Role Models: Bulletproof and the Terminator

I grew up in a time of Madonna and Punky Brewster - the kind of girl you wanted to be ran a gamut. It was perfectly acceptable for little girls to be anyone, as reflected by the 80's Barbie motto, "We girls can do anything, right Barbie?"

My heroes growing up remain my heroes today and because of their strengths and values I learned from them, I continue to find myself in trouble constantly. These two women broke molds and each created a unique feminine identity that despite one of them being created in the 1940's, are still challenging modern ideas of what it means to be a woman.

Bulletproof: Wonder Woman

Created in 1941 to have the strength of Superman and all the allure of a beautiful woman, Wonder Woman has had an uneasy place in the world. "She's strong and smart but fights injustice in a bathing suit, tiara and bullet proof bracelets - we're supposed to take her seriously? And she keeps getting tied up with her own rope - how dumb do you have to be?"

Let's start off with some obvious facts - one, Superman, Batman, most of the X-Men and Justice League fight injustice with their underoos showing. The fact that they do not defeat evil by eliciting laughter is one that continues to confound me. Second, she is a girl. All girls accessorize and if we can work in a tiara, then we will work in a tiara. Boys, you know that feeling you get when you see that the hero has an eye-patch? WE GET THAT EXACT SAME FEELING WHEN THERE IS A TIARA.


In the words of Hannah Montana, you got the best of both worlds.

What still appeals to me about Wonder Woman (for all her crazy backstory) is her confidence. Maybe it's cheesecake to fight for justice in a skimpy, strapless leotard, but she's very successful at it. Somedays, I can't even make it to work on time with sensible pants and a cardigan. She stands for truth, justice and in an irresistible way. Wonder Woman has some brass ones. Knockers, I mean.

Don't make her proove it.



The Terminator: Julia Sugarbaker

Few characters in television history have ever inspired my tongue to be as tart, eloquent and proud of my Southern heritage as Dixie Carter's turn as Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women. Julia was a strong woman with firm integrity who may have been a Southern belle, but she was more than capable of bringing hell when the situation called for it. Where most would just sit meekly and hope for some uncomfortable moment to pass, Julia would decide that this was the day justice was going to be served.

One of her most memorable tirades was in the first season. Standing up for her little sister, Suzanne, who was a former Miss Georgia World who was being teased by the current title holder, Julia delivers one of the very few quotes in both movies and television that I have memorized. The other is "Well, that happened." from State and Main. This is the other.



My favorite assault which includes the most perfect Southern pronunciation of "stupid", is where a photographer comes to the office and wants Julia to "ever so slightly suck" on some pearls. This is what the comedy refer to as "set up and punch".



Of course, Julia sometimes used her powers for evil.



Nowadays, we're in a society that feels like we have to overload our heroines to a complicated degree of making them beautiful but with just enough of the right flaws, smart but with obstacles that stop them from their potential, and strong but always need to know the value of another persons help. Julia Sugarbaker and Wonder Woman are just simply smart, beautiful and strong women. Hold the complicated.