#Maybe these tags should be a post yesss talk to me about Axel's tough mature women, I love them so much!
Well. You see this specific character in so many places that it can't be a coincidence, it must be a thing. And, since it is also in the one story - the novel Eldsjäl - that has only Axel's writing in it, I'm leaning into thinking that this character type is specifically Axel's thing.
Berit (Susanne Marins, Gambämark, 2018)
Total badass who can make wood chop itself by just looking at it. The secret true leader and the backbone of her community, the one who actually gets shit done while the village big man is more interested being praised and writing arbitrary new rules.
2. Sinikka (Carola Sarén, Botnia Paradise, 2021)
Total badass who is the arm wrestling champion of the cruise ship crew, knows everything there is to know about the ship and holds it together even in the mightiest storm. The secret true leader and the backbone of the ship, the one who actually gets shit done when the captain is more interested in printing out fake diplomas to boost the crew's morale.
3. Majvor (Eldsjäl, 2023)
Chain-smoking badass who commands the small grocery store where Erika, one of the main characters in Axel Åhman's novel Eldsjäl, works. Majvor's role as a store manager who knows everyone in her clientele, and can sell anything to anyone, grows when we learn more about Erika's backstory; she's very much like Sinikka in her ability to bend rules when necessary, and like Berit, she's shown to have a heart of gold and maternal instincts towards a younger found family member.
4. Gun (Susanne Marins, Halln, 2025)
Another take-no-shit chainsmoker and the only one in her workplace Pro-Mink who actually makes the product, mink and fox cages for fur farms. Makes her own sausages, and if you ask what meat she uses for them, it's on you. Much like Sinikka, she's the original one in the company along with her boss, CEO Mikael, and because they go way back (and because Pro-Mink would die without someone who actually builds the cages), her boss values her a lot.
Bonus: Marlene. I won't put Freppa's mamm on the list because although Määnin sings it, the song is credited to the whole band. But she's older, and she's dominant. "She was the lioness who’d gotten a taste for lamb", need we say more?
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What I see as a difference between these KAJverse women and the traditional strong female characters in Finnish film and literature is that they aren't strong lone matriarchs, perhaps widows, who handle their family, farm or business with an iron fist; they are rather a part of their community -- a village, a cruise ship crew, a company -- and their role builds up from that.
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An afterthought: there are parallels between KAJ's characters and some iconic characters on the other side of the language border, in the Finnish Southern Ostrobothnia.
In the novel Pohjanmaa Antti Tuuri writes about a discussion between the main character Erkki Hakala and his grandmom. The grandmother says that in Ostrobothnia, all wisdom is in old women, all wisdom and goodness. When Erkki asks, what do Ostrobothnian men have then, the grandmother takes a pause to think and says: "Madness."
"Mummo -- kertoi ihmetelleensä jo pitkään, minkä takia Pohjanmaalla viisaus on aina vanhoissa naisissa, viisaus ja hyvyys, ja kun kysyin, mikä täälläpäin sitten on miehissä, se mietti sitä jonkin aikaa ja arveli, että niissä asui jonkinlainen hulluus."
