As for strong female protagonists who often kicked some serious behind, Scarlett O’Hara is the first woman to come to my mind. I love her strong will and often cocky attitude. She could be foolish when it came to some things but she had her head in the game. She did whatever it took to take care of herself and her beloved Tara. She’s the type of woman that I wish to be.

As for Bella, who would really want to be Bella with all of her insecurities? I say that all the women/girls that wish to be her only want to be with Edward and they do not actually admire her qualities and character.

Not literature, but Anne Perry is also awesome, and the main characters of her first two series were strong women in Victorian London: Charlotte Pitt and Hester Latterly Monk.

My all time favorite heroine has to be Amelia Peabody Emerson, from the series of books by Elizabeth Peters (the first is titled ‘The Crocodile on the Sandbank’). A Victorian woman who nevertheless speaks her mind and is happy to go toe-to-toe with her archaeologist husband. I adore her so much and reread those books constantly. A must for any mystery fan!

In real life, I admire Olivia Harrison, George Harrison’s widow. She defended her husband and kicked some ass, I mean, there was no gender roles in their relationship, and that’s what’s awesome.

Back to literature, I like Rachel and Cassie from the “Animorphs” series. They
re different, but they strong minded for 13 year olds.

I wish I could hear of more older female role models in life and literature, if seems the spontaneity dissolves.

Props to so many for recognizing Fanny. She doesn’t have the wit of Elizabeth, and her convictions are more old-fashioned than what is commonly lauded in modern heroines. But she knew what she was about, and stuck to her convictions. Sounds like a strong heroine to me!

I’m torn about Scarlett O’Hara on here. If you’re looking for “strong female protagonists kicking some serious behind”, you’ve got to put her on her. Yes, she’s sometimes breathtakingly, audaciously bad/selfish/cruel–but she pretty much single-handedly saves her family and circle of friends in the wake of the Civil War. She’s got a lot of bad qualities, but at the end of the day, she’s loyal and really, really tough. (The complexity of characters in that book is really amazing–everyone is deeply flawed, but has some (occasionally surprising) redeeming characteristics. Not unlike real people.)

And I’ll disagree with the negative assessments of the recent P&P. After a senior project studying all of the Austen novel adaptations, I’ve come to appreciate different adaptations for different reasons. Yes, the 1995 miniseries is pretty much untouchable, and Firth=Darcy forever. But for a two-hour version, I thought the Keira Knightley version was quite good, mostly faithful to the book, and very well cast.