We continue our thoughts on the definition of a strong female character. In fact the word “strong” is not entirely appropriate: strength must fit into the character’s balance of strengths and weaknesses. Josef Siroka offers a similar analysis for films: “So, feminists shouldn’t have said, ‘We want more strong female characters.’ They should have said, ‘We want weaker female characters.’ Not weak in the ‘damsel in distress’ sense of the word, but weak as in having flaws (“Redéfinir le « personnage féminin fort» », http://blogues.lapresse.ca/moncinema/siroka, Feburary 11, 2014).

On a side note, the opposite of a strong woman character is one reduced to being only a damsel in distress. When we look at the Captain America film trilogy, we see that at no point do the women need saving by the superhero.

Back to the Apatrides universe, it’s Jenny who tells Markham she wants to go to a Black Orchestra training camp. At that point, she is the only character in the stories already posted, to volunteer for the camps and be fully aware of what she’s requesting.