Role Models

Whilst hanging out with my young cousins this past weekend and crushing all of their hopes and dreams that sure, they can be flower girls at my wedding, they'll just be about 20 when that happens, I suddenly had a very real and violent pang of nostalgia for my younger years. For the time when I wasn't desperately searching for a job and worrying about a bank account and whether or not an extremely expensive education is going to waste. Those were good times. I looked at my little cousin's lives and I wondered who they wanted to be when they grow up (one of them wants to be a baker - a girl after my own heart), and if, like myself when I was their age, they had any heroes. Other than their awesome big cousin(s).

Hence this post. Dedicated to those (fictional) figures I looked up to as an impressionable young girl (no one want to hear me rant about the real life strong female role models in my life....yet).

So here goes:

[source]

Marion Ravenwood from The Raider of The Lost Ark

What young, red-blooded American girl didn't want to someday grow up to be Marion Ravenwood? She was smart, funny, and pretty but accessible. And, I mean, she beat a large, ruddy-faced man in the most epic of drinking contests ever to be seen on the big screen. Ok, so maybe that wasn't the reason I loved her as a kid. She was adventurous and tenacious, and straight up punched Indiana Jones in the face. She also befriended a monkey, fended off attackers with a frying pan, seduced a Frenchman through boozery, and throughout all three of the Indiana Joneses (I said it. Three. There were only three, dammit!) she was the only woman with the gumption and substance to be not only a wonderfully entertaining character to watch, but a feminist icon. For me, at least. The movie may be called Indiana Jones and The Raiders of The Lost Ark, but the film could just have easily been named Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood Kick Nazi Ass and Take Names. Though, if it were, I highly doubt my parents would have allowed me to watch it at the tender, impressionable age of five...

[source]

Ariel from The Little Mermaid

In my youth, I was known to walk along the shoreline at any New England beach, ponytails askew and sweatshirt comically baggy and to my knees, and belt out as loud as my little five-year-old voice could manage whatever words I could muster from 'Part of Your World'. Fishermen, allegedly, would laugh and point (lovingly, I'm told...). That's how much I love and have loved The Little Mermaid. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm twenty-three years old. I understand that this is a movie intended for children. But, the older I get, the more I totally get Ariel's longing to live a life without having to swim everywhere - and the more I totally dig her sense of adventure. Though, the curmudgeon in me gets very scrunchy-faced whenever I realize that Ariel is sixteen throughout the movie, and thusly she is only sixteen when she marries Eric (top 3 hunkiest of the Disney boys, by the by)...but still! How many sixteen-year-olds do you know who would face down a shark for a dinglehopper and/or a giant octopus monster lady to save her father and bf/the ocean? How many sixteen-year-old mermaids, for that matter, do you know that would risk swimming to the surface to consort with seagulls of dubious intelligence out of an insatiable quest for knowledge? None. That's how many.

[source]

Princess Leia Organa from The Star Wars Trilogy

Princess Leia was a badass. How many people throughout the entire series ever spoke to Darth Vader (aka - spoiler alert - Daddy) with as much sass and confidence as she did in the first ten minutes of the film? Homegirl spearheaded the Rebel Alliance and choked the chubly Jabba to death with her own shackles. She constantly put the brash, over-confident Han Solo in his place (though, I mean, he did have his share of comebacks, and they did end up married...but it was Harrison Ford. Girl's only human). She was a take-charge kind of gal, tough as nails and smart to boot. Try to tell me who's a better role model? Princess Leia or that Bella character from them there Twilight 'books'? Psht. No contest. Leia every time.

[source]

Belle from Beauty and The Beast

How could I not include the (fictional) woman who taught me the word "provincial"? Growing up in a small town, brunette and bookish, I obviously identified with Belle. Also, she had a horse for a best friend, and yes, I was that girl. Horses rock. But, upon further vaguely-adult reviewing of The Beauty and The Beast, I'd say Belle holds up. Sure, she suffers from a pretty severe case of Stockholm syndrome...but let's face it, she was smart enough to reason that The Beast was far less beastly than Gaston. And, in the end, she taught me that it was ok to have a dreamy far-off look and a nose stuck in a book. I was a bit insecure of my budding bookishness as a child...I needed reassurance from my cartoon friends - Belle provided that in spades.

[source]

Esmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Feisty. Esmerelda is the definition of that. Also, the symbol of inappropriate sexiness in Disney form. Esmerelda was all about justice and fairness and hitting soldiers with candelabras and shakin' what her momma gave her. She was the first person to show any kindness to poor Quasimodo, and was loyal and brave. Never mind the fact that she had the best hair/goat best friend of any Disney character - ever.



[source]

Sara Crewe from A Little Princess

I. love. this. movie. To this day. Why doesn't anyone make movies like this for kids anymore? Why must it be all Hannah Montana and texting and skinny jeans? Sara Crewe was brave, kind and smart. She had real issues (Dad in the war, evil headmistress, Lavinia, etc. etc.), but she rose above them, and was there for her friends while she fought against the unfairness she witnessed in life. She stood up to her bullies with class and poise. Class and poise! And, most importantly, Sara taught us that it's friendship, love, imagination, and kindness - not material possessions - that are the source of true happiness. Though that sick feast with all those clothes that she and Becky wake up to ain't half bad...

Runners Up:

Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons
Matilda Wormwood from Matilda
Hermione Granger from The Harry Potter Series
Jo March from Little Women
Daine from The Immortals Series
Lizzie Bennett from Pride and Prejudice
Lois Lane from Superman (particularly Superman: The Animated Series...but mostly just Lois in general)

Who were your childhood heroes?