Arguably the main hero of the first classic epic fantasy series, he's both hardheaded and soppily sentimental, a working-class gardener who's in love with a man and a woman at the same time, and whose same-sex love saves the world in the end. Of the four hobbits in the Fellowship, he's the one that isn't stated as coming from the whiter, taller, closer-to-facial-haired subgroup that comprises the wealthier class. Instead, he's short, brown, and can't grow a beard--nothing like the white European male beauty norm.
Add to that the fact that he comes from an autonomous, peace-loving anarchist society of Little People, and I can't think of many more subversive heroes. Tolkein was certainly not worthy of social justice credentials, but I find it very interesting that his one such character is the one who he follows in the epilogue, after first having been introduced as relatively insignificant compared to those with better heritage, and only in the last book revealing his true degree of heroism.
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