Favorite Fictional Character --- Wilma Flintstone

I'll be one of the first to admit, that I'm a sucker for strong female characters.  The majority of the characters I chose to highlight when I first started this feature, were women.  I'm not sure if it's because I've always been surrounded by strong women, starting with my great-grandma who ran a lumber mill way past the point when others retire.  Whatever the reason, I've always been drawn to them. From all time favorites like Miss Piggy & Buffy Summers, to characters I've only recently discovered like Harriet Baxter, I'm always excited when I get to spend time with them.  What I really like though, is when the character comes from a source you wouldn't have expected her to come from.  You expect Buffy to be strong, after all, she is the vampire slayer.  What you don't expect is that same strength coming from a prehistoric housewife, one of four central characters that starred in a cartoon that debuted in 1959.

I think most of you know this rather iconic character, just from looking at her.  I'm pretty sure that Wilma Flinstone is a mainstay of American pop culture, and will probably never fade from the public consciousness.  Wilma is in some ways the stereotypical 1950s housewife.  She stays home, cleans house, cooks dinner for her husband, and once Pebbles is born, spends her time raising her.  But she's so much more than that.  She is the iron willed force that keeps her husband in line, keeping him from screwing up to badly when his schemes go wrong, which they always do.  She is the central figure that the others orbit around, without her, there is no family, no TV show for them to star in.

Granted, Wilma, especially in the beginning, could be a little too strong.  She could be a little too harsh with Fred, hitting him over the head a few too many times, and berating him a smidge over what was appropriate.  I'm not sure if that was at the beginning of their marriage, and they were still trying to figure it all out, but I'm glad that over the course of it, they seemed to reach a level they were both comfortable with.  

Wilma is one of those characters that I would not want to get on the bad side of.  She always seemed fiercely loyal to those she cared about, but willing to take on those that she thought were fake, or meaning harm to those close to her.  At the same time, she is one of those characters, along with Betty, I would love to go have a glass of wine with.  I could imagine a good time would be had by all.