Hey, peeps!
Remember Gabrielle and Xena? She-Ra and Glimmer? The My Little Ponies and… all the other My Little Ponies? (ETA: The reboot of MLP has some serious issues with race and gender. 
.)
I’m in DIRE NEED of examples of female best friends in fiction, particularly television and media. This is serious business — I was talking with my (male) bestie about depictions of female friendship, and realized that I couldn’t think of that many positive and realistic representations of female friendship in media oriented towards adults.
Here are our conditions.
1. There can be no major friend break-up over men — meaning that the American Quilt movie, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Beaches are all out.
2. They have to talk about something OTHER than the men in their lives — this is obvious. It’s a Bechdel thing.
3. They have to be peers — not necessarily the same age, but equals. So the grandmother/daughter relationship in The Princess Diaries doesn’t count, but the friendship between Mia and Lilly does.
4. If there’s a friendship montage… it can NOT only include a pajama party or a delicious cooking scene or a trip to the salon– we’re not looking for a conflation of essentialized definitions of femininity with rituals of female friendship, meaning they have to bond over something NOT related to pajamas, singing into pretend microphones, make-up, or make-overs.
5. They have to SHARE the spotlight — while Xena’s the main character in Xena, Gabrielle has her own plot-lines and character arc. I want suggestions more interesting than Anita Blake’s friend-in-a-fridge, Ronnie, who only pops out of the woodwork when the plot demands it: friendships like partnerships and collaborations.
My suggestions included: Xena (Gabrielle and Xena), She-Ra (Glimmer and She-Ra), Sailor Moon, and the girls from WITCH. His included the Oathbound series (Tarma and Kethry).
What are your recs? I need more female buddy books!
ETA: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE suggestions! Don’t forget to include WHY the characters are awesome besties, because not everyone will have seen the show/read the book in question. 
{ 235 comments… read them below or add one }
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Erm. I’m pretty sure it was more that the actress and Garibaldi’s actor had a really messy break-up. But then, I was late to the B5 party.
Lyss(Quote) (Reply)
If I had a nickel for every time someone said an actress was a huge douche, I would work on a website talking about sexism in medi– wait, what?
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Doctor Who, Bernice Summerfield and Ace (Dorothy McShane) are pretty close in and out of Audios and Virgin novels. (They’re my favorite TARDIS crew, really) I love that they’re both so sarcastic and yet aren’t the same, that Benny’s age and Ace’s time travel experience complement the other. That they don’t really need to talk to figure out what the other is planning (I know, I know, Seven is there as well, but they all get their own adventures).
Nyssa and Tegan from the original series were best friends. And I’d add Peri and Erimem from the Big Finish audios, as well. Both of these sets are sweet and occasionally sarcastic, and both are good at needling the Doctor, too.
Someone earlier mentioned Kitty Pryde and Illyana. I’d add Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers to the list, as they were wonderfully-written best friends during the Excalibur era. (I think Storm and Kitty tend towards mentor and student, though they’re also friends).
Jean Grey and Ororo Munroe. I’m probably reading more into it, but I remember them being good friends in the comics. But then, that was fifteen years ago.
Jane and Mo’ in any incarnation of Painkiller Jane seem to be BFFs. It’s been ages since I’ve read any, though. I seem to recall Mo’ does a lot of “patching Jane up” and Jane does a lot of “investigating when Mo’ isn’t allowed to due to being a Cop and not fake!dead”.
If it hadn’t been canceled, I like to think Daisy Ogbaa and Annie Frost of Chase would have managed to be best friends.
Pretty Little Liars is filled with female friendships, and I don’t think I can actually point at one single instance of BFFery, Spencer and Hanna? Hanna and Aria? Hanna and Emily? All of them and Allison? They’re all complex and intertwined.
Lyss(Quote) (Reply)
This a Hong Kong movie, but Peking Opera Blues has three kick-ass female leads who become not only very good friends but partners in crime to help steal documents from a corrupt official to help out an underground rebellion. One of the woman is ditzy thief, another is the fiery daughter of the theatre owner who wants to act on the stage but can’t because women were allowed to act in opera at that time, and the third is the daughter of the actual corrupt official. There are two other men who also get involved with their shenanigans, but it the story revolves around the three women and their relationship.
Lika(Quote) (Reply)
Books
Wren and Tess from Sherwood Smith’s Wren series
Wren and Tess grew up together in an orphanage. Wren is imaginative and forever concocting wild stories and future plans. Then, one day, Tess tells Wren that Tess is a princess-in-hiding. Tess learns to govern, while Wren finds her own place in the world. The two remain best friends through kidnappings and war.
