Personally, I tend to be equal opportunity male/female like in characters. It's just that looking at it, I realized that most of the female characters I've really loved have originated in the often female written genre of soap operas.
Growing up I really liked liked Anne Heche's "Vicki Hudson" on Another World. She schemed. She fought. She threatened to expose her mother's affair. She decided to take Jaime from "good girl" Lisa and did. When the affair went sour and he wanted custody of their child she fought back. She threatened to kill her ex-lover, and you believed her. She was the "evil" twin who impersonated her "good" twin, for that twin's own good. She was, in short, fun.
Equally, I loved rock-n-roll bitch Alicia Copola's Lorna Devon (also on the Donna Swajeski penned era of Another World). She dressed in black leather, wore long earrings. Stole good-boy Matt from good-girl Jenna. Discovered that her "worst enemy" (Jenna's mother) was actually her birth mother. Was hated by her biological father, but it was she who found him bleeding to death (he was murdered) on her living room floor and cradled him in her arms as he died (fantastic plot/heartwrenching scene btw.) And she had to drag her new-found mother into an intervention when "good girl" Jenna was of no use when their grieving mother slipped into alcoholism. Lorna rocked and I just adored the character.
I also find that I still love All My Children's nutcase Kendall Hart (all the better now that she's not played by Sarah Michelle Gellar any longer).
But, I suppose that really is a very female genre and far more likely to be penned by women. Prime-time it's far more difficult to find a female heroine of worth. In fact I can only think of two male written, prime-time female characters I've really loved -- Dana Scully and Aeryn Sun. Both of those women could kick butt and carry their own weight. But they are a rarity.
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Growing up I really liked liked Anne Heche's "Vicki Hudson" on Another World. She schemed. She fought. She threatened to expose her mother's affair. She decided to take Jaime from "good girl" Lisa and did. When the affair went sour and he wanted custody of their child she fought back. She threatened to kill her ex-lover, and you believed her. She was the "evil" twin who impersonated her "good" twin, for that twin's own good. She was, in short, fun.
Equally, I loved rock-n-roll bitch Alicia Copola's Lorna Devon (also on the Donna Swajeski penned era of Another World). She dressed in black leather, wore long earrings. Stole good-boy Matt from good-girl Jenna. Discovered that her "worst enemy" (Jenna's mother) was actually her birth mother. Was hated by her biological father, but it was she who found him bleeding to death (he was murdered) on her living room floor and cradled him in her arms as he died (fantastic plot/heartwrenching scene btw.) And she had to drag her new-found mother into an intervention when "good girl" Jenna was of no use when their grieving mother slipped into alcoholism. Lorna rocked and I just adored the character.
I also find that I still love All My Children's nutcase Kendall Hart (all the better now that she's not played by Sarah Michelle Gellar any longer).
But, I suppose that really is a very female genre and far more likely to be penned by women. Prime-time it's far more difficult to find a female heroine of worth. In fact I can only think of two male written, prime-time female characters I've really loved -- Dana Scully and Aeryn Sun. Both of those women could kick butt and carry their own weight. But they are a rarity.