I finished reading a biography today, about the same time as Miss Cam sparked a new meme here after this fandom secret and this long discussion bordering on wank (randomly, I love how everyone pulled out their favorite female character icons in that thread). It was fortuitous timing, so now I'm going to tell y'all about women I admire, who may or may not be fictional. I'd stick with fictional women, but again, the biography. I do hope you'll talk about women you admire, too. I think we can't talk enough about women we admire.

( I've restrained myself, with great difficulty, to one per fandom. )

Looking back at these women, and at the ones who didn't make the list (Zoe Washburn, Inara Serra, Dana Scully, Virginia Wolff, my Doctor Who gals), I can see a couple of trends. I tend to admire smart women, who can maintain strong and loving relationships, but neither quality is a deal-breaker if it's lacking (Kaylee, Karrin Murphy). I admire women who are women, not men with breasts. I admire women who aren't afraid or ashamed of their sexuality. I admire women who are more than competant, women who hold their own and demand respect. I admire exceptional women who aren't afraid to be exceptional.

I feel like today, most women and girls are afraid to be exceptional. I don't know why this is so, or why women get boxed into subordinate roles that they aren't comfortable with or happy in. I feel like every girl should know that she can be exceptional, and I feel like these woman are a good start.

In short, I admire exceptional women, and I have every intention of being one.

What women do you respect? Why do you respect them?

ETA: Honorh talks about the same thing here, and so does selenay936.

You. Specific you.

BAD AUTHOR. NO COOKIE. Character A and Character B are canonically married with two kids, and have been married for thirty years. Do not tell me that Character A never loved Character B just so you can have your shiny sparkly Sue hook up with her. FAIL.

Also, clearly you have never read the series, because the author makes a big honkin' deal about Character A and Character B being in love. It's important to the series; a lot of things happen because of it and at least three of the books have main conflicts sparked by or stemming from that fact. You ignoring it? EPIC FAIL.

GTFO of my fandom.

ETA: ...whoa. That was the fastest "whine flounce delete" I've ever seen.

Nicked off awanderingbard.

Character Questions Meme
1. Go here to generate 10 random numbers between 1 and 100. DO THIS FIRST.

2. Choose a character that I write or have written, be it canon or an OC.

3. Comment with the character and the numbers, and then I will answer the corresponding questions from here.

If you choose anyone underage, any questions inappropriate to ask a child will be answered as though they were adults. You can choose a few characters if you so choose.

1. List your top seven ships
2. Put all of them in order of your love for them; 7 to 1, 1 being your favorite.
3. Name their fandom.
4. Supply photos for said people.

( These are really in no particular order: I ship them all about equally. AKA, like burning )
And, of course, the traditional ( Super Secret Really Really Really Embarrassing Slash Ship below the cut. )

( Jennifer Tarleton )

( A Digression! )

( Karrin Murphy )

( Hold the Pig's Blood; or; Why One Does Not Cross Margaret Dresden )

( Mike Crichton spite for my amusement )

( Best. Segues. Ever. )

White Wars fanfiction.
( Gambles )

( Shipperly justification )

More WW fanfiction.
( Surprises )

And random funnies:
Is it bad when my very first thought upon seeing this is "Dammit, Harry, not again!"
Or does that just mean I'm hallucinating?

OMG OMG OMG SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER.
IT IS JOHN BARROWMAN AND HE IS BLONDE AND FABULOUS.
YES, THIS REQUIRES ALL CAPS.
BLONDE. AND FABULOUS.

This is very, very bad.
The following collection of names appeared in a fanfic I was reading; Paul, Christopher, Thomas, David, Jonathan, William, Patrick, Peter, Colin, and Sylvester. And I knew what the correlation was.* Right off the bat.
This is bad on so many levels.

*For the curious, those are the first names of the actors for, in order, Doctors Eight, Nine, Four, Ten, Three, One, Two, Five, Six, and Seven.

Oi, Pris, I had a weird dream. It was a kind of fixit sequel to Cold Comfort, where it turned out Murph got resurrected by something or other (I think the dream blamed faeries) and then Lasciel mysteriously disappeared, Murph started channeling the Eighth Doctor's Jesus imagery and then fell asleep on Harry's doorstep where he tripped over her the next morning. Yeah, you explain it. It's your fault anyway.