Amelia and Evelyn from the Amelia Peabody series
Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg from the Discworld series
Melanie Ross and April Hall from The Egypt Game
Madelyn Mack and Nora Noraker
TV
Kim Da-hyun and Jung Hyun-jin in 1% of Anything
Emma, Cleo, and Rikki on H2O: Just Add Water
Carly and Sam on iCarly
Morgana and Gwen on Merlin (first season and a half)
Divya and Jill on Royal Pains are working their way toward best friendship
Ailelie(Quote) (Reply)
Do you think Kei and Yuri from Dirty Pair count as besties? I mean, I remember reading about how, in the novels they didn’t like each other much at first either (‘cuz Yuri’s all “sophisticated” and Kei is rough-and-tumble) but that show is basically an SF buddy comedy and they blow up shit…so yay?
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
I’m lucky I watched/read Furuba early in my adolescence since it made be believe such things were normal/plentiful in the media…LOLSOB >_>
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Okay, this is kind of obscure, but I’ve got to pimp it. Digger: http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=3
It’s about an anthropomorphic wombat and her adventures far away from home after a confusing encounter with magic, and it’s full of awesome ladies, but the first thing to come to mind was the relationship between Digger and Murai. Brief descriptions here: http://www.diggercomic.com/?page_id=612
They have a cute sisterly relationship. Murai’s sensitive, idealistic, a little mad, and her has a “great destiny,” Digger is rock-grounded, practical, and probably not as tactful as she should be. There’s also Digger and Grim Eyes, who also have an intetesting sisterly dynamic.
You know, just read the comic.
I would have mentioned Toph and Katara from A:tLA, but apparently someone beat me to it.
Emma(Quote) (Reply)
Yeah, I figured someone might question that. That said, anyone whose first words on-screen as an anchor at HEADLINE NEWS are “Hi, I’m Andrea Thompson, and unless you’ve been living in a cave, you probably already know that.” has a massive case of ego and is PROBABLY someone I wouldn’t want to work with either.
Shaun(Quote) (Reply)
Really? She was married to him from 1995-1997, apparently, and she left the show in 1995 (her last episode was Divided Loyalties, which looks like it first aired in July 1995). So I’m not sure how it could’ve been a bad break-up that caused her to leave.
Skemono(Quote) (Reply)
It’s not just you, Tristan. I also stopped watching the show because of Booth. Not because he’s an unlikeable character, which would be fine because I can totally appreciate complex characterization, but because the writers agree with him.
The episode that turned me off was the obligatory Christmas special. Atheist Bones doesn’t celebrate Christmas and leaves the group so the others can do their thing in peace. Christian asshole Booth comes over and starts bugging her about religion. “I don’t understand why you can’t give the big guy upstairs a chance.” She actually considers his crap. Then she learns to stop pushing her religion on others and rejoins the group for a heartwarming finale.
As an atheist, I was horrified by the way Bones became a straw-atheist, someone who exists only to be corrected by the miraculous Christian. Do the writers seriously not know a single atheist? And as someone with friends who are non-asshole Catholics, I was horrified by the way the Catholic pushed his religion onto people. As if Bones owes it to him to “give the big guy a chance”. My Catholic friends know I have my reasons for believing as I do, even if they disagree.
Sylvia Sybil(Quote) (Reply)
Ah, I love Utena! I took it as that Anthy has a lot of trust issues and a lot of issues breaking out of the cycle of abuse, but when Utena kept fighting for her even after being betrayed, that was enough to actually get through to her. In the end, Utena couldn’t save her, and left Ohtori injured/in shame, but seeing what a real prince was like compared to Akio and how pathetic Akio really is was enough to give Anthy the strength to leave. The ending implied that Anthy’s definitely going to find Utena at some point so that they can be together in ten years like they’d planned, but also that Anthy’s finally going to stop being a princess or a witch and live her own life.
I really like that in the end, Utena couldn’t just save her. Anthy had to step up and save herself. Although I’m not sure which of them was more powerful during the series, I don’t think they were truly equals until Anthy finally left. Someone could also write a really interesting essay on that series and how it relates to codependant relationships and abuse victims…
Shuu(Quote) (Reply)
Yes, but if you had the slightest idea how many male actors are douches from hell and NO ONE EVER CALLS THEM ON IT, or they have to like shoot somebody before anyone calls them on it, you might understand Maria’s remark a little better.
No one’s arguing women are never jackasses. We’re arguing that women get called on it more often than they actually are, and men get called on it less often than they actually are. Case in point: Mandy Patinkin has abruptly abandoned two successful series in mid-stream without so much as a goodbye, and it’s pretty well acknowledged that he’s not exactly easy to work with. But does anyone ever call him a douche? No. Why not? [ETA: Not hating on Mandy Patinkin. Just saying if he deserves the benefit of the doubt, then an actress who obviously left in a professional manner certainly does, too.]
In any case, I thought hey, wouldn’t it be neat it someone researched this question. Turns out Thompson also left CNN under her own steam. Some people are just pickier about what projects they’ll do/stick with, and if they’re women in HW they usually get branded douches, but if they’re men, that’s different. (The very fact JMS had a re-entry plan for her character suggests she was NOT forced out.)
