Who are Today's Female Heroes?

[Amaris]

Written & performed 1 song on a hot button controversial topic - good for sales & self-promotion. Sounds pretty self-serving to me.

That's your opinion, and while you're free to speak it, I don't agree with your conclusions.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Written & performed 1 song on a hot button controversial topic - good for sales & self-promotion. Sounds pretty self-serving to me. My problem with her style and music is that it's like I've heard and seen it all before (the afore-mentioned Madonna & Kylie Minogue etc) in the 80s & 90s.

I like Lady Gaga's music and she deserves a bucket load of awards for great pop writing. It's easy to feel like that genre is exhausted and when someone comes along with really fun and WOW stuff it's pretty cool. But she is not a trailblazer, that trail was blazed long ago by Madonna and others. I would never say she is copying or a poor imitation of Madonna, musically I think she really nailed some original stuff. But the trailblaze bit, no. Running down an already blazed trail doing cool new stuff, sure.

 

[Amaris]

Written & performed 1 song on a hot button controversial topic - good for sales & self-promotion. Sounds pretty self-serving to me. My problem with her style and music is that it's like I've heard and seen it all before (the afore-mentioned Madonna & Kylie Minogue etc) in the 80s & 90s.

I like Lady Gaga's music and she deserves a bucket load of awards for great pop writing. It's easy to feel like that genre is exhausted and when someone comes along with really fun and WOW stuff it's pretty cool. But she is not a trailblazer, that trail was blazed long ago by Madonna and others. I would never say she is copying or a poor imitation of Madonna, musically I think she really nailed some original stuff. But the trailblaze bit, no. Running down an already blazed trail doing cool new stuff, sure.

I would use the term 'strong female leader', though. She's unafraid to speak her mind, and tells a class of people who are being pushed against right here in the good ol' US of A that what they feel is natural, acceptable, and they have every right to human equality as every one else.

 

[Trilliam]

Written & performed 1 song on a hot button controversial topic - good for sales & self-promotion. Sounds pretty self-serving to me.

That's your opinion, and while you're free to speak it, I don't agree with your conclusions.

So kind of you.

 

[Trilliam]

I would use the term 'strong female leader', though. She's unafraid to speak her mind, and tells a class of people who are being pushed against right here in the good ol' US of A that what they feel is natural, acceptable, and they have every right to human equality as every one else.

WHich if nothing else, makes her culturally irrelevant to me.

Again I ask you
"Or do you mean "heroic" but only within their own country/ culture/society? Not, say, the English speaking world at large? Or only to a particular age/ ethnic/ gender demographic? "

I still don't see how she is a leader. Julia Gillard, Dr Marie Bashir, Quentin Bryce, Anna Bligh are leaders.

Elizabeth MacArthur would fit in the "trailblazing" category too, I think.

 

[Amaris]

Written & performed 1 song on a hot button controversial topic - good for sales & self-promotion. Sounds pretty self-serving to me.

That's your opinion, and while you're free to speak it, I don't agree with your conclusions.

So kind of you.

What, not to agree with your conclusions? I'm not granting you "permission" for anything, as your reply seems to indicate. I'm merely stating that I don't agree.

I would use the term 'strong female leader', though. She's unafraid to speak her mind, and tells a class of people who are being pushed against right here in the good ol' US of A that what they feel is natural, acceptable, and they have every right to human equality as every one else.

WHich is nothing else, makes her culturally irrelevant to me.

Again I ask you
"Or do you mean "heroic" but only within their own country/ culture/society? Not, say, the English speaking world at large? Or only to a particular age/ ethnic/ gender demographic? "

I still don't see how she is a leader. Julia Gillard or Anna Bligh are leaders.

And that is your opinion. You're not going to sway me from my own decisions, just as I'm not swaying you from yours. We have different criteria, neither better or worse than the other.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I'm on the other side of the world, in the city that has the Annual Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras for the last 30 years. How is she "trailblazing" in any regard? What is/has she actually done (apart from release video clips that are quite questionable)? And dress like a demented thing?

I don't know whether it's trailblazing or not, but she's written and performed a song, in the pop mainstream, directly advocating that it's perfectly natural and acceptable to be gay. May not seem like much, but here in the United States where being gay is still a stigma in many places, where gay marriage is seen as an abomination to family values, it's a real risk.

While I know the US is full of conservative bastions at the same time the US has had many tv shows featuring gay characters, talk show hosts on mainstream tv who are openly gay and plenty of out gay musicians for 10+years now. I've been a Melissa Etheridge fan for at least 15 years and she is as mainstream gay as you can get. So I guess I don't see what the risk is unless Lady Gaga is showing up in some cowboy bar in buttfuck Nebraska and performing solo while her entourage sits in the carpark.

