO3 because no one's uploaded anything with them yet. This just hammered home the reality I think we're all aware of on some level, that there simply are not enough canons with black women in prominent roles.
On the plus side, I met Micchone and a couple other ladies through Femslash February, so thank y'all!
1. Nyota Uhura [Star Trek: TOS]
2. Zoe Washburne [Firefly]
3. Gwen [Merlin BBC]
4. Ororo Munroe [Marvel, X-Men]
5. Teyla Emmagan [Stargate Atlantis]
6. Sally Donovan [Sherlock BBC]
7. Tiana [The Princess and the Frog]
8. Valerie Smith [Josie and the Pussycats]
9. Kasidy Yates [Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]
10. Claudia LaSalle and Kate Masseau [Macross]
11. Martha Jones [Doctor Who]
12. Jessica Pearson [Suits]
13. Lisa Turtle [Saved by the Bell]
14. Tzipporah and the Queen [The Prince of Egypt]
15. Michonne [Walking Dead]
16. Bonnie Bennett [Vampire Diaries]
17. June Ellington [White Collar]
18. Olivia Pope [Scandal]
19. Queen Nefertiti, Cleopatra VII, and Hatshepsut [Ancient Egyptian RPF]
20. Tara Thornton [True Blood]
21. Shirley Bennett [Community]
22. Monica Dawson and Nana [Heroes]
23. Miranda Bailey [Grey's Anatomy]
24. Elaine Besbriss [due South]
25. Allison Blake [Eureka]
26. Annie Sawyer [Being Human]
27. Shana Elmsford [Jem and the Holograms]
28. Lilith Iyapo [Lilith's Brood aka Xenogenesis]
29. Lauren Olamina and Zahra Moss [Parable series] (empty Yuletide tags)
30. Anyanwu [Patternist series] (empty Yuletide tags)
31. Mercedes Jones [Glee]
32. Astrid Farnsworth [Fringe]
33. Mahandra McGinty [Wonderfalls]
34. Nasuada [Inheritance cycle aka Eragon]
35. Hilda [Eureka Seven] (you'll need to look under the generic Hilda for previous works)
36. Jessica Williams [The Daily Show]
37. Joss Carter [Person of Interest]
38. Rue [Hunger Games]
39. Jazmine Dubois [Boondocks]
40. Nadia la Arwall [Fushigi no Umi no Nadia aka Nadia of the Blue Water]
41. Amarone Slaintheav [Vandread]
42. Sherry Walken [Gungrave]
43. Celie, Shug Avery, Nettie, Corrine, et al [The Color Purple]
44. Janie Crawford, Phoeby, Janie's mother, and the female neighbors [Their Eyes Were Watching God]
45. Susie Carmichael [Rugrats]
46. Comfort Fedoke [So You Think You Can Dance]
47. Carrie Dwyer [Elementary]
48. Cassie Logan, her mother, and her grandmother [Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry]
49. Beatrice Okoh, Elewa and her mother, et al [Anthills on the Savannah]
50. Maya St. Germain [Pretty Little Liars]
(I tried to leave off characters who died in the same episode/chapter/issue they were introduced in. I may not have been 100% successful.)
Any character without a link is a character who doesn't yet have a tag on AO3. I would love for that to change. So my challenge to you is: if you have a work about any of these characters, could you please upload it there? Art, Vid/AMV, Fic, Podfic, anything. And if you've already uploaded but the tag isn't showing as canonical, holler and I'll look into it.
Who are your favorite black female characters?
So, this was meant to be an exercise in "Quick! Name 50 canons with black female characters off the top of my head!" It quickly devolved into 2 hours of "Omg, I knew her name, that lady in the thing with the vampires." /o\ And then a bunch of those I could name don't appear on AO3 because no one's uploaded anything with them yet. This just hammered home the reality I think we're all aware of on some level, that there simply are not enough canons with black women in prominent roles.
On the plus side, I met Micchone and a couple other ladies through Femslash February, so thank y'all!
