Ladies, what makes a female character/real person empowering and relatable?

[SociableGuy]

There's a lot of content online about "strong female characters", I don't have anything necessarily against these but I am trying to move beyond this idea. Many of the examples I have seen of these, while great fleshed out characters, seem to follow a similar idea of giving a female character "strong male traits" to make them strong and I think we can do much better than that.

For example, legendary characters like Ripley (Aliens), Sarah Connor (T2) and Wonder Woman are great characters but are ultimately "Action Girls" that shoot, kick and blow up their way to victory. Again this is fine (and believe me very exciting for a guy to watch), but surely we can make female characters "strong" without needing them to physically overpower a room full of elite soldiers, know their way around firearms, or possess superhuman powers for them to prove themselves as strong?

Hence why I prefer empowering over strong. How about a female character that is the smartest in the room (solving the hardest problems), or the most righteous (doing what no one else has the morals to do), or the most resilient (keeps going after all the whingers give up)? Is it just me or isn't that a better female character that feels empowering and relatable? What are your thoughts please?

[AmandaYVR]

Exactly! 100%. I don't find female characters drawn as men to be interesting. Seems that 'badass' is the word that sort of exemplifies these types in movies.

I've seen so many films, my mind is flooded and it's difficult to come up with examples, but I agree completely with your "the smartest in the room (solving the hardest problems), or the most righteous (doing what no one else has the morals to do), or the most resilient (keeps going after all the whingers give up)."
Why the hell can't we just see people in roles, irrespective of gender, skin colour, etc? I don't like movies that make such a big issue out of these. It feels like they're stuffing a moral lesson, or cultural differences, down our throats. Too heavy-handed.

You know like Pamela Landry in the Bourne movies? She is competent, controlled, very capable. But she also has a human element. She's not in a pissing contest with Jason, like her supervisor is, those men. Men tend to be more corrupt, and always fighting for power. Women have to fight to prove that they are worth to be in executive positions. They have to fight for respect, without being a bitch. Females are not elected into office nearly as often as males are, because the public (even some females!) do not accept them in these roles. My own mother had the audacity to say "women should not be presidents." What the fuck? Pamela uses her own judgment to help Bourne a bit (gives him the classified files about his case and history), and although she's pretty emotionless on the surface, I like characters like this who have more empathy, within the business of life.