Being gay in media gets you a lot of attention these days, HUGE attention and from whole swathes of the country it is positive attention. This won't last forever because the novelty value and the trickle down hip effect of being cool about it is rapidly becoming old hat. People are caring less and less about gay and hetero. But the risk factor for her kind of music is long past.

Now if you want to come out when your audience is CCM (contemporary christian music) then you are at risk of complete career disaster and risk of harassment etc..

 

[Amaris]

While I know the US is full of conservative bastions at the same time the US is has had many tv shows featuring gay characters, talk show hosts on mainstream tv who are openly gay and plenty of out gay musicians. I've been a Melissa Etheridge fan for at least 15 years and she is as mainstream gay as you can get. So I guess I don't see what the risk is unless Lady Gaga is showing up in some cowboy bar in buttfuck Nebraska and performing solo while her entourage sits in the carpark.

Being gay in media gets you a lot of attention these days, HUGE attention and from whole swathes of the country it is positive attention. This won't last forever because the novelty value and the trickle down hip effect of being cool about is rapidly becoming old hat. People are caring less and less about gay and hetero. But the risk factor for her kind of music is long past.

True, but we do see what happens when that conservative bastion gets going, such as what happened to the Dixie Chicks, who received death threats and watched as their CDs were burned and destroyed, as they were shunned in the country music community and the press for speaking out against our then very conservative President. I'd also note that many of the gay characters on television are or were obvious, stereotypical flaming gays. Rarely was someone gay and played straight laced and average.

Radio and television waves have no boundary, and they cross into areas where the bigotry is still rooted deep, and while being gay is becoming more and more acceptable in the mainstream, in the hallowed halls of Congress and among the state and local governments, being gay makes you an undesirable, a threat, a second class citizen. We still have a long way to go.

Now if you want to come out when your audience is CCM (contemporary christian music) then you are at risk of complete career disaster and risk of harassment etc..

Yes, someone who would do this would need to have great courage, and would be a strong leader in that regard, should they continue professing their sexuality and writing CCM.

 

[Trilliam]

What, not to agree with your conclusions? I'm not granting you "permission" for anything, as your reply seems to indicate. I'm merely stating that I don't agree.
.

Kind of you to think I 'm free to have a different opinion.

 

[Trilliam]

deleted. Cant be bothered.

 

[auntiehill]

What about these fairly recent winners of the Nobel Peace Prize? I find them far more heroic and worthy of praise than any actress or singer. These women are risking their lives and their freedom in order to seek a better life for their countrymen and the world in general. THAT is what I consider heroic.

1991: Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma/Myanmar)- Human rights advocate, often a political prisoner, for her efforts to peacefully bring democracy to Myanmar.
1992: Rigoberta Menchu (Guatemala)- For her efforts to bring enduring reconciliation among all sectors of Guatemalan society, and for defense of indigenous rights worldwide.
1997: Jody Williams (US)- won jointly with the group she coordinates, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, for work promoting the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines.
2003: Shirin Ebadi (Iran)- lawyer and human rights activist, notably in defense of the rights of women and children in her society.
2004: Wangari Maathai (Kenya)- Founder of Green Belt Movement which promotes awareness of the need to protect of natural resources as a prerequisite to a sustainable and peaceful world.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

What, not to agree with your conclusions? I'm not granting you "permission" for anything, as your reply seems to indicate. I'm merely stating that I don't agree.
.

Kind of you to think I 'm free to have a different opinion.

You should drop it now Trilliam. J. Allen was just trying to find a conciliatory way to end the discussion. We get it, you don't like Lady Gaga. The point has been made and you should move on.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Also, one vote to remove that Theresa woman.

Seconded.
.

Thirded.

One of my female heroes is Vivian Bullwinkel.

 

[Amaris]

What, not to agree with your conclusions? I'm not granting you "permission" for anything, as your reply seems to indicate. I'm merely stating that I don't agree.
.

Kind of you to think I 'm free to have a different opinion.

You should drop it now Trilliam. J. Allen was just trying to find a conciliatory way to end the discussion. We get it, you don't like Lady Gaga. The point has been made and you should move on.

Spot on. I'm not trying to inhibit or grant anything, just making the point that we disagree and probably will not agree due to our diverging criteria.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Off the top of my head: Hypatia, Marie Curie, Harriet Quimby, Sally Ride.