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Fair point. I did wonder about that, but then, I was 11 when I read them and grew up in a pretty heteronormative household, so I’m afraid the subtext would be rather lost on me.
Jaynie(Quote) (Reply)
Heh, I missed it entirely until I reread them as an adult.
Sylvia Sybil(Quote) (Reply)
I’m going to add iCarly to the list. Carly and Sam are in the same grade, they both work on Carly’s webshow together, as equals, pretty much, and much of their talk has nothing to do with boys (though that does come up because, you know, they’re *teenagers*). Sam is not a girly-girl. In fact, she’s pretty macho, and has many of the characteristics you’d see in a typical slobby guy. Carly is her opposite, a girly-girl, nice, etc etc. But they’re best friends.
Gategrrl(Quote) (Reply)
That’s true. I can think of more actresses I’ve heard douchey things about than actors (in the context of why did y leave show x, not “Mel Gibson let words come out of his mouth again). I remember hearing tons of rumors that Virginia Hey was being forced out of Farscape even though she left cause she was having reactions to all the blue makeup they had her in, and pretty much wrote her out in such a way to allow her to return (rather than say, a more dramatic but clear quick death).
Shaun(Quote) (Reply)
Katchoo and Francine have a lesbian love thing from pretty much page one, even if it’s one-sided for a long time.
Kivitasku(Quote) (Reply)
Oh my yes, the epic friendship of Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax!
To list others from Discworld novels:
Tiffany Aching and Petulia
Tiffany and Annagramma
Glenda Sugarbean and Juliet Stollop
There was also a lot of female bonding in Monstrous Regiment (the Discworld novel, not the Sherlock Holmes one), some of it lesbian, none of it broken up by boys, but I can’t detail it here because of spoilers.
Kivitasku(Quote) (Reply)
I can’t believe nobody mentioned Glinda and Elphaba from Wicked yet. Oh, probably people were thinking of the musical. In the novel they are never in competition for any dude.
Tiana and Charlotte from The Princess and the Frog. Charlotte is a hella lot more privileged than Tiana, but she doesn’t seem to notice it herself.
Kivitasku(Quote) (Reply)
You know, one of the things I loved about Farscape was that they let the women’s friendships be just as complicated as the men’s. You don’t see that too often.
ninjapenguin(Quote) (Reply)
Yes, yes, yes to Nanny and Granny! I was just coming on to pimp them. They have each other’s backs no matter what. Their relationship with Magrat is a little more complicatd, being more mentor-y, bu the two of them are total BFFs.
ninjapenguin(Quote) (Reply)
There was one online for a while, talking about the series as really being about the emotionality of living in an abusive household, and how Utena herself wasn’t real, but was more the part of Anthy that insisted that Anthy needed to be treated better.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Particularly since she and other cast members have said that it’s because the contracts for the show were so wonky — basically, they weren’t sure if the show was going to continue from season to season, so when she didn’t get a contract, she accepted another offer.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Considering how many shows she’s been on, I would just think she’s being silly, actually. I haven’t seen or heard any signs of her having a huge ego since… and considering the microscope female celebs live under, I think if there WAS something to say, someone would have said it, repeatedly, with pictures and interviews and tweets and polls. Plus, how rad is this? She left CNN because of professional differences re: information and the media. “Basically… you just give the viewers enough to scare the hell out of them, and not any real valuable information. And we saw so much of that after Sept. 11 that I thought was, frankly, irresponsible.” http://www.tvguide.com/news/andrea-thompson-psychic-41074.aspx
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Yeah. I mean, they kind of make a point of Lyta being isolated for a reason, but it’s still sad. And British telepathic Waco leader didn’t do much for her personal life.
Em(Quote) (Reply)
Journalistic standards? That’s pretty cool, actually.
Em(Quote) (Reply)
I like the fact that the other characters basically treat her like shit and use her for her telepathic abilities, and she actually calls them out on it. It’s realistic to me because this is how people behave, but Lyta’s such a good person she basically just continues to help even though the world pretty much fucks her over every chance it gets. And then in the last episodes she’s like FUCK THIS SHIT and goes to explore the Universe with G’Kar.
Byron was just obnoxious. Especially since they spent the previous 4 seasons trying to treat telepaths as individuals and now suddenly they were interchangeable, wore all black and without personality.
Shaun(Quote) (Reply)
THAT’S the phrase I was looking for. It’s such a rarity I forgot what you call it.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
This is completely obscure, but there was a show on the Disney Channel in the late 90s called Ready Or Not that was all about two female best friends– not a group of girls, not a group of friends, the two main characters were just these two BFFs. It was really awesome and mature for a high school show and dealt with stuff like slut-shaming and interracial relationships. I believe they might have ‘broken up’ over a guy in one episode, but they got back together.
Savannah(Quote) (Reply)
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