So, what makes a girl not be a victim?

[meganbmoore]

Earlier today, someone(I forget who...if it was you, tell me!) linked to an article about long-suffering women of prime time TV.   One thing it briefly touches on is that some women are victims and some aren't, despite suffering the same-or worse-hardships as the "victims."  On the one hand, with the characters I recognize, I wholeheartedly agree in the case of which women are victims, and which aren't.  The article, though, never really delves into this, and barely mentions it more than in passing.

So, I'm wondering, what makes a female character a victim, and what makes her not be a victim?

For me, I think a lot of it can be explained with Makie, Rin, and Hyakurin in Blade of the Immortal. 

In BotI, all three women(and, you know, every other character...) has basically had a wretched life, and in the case of the three masin female characters, being a woman in Japan's Edo period has a lot to do with it.  However, even though I should, I've never been able to warm up to Makie, despite my near-unconditional love for Rin and Hyakurin.  The problem i've always had with Makie is that, of the three, she's the one with abilities that make her best equipped to fight back and defend herself, and claim her life as her own.  Instead, she runs from her problems and wallows in her angst.  She allows herself to be a victim, and to be defined by her status as a victim, despite the fact that she could change that.  Hyakurin and Rin, OTOH, aren't nearly as equipped to deal with the hands they're dealt (and I dare you to find a female character in manga who's suffered as much as Hyakurin has) yet they always stand up and fight and refuses to be brought down by their hardships.  Yes, Rin is young, and sometimes ends up just sitting there while things happen, but you know what?  She's fifteen.  She's ALLOWED to get petrified when bad things happen around her.  And even though she knows she isn't equipped for it, she keeps trying to fight back against a world that keeps kicking her down, and trying to live her life, and get what she wants, on her own terms, instead of lying back and taking it like the world tells her she should.  Hyakurin has literally been dealt every bad hand a woman can be dealt, but she never lets it beat her.  She's the one who should be coddled and given a shoulder to cry on, but instead she tries to do that for others, and, again, she lives in a world that tells her she should lie there and take it, and instead tries her hardest to fight back against it.

ETA:  And the reason I used this icon instead of Rin was because I was originally going to talk about Jo, too, but ran out of time before I had to leave for work.  I suspect I'd have MUCH more to say here if I'd seen season 3 and Bela's arc, but for now, just Jo.

In Jo's (far too small) story, she's essentially defined in two ways:  Jo, the girl who wants to be a Hunter, and Jo, the girl who's trying to be a hunter.  When Jo is finally let out of the Roadhouse and trying to contribute, she's largely defined by the ways she's victimized.  This does not, however, actually make her a victim.  When Jo is captured and imprisoned by an inhuman serial killer, her response is not to panic and whimper and beg to be rescued.  When he reaches in to stroke her hair, she doesn't cower, but instead pulls out her father's knife and stabs her abductor in the hand.  When she's rescued, her response isn't to beg to be taken to safety or flee, but to agree to be the bait to catch him, with no hesitation.  Later, when she's beaten and abducted by her demon possessed friend, her response isn't to beg for mercy, but to give him hell.  When she's rescued by his brother, she doesn't run to safety, but goes after them to try to help.  When the object of her crush  essentially gives her a verbal "Dear Jane" letter, she doesn't mope, but lets us know that, no matter what he thinks, she knows better.  While much of her arc is Jo's being victimized, she never allows herself to actually be a victim, and refuses to let it beat her or hold her back.

TL;DR?

I think a lot of it has to do with whether the character sits there and mopes, or gets back on her feet and tries to punch what knocked her down in the face.

Anyway, what's everyone else's opinion on this?  What's the line (not including the experience itself) between what makes a character a victim, and what keeps them from being a victim?