Again I ask you
"Or do you mean "heroic" but only within their own country/ culture/society? Not, say, the English speaking world at large? Or only to a particular age/ ethnic/ gender demographic? "

How is this a relevant question? Any hero would be recognized mainly by a specific group, whether large or small. Or do you think that seven billion people must agree?

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

What about these fairly recent winners of the Nobel Peace Prize? I find them far more heroic and worthy of praise than any actress or singer. These women are risking their lives and their freedom in order to seek a better life for their countrymen and the world in general. THAT is what I consider heroic.

1991: Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma/Myanmar)- Human rights advocate, often a political prisoner, for her efforts to peacefully bring democracy to Myanmar.
1992: Rigoberta Menchu (Guatemala)- For her efforts to bring enduring reconciliation among all sectors of Guatemalan society, and for defense of indigenous rights worldwide.
1997: Jody Williams (US)- won jointly with the group she coordinates, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, for work promoting the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines.
2003: Shirin Ebadi (Iran)- lawyer and human rights activist, notably in defense of the rights of women and children in her society.
2004: Wangari Maathai (Kenya)- Founder of Green Belt Movement which promotes awareness of the need to protect of natural resources as a prerequisite to a sustainable and peaceful world.

I'd question Rigoberta Menchu. She contributed as much to the post-modernist view of "truth" as she did the Guatemalan resistance.

 

[farmkid]

I'm guessing from the list that it's women throughout history, not just living today. Are you looking for women who achieved things in the face of adversity? Or women who had a big impact on fields like science, industry, the arts etc? Or women people from certain demographics are likely to be inspired by? Women of note whom the average Jill or Joe on the street is likely to have heard of?

Otherwise I can see the list getting unmanageably long.

If you are looking for some outside of the media, who were real heroes in and made major contributions to science, may I suggest a couple?

Rosalind Franklin was instrumental in discovering the structure of DNA, although she doesn't get much credit for it.

Barbara McClintock was a pioneer in genetics who is still the only woman to receive an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.

Someone else already mentioned Marie Curie, so I won't mention her again other than to give another vote in her favor.

 

[SiorX]

First twenty randomly off the top of my head. (Perhaps later I shall psychoanalyse myself to see if I can find a pattern.)

Ada Lovelace; bell hooks; Adrienne Rich; Patricia Hill Collins; Josephine Butler; Frida Kahlo; Harriet Tubman; Aung San Suu Kyi; Helen Mirren; Wanda Sykes; Constance Markievicz; Meryl Streep; Emma Thompson; Susan B Anthony; Emmeline Pankhurst; Marie Curie; Annie Sullivan Macy; Hillary Clinton; Gail Simone; Virginia Woolf.

For all sorts of different reasons and in different fields.

 

[Caliburn24]

I think that sometimes we toss words around too freely, and this is one of those cases. Heroism means...

the qualities of a hero or heroine; exceptional or heroic courage when facing danger (especially in battle); "he showed great heroism in battle"; "he received a medal for valor"

Entertainers, politicians, and athletes do not generally face such danger. Scorn for lifestyle choices, scorn for taking a principled stand, but not danger. Heroism also implies a selflessness that is lacking in many of the examples posted in this thread so far.

Someone like Corrie ten Boom who faced personal danger every day for years as she helped Jews escape the Nazis is far more of a hero to me than any of the examples mentioned in the OP.

 

[auntiehill]

What about these fairly recent winners of the Nobel Peace Prize? I find them far more heroic and worthy of praise than any actress or singer. These women are risking their lives and their freedom in order to seek a better life for their countrymen and the world in general. THAT is what I consider heroic.

1991: Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma/Myanmar)- Human rights advocate, often a political prisoner, for her efforts to peacefully bring democracy to Myanmar.
1992: Rigoberta Menchu (Guatemala)- For her efforts to bring enduring reconciliation among all sectors of Guatemalan society, and for defense of indigenous rights worldwide.
1997: Jody Williams (US)- won jointly with the group she coordinates, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, for work promoting the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines.
2003: Shirin Ebadi (Iran)- lawyer and human rights activist, notably in defense of the rights of women and children in her society.
2004: Wangari Maathai (Kenya)- Founder of Green Belt Movement which promotes awareness of the need to protect of natural resources as a prerequisite to a sustainable and peaceful world.

I'd question Rigoberta Menchu. She contributed as much to the post-modernist view of "truth" as she did the Guatemalan resistance.

Hmmm..... . Perhaps. I guess that is still a matter of some debate.