1. Nyota Uhura [Star Trek: TOS]
2. Zoe Washburne [Firefly]
3. Gwen [Merlin BBC]
4. Ororo Munroe [Marvel, X-Men]
5. Teyla Emmagan [Stargate Atlantis]
6. Sally Donovan [Sherlock BBC]
7. Tiana [The Princess and the Frog]
8. Valerie Smith [Josie and the Pussycats]
9. Kasidy Yates [Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]
10. Claudia LaSalle and Kate Masseau [Macross]
11. Martha Jones [Doctor Who]
12. Jessica Pearson [Suits]
13. Lisa Turtle [Saved by the Bell]
14. Tzipporah and the Queen [The Prince of Egypt]
15. Michonne [Walking Dead]
16. Bonnie Bennett [Vampire Diaries]
17. June Ellington [White Collar]
18. Olivia Pope [Scandal]
19. Queen Nefertiti, Cleopatra VII, and Hatshepsut [Ancient Egyptian RPF]
20. Tara Thornton [True Blood]
21. Shirley Bennett [Community]
22. Monica Dawson and Nana [Heroes]
23. Miranda Bailey [Grey's Anatomy]
24. Elaine Besbriss [due South]
25. Allison Blake [Eureka]
26. Annie Sawyer [Being Human]
27. Shana Elmsford [Jem and the Holograms]
28. Lilith Iyapo [Lilith's Brood aka Xenogenesis]
29. Lauren Olamina and Zahra Moss [Parable series] (empty Yuletide tags)
30. Anyanwu [Patternist series] (empty Yuletide tags)
31. Mercedes Jones [Glee]
32. Astrid Farnsworth [Fringe]
33. Mahandra McGinty [Wonderfalls]
34. Nasuada [Inheritance cycle aka Eragon]
35. Hilda [Eureka Seven] (you'll need to look under the generic Hilda for previous works)
36. Jessica Williams [The Daily Show]
37. Joss Carter [Person of Interest]
38. Rue [Hunger Games]
39. Jazmine Dubois [Boondocks]
40. Nadia la Arwall [Fushigi no Umi no Nadia aka Nadia of the Blue Water]
41. Amarone Slaintheav [Vandread]
42. Sherry Walken [Gungrave]
43. Celie, Shug Avery, Nettie, Corrine, et al [The Color Purple]
44. Janie Crawford, Phoeby, Janie's mother, and the female neighbors [Their Eyes Were Watching God]
45. Susie Carmichael [Rugrats]
46. Comfort Fedoke [So You Think You Can Dance]
47. Carrie Dwyer [Elementary]
48. Cassie Logan, her mother, and her grandmother [Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry]
49. Beatrice Okoh, Elewa and her mother, et al [Anthills on the Savannah]
50. Maya St. Germain [Pretty Little Liars]
(I tried to leave off characters who died in the same episode/chapter/issue they were introduced in. I may not have been 100% successful.)
Any character without a link is a character who doesn't yet have a tag on AO3. I would love for that to change. So my challenge to you is: if you have a work about any of these characters, could you please upload it there? Art, Vid/AMV, Fic, Podfic, anything. And if you've already uploaded but the tag isn't showing as canonical, holler and I'll look into it.
Who are your favorite black female characters?
no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 11:26 pm (UTC)Diana Barrigan (White Collar)
Camille Saroyan (Bones)
Lanie Parish, Victoria Gates (Castle)
Rachel Brooks (Justified)
Isis (Bring It On)
Eva Rodriguez (Center Stage)
Tia Dalma/Calypso (Pirates of the Caribbean)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 02:58 am (UTC)Adding to the list!
no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 12:34 am (UTC)Nyota Uhura, Star Trek: TOS
ETA: ... Oh you did have Uhura already. That is weird, I could swear I ctrl-F searched for her. Anyway!
