If you could build the perfect feminist bloke from existing fictional characters ...

[JeanneDeMontbaston]

Indulge me here. Where would you start with the perfect feminist (fictional) bloke?

I quite like Joss Whedon's men, but they all tend to have a worrying streak of misogyny/evil in them.

And if someone suggests Gilbert Blythe, I may have to become aggressive and silencing.

Joe Dubois from Medium, with a dash of Charlie Parker (John Connolly).

Hmm. It kills me to say it but I can't really think of many Star Trek men being actively feminist. Apart perhaps from Worf? Are Klingons inherently less patriarchal because they see their both male and female Klingons as warriors? And Worf 'let's go' of Dax when Jadzia dies, becomes Ezra and falls for Bashir...!

Tom Paris also helps B'Ellana come to accept both parts of herself (Klingon and human).

John Sheppard in Stargate Atlantis is a good ally too, apart from going all uber protective when Teyla is pregnant. Indeed Stargate Atlantis is a fun scifi show to watch with a feminist eye. Yay for Teyla going back to work saving the galaxy after having a baby!

Yes to Will in 'His Dark Materials'. Bit young though.

Count Fosco in 'The Woman in White' because he absolutely respects Marian as an equal adversary. Pity about the whole criminal mastermind side to his character of course.

Thomas Cromwell in 'Wolf Hall' for educating his daughters.

Mr Knightley in Emma? Refuses to take the piss out of the socially/financially less well off, of either gender, not because he's being a gent but because he thinks they don't deserve it and has a go at Emma because she's being as twat not because she's a woman, he seems to respect her intelligence and that's mostly why he's so cheesed off.

Can I put in a vote for a number of Terry Pratchett types? Carrot, whose partner is a werewolf. Rincewind, who is only interested in if people are trying to kill him, regardless of gender. Lord Vetinari, who has a long running and deeply emotional chess game running with a vampire. Twoflower, whose beloved wife has died and whose daughter is running the revolution.

They all have their flaws but not a bad bunch.

I also think if you extract the awful fucking around he does (and the dumb protector nonsense), breaking people's hearts, Logan from Veronica Mars has feminist qualities. He does waiver horribly but essentially (and you did say build a feminist man) he understands that Veronica is stronger, cleverer and more determined than him and loves her for it. For that matter, her best friend Wallace is a great ally.

The bit that put me off Gilbert Blythe was in one of the very late books where Anne's just seen off an old rival (Christine?) and in the reconciliation he and Anne had, he goes on about how fat Christine had got and 'you were never fat Anne dear' or something of that sort. Even allowing for the time the book was written, that grated on me.

This is a bit out there, but bear with...

Mr Darcy.

Lizzie rejects him in no uncertain terms, spelling out exactly why.

Instead of going on the defensive and automatically rejecting her take on it, he goes away, realizes how right she is, and endeavors to become a much more reasonable, likeable person. He also does much of it 'behind the scenes', rather than in a 'look at me, aren't I just fabulous' sort of way.

He totally respects her for not kowtowing to him, and has no respect for the likes of Miss Bingley who's forever fawning over him.

I'm not saying he's perfect, but given the era, he's not all bad either.

How about Jude from Jude the Obscure? Sees Sue as his intellectual equal, doesn't conform to society's norms about marriage, marries gobby Arabella...he's not perfect though, that bit where he slates Arabella's hair for being fake winds me up something cruel.