My alternatives to the Disney princess Merida from “Brave”

There’s been a big online flap about Disney adding Merida from their movie “Brave” as a sexualized “grown-up” girl. Disney withdrew the new image.

This made me think about my own red-haired kick-ass mid-1800s heroine, Mary McCarthy. Here are the book covers.

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Her face is conventionally pretty.  She chose this as a weapon in the male-dominated world of the UK in the mid-1800s. (A shapechanger, she can look as beautiful or scary as she wants.)

Her clothing in the first is a pretty walk-around dress, for she’s left a cultural event earlier in the evening.  In the second her costume and hair style is because she’s playing a mythical character to intimidate a radical gang.

In both she’s wielding laser claws or a laser sword. They can cut steel as easily as air. And air molecules, hence the blue color as the ions recombine.  (Built-in weapons; so convenient!)