Author Topic: Women Who Inspire  (Read 21069 times)

Offline Lumière

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Women Who Inspire
« on: October 30, 2008, 01:16:33 pm »


If you had to choose one woman (from the past or present, fictional or non-fictional)
as a role model, a mentor, a heroine, a source of inspiration...
Who would it be and why?  :)



Offline Kelda

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Re: Women Who Inspire
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2008, 04:59:19 pm »
Rosa Parks..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress later called "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement".

On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger.
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Offline Brokeback_Dev

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Re: Women Who Inspire
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2008, 06:30:21 pm »
I never get tired of the Rosa Parks story.  She is an inspiration for all women yesterday and today. 

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: Women Who Inspire
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2008, 11:46:17 am »


   Eleanor Roosevelt,    she was a successful president, when America needed one the most.  Her
husband cheated on her, she was very unattractive personally, and she knew it.  She was a most
intelligent and caring woman.  She was all that, during the time that women were not even considered
to be more than a reflection of their husband and family.



     Beautiful mind

Offline Lumière

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Re: Women Who Inspire
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2008, 03:29:00 pm »


If I had to choose one fictional character who inspires me..
it would be Xena.  Anyone here watch the show?





Here is an excerpt from an article that pretty much sums up why Xena (& Gabrielle) are at the top of my list...



What we owe Xena
By Cathy Young
http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2005/09/15/xena/
...

 How was Xena a female pioneer? Let me count the ways. She had no male support or regular romantic interest. She didn't, unlike Wonder Woman or the Bionic Woman, have a conventionally feminine day-to-day alternate identity, though on a mission she could pose as a Roman matron, a virgin priestess or an exotic dancer. Xena was not "strong but feminine"; she was unapologetically strong and unapologetically female, sexy and powerful, unafraid to get sweaty and dirty on the job, and all the more beautiful for it. Nor did she care about pleasing anyone: In one memorable exchange, a slick opportunist seeking to enlist Xena as an ally says, "I like you," and she shoots back, "Don't. I'm not a likable person." (As Lawless once said, Xena is "a good person who doesn't think she is.")

A flawed hero haunted by her dark past, even the "good" Xena could be angry, arrogant and, at times, driven by rage and revenge. She could also be vulnerable and tender, capable of caring and feeling deeply -- [Lucy] Lawless did a superb job of capturing this blend of toughness and vulnerability -- but those qualities always felt like aspects of her humanness, not reassurances of her womanhood. Yet while she pushed the limits of how much like a male hero a heroine could be, Xena was the first and probably is still the only action heroine who was also a mother -- not counting warrior moms who fought only to protect their young, like Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor in "Terminator 2." She was, safe to say, the only one who gave birth and breast-fed onscreen.

The show's groundbreaking depiction of women was not limited to Xena herself. Her sidekick and friend, Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), a village girl who had left home to travel with Xena and pursue her dream of becoming a warrior, had her own heroic journey. And there were plenty of other strong female characters: the vengeance-obsessed warrior Callisto, whose family had been killed in one of warlord Xena's raids; the charismatic guru Najara, who was either a noble crusader against evil or a dangerous fanatic; Lao Ma, a fictional Chinese philosopher-empress whom the series whimsically credited with writing the Tao Te Ching; and Boadicea, Britain's historical warrior queen.

...

Xena and Gabrielle fought a variety of mostly male baddies, but they were not fighting sexism or the patriarchy. Gender, in the Xenaverse, just wasn't a big deal: No one questioned Xena's ability to fight and command, or Gabrielle's desire to be a warrior, because they were girls. Ironically, one of the few episodes that dealt explicitly with gender issues introduced a man-hating female outlaw just to teach her the lesson that it's not women vs. men, it's good people vs. bad. In fact, plenty of the show's good people were men; its primary male regular, Xena and Gabrielle's occasional tag-along, Joxer (Ted Raimi), was a comically bumbling warrior wannabe -- but also, in his own way, a true hero willing to risk his life for his friends. Meanwhile, the Amazons were not an idealized sisterhood but tribes with their own power struggles, conflicts and tyrannies. Women on "Xena" were simply human, no better or worse than men: feminism as it ought to be.  ...




Adding a little more to that...

The intense relationship between Xena & Gabrielle on the show grabbed me and intrigued me because I had never come upon a TV show at the time (or since, really) where two women loved, lived, fought together ... each describing the other as her 'soulmate'... till the very end.





That was my long-winded way of saying:  Xena kicks ass.  ;)
 







Offline serious crayons

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Re: Women Who Inspire
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2008, 09:13:32 pm »
I really admire women authors, particularly those who lived during times when writing books was not considered a natural or even appropriate occupation for women: The Brontë sisters, Jane Austen, George Eliot (which reminds me, I'd really like to read Middlemarch), Virginia Woolf.


Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Women Who Inspire
« Reply #6 on: November 11, 2008, 05:37:04 pm »
Coya Knutson



From Wikipedia:

"Knutson was the first woman elected to Congress from Minnesota, and is remembered today for the notorious "Coya, Come Home" letter supposedly written by her then-estranged husband, Andy, urging her to give up her seat and not seek reelection in 1958. Political rivals had put him up to it, and it was seen as instrumental in her ensuing defeat. The incident is often cited as an example of sexism in American politics."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coya_Knutson

She divorced that bastard too.

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Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Women Who Inspire
« Reply #7 on: November 11, 2008, 05:46:43 pm »
Cockacoeske

She was the cousin of Pocahontas, and lead the Powhatan nation after her father, Opchanacanough, was executed by the English when he was nearly 100 years old.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockacoeske

She had to navagate a world on intrigue as the English began to supplant the native one. She gathered her peoples in the swamps where food was redily available and they could keep a low profile.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Women Who Inspire
« Reply #8 on: November 11, 2008, 05:59:40 pm »
The incident is often cited as an example of sexism in American politics."

Oh, and you DON'T want to see the T-shirts they made about her.


 ;)


Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Women Who Inspire
« Reply #9 on: November 11, 2008, 08:37:24 pm »
Terry Gross

Well she looks a lot like Annie Proulx, but I don't think they are related.



She has interviewed thousands of people, the famous, the infamous and the not so famous. She is a tiny woman, I got to meet her once and I asked her of all the people in history she would like to have interview who sticks out and she said : Rogers and Hart!

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46NNgpMKqA0[/youtube]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Szc7i2q0w&feature=related[/youtube]
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."