Ashley Davenport, Revenge
Eve Moneypenny, Skyfall
Brigadier Winifred Bambera, Erimem, Classic Doctor Who
Tish Jones, Liz Ten, Nefertiti, Doctor Who (2005)
Mika Coretti, Ninja Assassin
Dayna Mellanby, Blake's 7
Cindi Mayweather, The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monae
Nebula, Hercules/Xena: Warrior Princess
Anamaria, Pirates of the Caribbean
Also some comics related ones:
Aisha, The Losers
Valerie Smith, Josie & The Pussycats
Maxine, Batman Beyond
Tiana, Princess & The Frog
Marvel comics: Misty Knight, Monica Rambeau, Ororo Munroe/Storm, Monet St. Croix
DC Comics: Mari Jiwe McCabe/Vixen, Amanda Waller, Jakita Wagner, Jennifer Pierce/Lightning, Anissa Pierce/Thunder, Joan Leland, Anita Fite
no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 03:05 am (UTC)I did raise the question of Aisha with my roommate, and we weren't sure what to think. In comicsverse it looks like she was born and raised in Afghanistan/Pakistan, while in movieverse she was from Bolivia and played by Saldana. I'm not actually in the fandom, so I don't know how the fandom sees her - what canon is accepted and how it's interpreted. Do you have any info on this?
no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 03:25 am (UTC)Misty Knight is amaaaaaaazing. She is currently co-starring in "Fearless Defenders" which a lot of people are squee-ing about right now because it has the other lead, Valkyrie, kissing a lady in the latest issue.
You can find Misty in various versions of "Heroes for Hire" & "Daughters of the Dragon" along with her BFF Colleen Wing, and as a supporting character in "Power Man & Iron Fist" and the modern "Immortal Iron Fist" series by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction.
Hmm... Aisha I'm not sure about. I know she was Middle Eastern in the comics, but in the movieverse, not sure (we do see her father but don't know anything about her mother, so I did just mention her because she's played by Saldana and is presumably Black-Hispanic like Saldana herself.) You could go with Jolene instead, she is a "Losers" character who is definitely African-American (but really only a briefly occurring character in the movie, so there's less fic about her.)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 05:24 am (UTC)And a few more:
Selena, 28 Days Later
Dame Vaako, The Chronicles of Riddick
Eliza Maza, Gargoyles
Netossa, She-Ra Princess of Power
Original Cindy, Dark Angel
Rose Nadler, LOST
Trudy Joplin, Miami Vice
Guinan, Star Trek: TNG
Francie, Alias
Angela Moore, Boy Meets World
Isabelle, The 4400
Monique, Kim Possible
Valerie Gray, Danny Phantom
Agent 355, Y: The Last Man
Catherine, NewsRadio
Sagiitta Weinberg, Sakura Taisen V
Olivia, Kendra, Nikki Wood - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Nikki and Kendra are in multiple episodes, although they do both die)
Oh, also from Modern Doctor Who: Rosita (from the 2008 Christmas special.)
And some video game characters:
Elena, Street Fighter 3
Tanya, Mortal Kombat 4
Alyx Vance, Half-Life 2
Rochelle, Left 4 Dead
Sheva Alomar, Resident Evil 5
no subject
Date: 2013-02-28 11:41 pm (UTC)(Also, Sakura Taisen, wow! I thought I'd found all the ladies in anime. Thank you!!)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 03:17 am (UTC)Alexandra Moreau, Poltergeist: the Legacy [41 of the 48 stories tagged w/ her name are written by me]
Mama Odie, Princess & the Frog
no subject
Date: 2013-02-16 02:06 am (UTC)Mama Odie, whee!
(Sorry for the late reply - I'm trying to wait until I've recorded someone's suggestions before replying to them, and that's taking a while for this post because fans are awesome. And prolific.)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-20 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 04:44 pm (UTC)Cassie Robinson, Missouri Mosley and Tamara (Supernatural) - They've only got an episode each, but they all walk away alive
Leena and Irene Frederick (Warehouse 13)
Val Santiago (Lost Girl)
Christina (Divergence)
J and Nina (The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl)
Anastasia "Dee" Dualla (Battlestar Galactica)
Laverne Roberts (Scrubs)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-16 02:19 am (UTC)Great list - I've added them all to the end-of-the-month roundup! (It's gonna be long...)
no subject
Date: 2013-03-16 04:00 am (UTC)Claudette Wyms, The Shield
Clarice, Ginger, Jezanna & Jasmine, Dykes to Watch Out For
Jess Merriweather & Corinna Williams, Friday Night Lights
Lana Kane, Archer
LaDonna Williams,Treme
Lydia Adams, Southland
Stony, Cleo, Frankie & TT, Set It Off
Kenya McQueen, Something New
Monica Wright, Love & Basketball