lizbee: Concept art for the Doctor Who cartoon of 2007. Martha rests her hand beneath her chin, looking down and to the side. (DW: Martha cartoon)
lizbee ([personal profile] lizbee) wrote2011-05-08 09:25 am
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Astrid!

Racialicious has an article on how Astrid Farnsworth (and Jasika Nicole) is AMAZECAKES. And it's not wrong, although I think it's a bit dewy-eyed about some of the bits I find problematic, like Walter never calling her by her proper name.

Anyway, it has this bit:

Astrid is a lifelong computer geek with a B.A. in Music who speaks five languages and bakes up a storm when she’s stressed out. ...Her sparkling emotional intelligence is a welcome change from Magical Negresses who solve white people’s problems with folksy wisdom and a hug to the bosom. It is rare for the Math/Science Nerd trope to be deployed subtly and it is almost never embodied by a women of color. Astrid is essentially a unicorn. A really, really good-looking unicorn.

And now I'm really nostalgic for Martha Jones. Who was vastly more of an everygirl than ... anyone on Fringe, but she was also an emotionally intelligent nerd, and I loved her.