Ella Enchanted has a strong female lead that isn't dependent, except in the end. 

SPOILER

She falls in love with Char and moons over him for the rest of the book. 

This is why I love characters like Elphaba and Elsa (both played by Idina Menzel, who is awesome at parts like that) and Matilda and all those people who stand up to unfairness and stop caring what other people think, not just about gender.

1: I agree with the blonde thing... I mean, I'm blond and am really smart! I'm not a girly-girl, like people expect blondes to be!

2: Yep, I don't understand why girls are signified as "weak". It's happening less and less NOW, but  for things like the Grimms' Fairy Tales? Gosh, either the girls are really weak or they just have way too much help to be heriones.

3: Also, have you noticed? In fairy tales, there usually isn't a wicked stepfather or wicked stepbrother. It's almost always wicked stepSISTERS and stepMOTHERS. 

But someday, hopefully, al of that will change.

My brother and I discuss this all the time- but its usually attached to marketing. Like, aka, why the blimey does LEGO of all companies have all these sterotypical air headed girls in the pirates/castle themes, and yet have totally awesome ones in other themes. And don't even get me started on Friends.

It's such a stupid cliche. I pretty much like any strong female- yup, villians included. My heroines are Herminone Granger, Calpurnia Tate and a lot of the American girls (but on that note, most of AGs marketing sucks too. Come on, we know Samantha is a weathly, Edwardian girl BUT DON'T STICK HER IN PINK EVERY TIME YOU TURN AROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Ahem.

Laura Ingalls? Awesome. Jo March? Fantastic. Why can't some people see girls love strong females and stop handing us watered-down wimps?

*sticks head through door* Is it one of my favorite topics? Better pop back into the Chatterbox with no warning!

I really like the direction that this is going, and I absolutely agree with a majority of these sentiments, but some of these posts, I guess... bother me a little? Almost as if they're a little black-and-white in their discussions what what heroes are the 'right' kind? 

I feel rather that this is a more complex topic than people often make it out for. Obviously it's bad when the only representation of women in the story is as passive plot points and objectified rewards for a male hero, but I feel like people often confuse traditional feminity with lack of strength? (Everinne brings this up, I think.

(By the way, I disagree with you on the topic of Tamora Pierce - I'm not very familiar with her Tortall books, but Emelan has everyone on the spectrum - Daja, who's strong and muscular and a blacksmith, Tris, who is bookish and smart and introverted, and Sandry, who is into sewing and fashion and cute furry animals - all of them are on the same footing and none are portayed as weaker than the others.)

(OOPS I LOVE EMELAN WAY TOO MUCH.)

Okay: back to the point.

 ACTUAL RELEVANT DISCUSSING BEGINS HERE. 

I feel like the rush to get away from archaic trends of pure femininity and rescue-romances leads us to demonize characters that are traditionally feminine and don't make up for it by learning swordwork or Rebelling Against Society or something. (I stress again, there is NOTHING WRONG with these narratives on their own.) I feel that we forget that in the light of characters like Hermione and Katniss and Tamora Pierce heroes and all these other incredibly awesome people - we can sort of discredit characters that fit the more traditional 'fairy tale' images?

What I'm trying to say is - what constitutes a 'weak' character? Does it mean that they cry a lot? Want badly to be in a relationship? Don't fight? Need to be rescued?

And yes, when a narrative is made up entirely of characters like these, it does say a lot about the sexism of the narrative itself - what it doesn't do, though, is render the character 'weak'.

Consider Les Miserables. (And if you've read the book, forgive any mistakes I'm made, because I'm going off the musical.)

In the general impression of Cosette and Eponine, people generally side with Eponine more - and yeah, in the framing of the musical, she can come off as a more appealing character because A) we get to see more about what she's thinking and her complexities, and B) her type of narrative generally appeals to people more, especially in light of recent events. 

Is Eponine strong and fantastic? Yeah.

Does that make Cosette weak? Just because she gets the guy they're both interested in, because she doesn't fight at the barricades, because she's in love and traditionally feminine and doesn't play as active a role in the plot?  

No. She's still strong, just in a different way - and yes, obviously Les Miserables the book was written in (I think?) somewhere around the mid-1800's, the women are outnumbered a la Lord of the Rings, and it's not going to be an ideal portrayal of female characters. That doesn't change the fact that as a person, Cosette is not weak. 

Consider Lord of the Rings. 

Eowyn spent years taking care of an increasingly unstable old man that she loved as a father, watching the world go on without her - then rode into battle and slayed the Witch-King of Angmar. She is strong in many, many ways. Obviously. She's my favorite character.

Arwen stayed in Rivendell and was in love with Aragorn and ended up marrying him. She is strong as well - do you think it's easy to pick between a long life with your family and species, or forsaking all that for some dude who's currently on a fairly futile quest? Should Tolkien have given women a bigger role in the story? Oh, yeah. Was Arwen still strong? OH, YEAH. 

Consider Wicked. 

Elphaba resisted years of bullying and then gave up an opportunity to get past that because her own moral code didn't want her to work within a system that she considered unfair. She spent her life fighting for what was right against increasingly futile odds. Was she strong? Of course. 

Galinda started off as a spoiled and mean young woman, then matured (over the course of Dancing Through Life into being still spoiled but this time well-meaning and sincerely endearing. Faced with the same choice as Elphaba's, she chose to remain in the palace and let the Wizard and Morrible exploit her to feed propaganda to the people of Oz. She's much more passive than Elphaba, and also unironically enjoys frilly dresses - she's blond and feminine and popular and excitable. Is she strong? Yes, and I'll fight you on this - she takes up the Grimmerie toward the end of the book, she deals with believing that basically everyone she had a strong connection to is dead, she ultimately stands up to Morrible and the Wizard - and she doesn't have to give up anything about herself. Sure, she develops as a character - but not so much that she becomes Rebellious Action Heroine #197325432.

Consider this:

That no female character is inherently weak - that their bad representation, if it's there, lies entirely in their framing and treatment by the narrative. Consider that there is no hiearchy of which female characters are stronger than others - only better-written. 

Idealism, love, femininity, a weakness for impractical dresses - they do not make one weak. Cynicism, independence, rebellion, practicality - neither do they. Both have a place. Both are important.

Neither is weak.  

Want a list of good books with cool female protagonists? Look no further.

-The True Confessoions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (Charlotte starts out wimpy but becomes pretty epic by the end of the book. It's awesome character devlopment.)

-Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan (Esperanza is a little brat throughout the first bit but grows to become pretty strong and independent.)

-Paint the Wind by Pam Munoz Ryan (Any horse fans will love Maya.)

-Incarceron and Sapphique by Catherine Fisher (Claudia shares being the protagonist with Finn, but another main character, Atilla, is also an excellent butt-kicker.)

-The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (I like Turtle a lot.)

-Skinjackers trilogy by Neal Shusterman (I've only read the first one but I think protagonist Ally stays the protagonist throughout.)

-Secret series by Pseudonymous Bosch (Cass shares protagonist-hood with Yo-Yoji and Max-Ernest but they're all great.)

I could make a much, much longer list but I am very tired and I'm going to sleep now.