31 Days of Awesome Women
I decided to skip over my last two "Women Screwed By Canon" because I want to focus on The Happy.
9. Anne Shirley
Anne is a little similar to Jo March, who was in my last post. Both are hot-tempered, bold, clever, imaginative, caring and complete girls in their series' first books chronicling their adolescences. Then, both become more docile and bland as they settle into marriage and early matronhood.
However, it doesn’t bother me nearly as much with Anne as Jo and that’s not because Anne got The Guy in the form of Gilbert Blyth and Jo didn’t. I actually like Mr. Bhaer more than Gilbert. It’s because Anne actually found what she was looking for at the beginning of Anne of Green Gables- a loving home and all of the security and confidence that comes with that and then along the way, she got to go to college and live the urban young girl life for several books. She got the husband, the puffed sleeves, the parents, the chance to school and the readers to be happy for every step of the way. As opposed to Jo who never got to experience fully the adventures and cosmopolitan intellectual life that she wanted in Little Women.
I love Anne from awkward, pigtailed orphan at the train station to happy mother of four on the eve of World War I!
Anne: There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting."
10. Patti Hewes
It’s a cliché that we don’t want to see the sausage-making process of corporate law. It’s also a given that most of the high powered businesspeople have anatomical sausages of their own if you catch my drift…
Patti Hewes is fascinating because her causes are invariably noble while her methods are anything but. Patti forces the audience to look into the mirror of the justice system. Do we need Pattis in order to protect the environment, recover funds from Ponzi schemes and punish Enronesque corporations? If we don’t need people who use Patti’s manipulative and oftentimes brutal methods, how come Patti succeeds in the world of “pristine and noble” justice while many other more ethical attorneys fall short?
You would expect an alpha woman, anti-heroine like Patti to resent strong females who can compete. PATTI HEWES LAUGHS IN THE FACE OF CLICHES!! Patti will always be competitive but she genuinely respects strong and smart from Ellen Parsons to Claire Maddox.
Marilyn: So you understand that men have their secrets.
Patty: Yes, but so do women. And I find that women are better at keeping them.
11. Marjorie Morgenstern
Normally it’s a huge pet-peeve of mine when female characters give up their big dreams for domesticity but Marjorie is an exception for that. Few things are as ephemeral and difficult to achieve as Broadway Dreams. The business is ugly and it spits up and destroys more people than it makes stars out of.
Marjorie is so representative of mid-twentieth century women who came of age in the 1940s and settled down in the 1950s but with more than a touch of New York glamour and the self-awareness of the newly prosperous Jewish community. It was relatively recent in the 1940s for pre-marital sex to become expected on the part of some dating men, while still resented by future husbands. The culture of celebrity and girls looking to make their names in shining lights started in the 1920s and became a cliché in the 1940s. Due to her historical time period and constraining family, Marjorie had just enough latitude to sow wild oats but just enough constriction and gendered expectations that she lived in fear of what her wild oats would reap in a way that the men of the piece (Noel, Wally, Sandy) never did.
A large part of Marjorie’s appeal is what she represents but the character, herself, is delightful. Witty, fun-loving, open-minded but loyal to her family and their traditions- she’s very much someone I’d like to be friends with.
Marjorie had about reached the conclusion that boys were on the whole more fascinated by sex withheld than by sex granted; and since this is nearly the sum of wisdom on the subject of young love, she managed for the time being to keep out of trouble.
12. Anita Van Buren
My favorite Law and Order female character! Unfortunately, she’s so under discussed compared to the famous lesbian subtext of Olivia and Alex or the controversy of Serena or Casey. Perhaps that’s because there’s little to discuss and debate about Anita. She’s not a flashy character.
She’s a brave, strong, deeply compassionate woman who, incredibly rare for L&O detectives, tries her best to adhere the letter of the law even if it slows the case’s investigation. She has her detectives’ backs in front of others but is never afraid to dress down hardened NY male detectives and get them to listen and shut up. She’s a survivor of cancer, gunfights and perhaps worst of all, bureaucracy.
Lt. Anita Van Buren: Your conduct was unacceptable.
Detective Rey Curtis: Why? Cause I let a father discipline his kid?
Lt. Anita Van Buren: No one lays a hand on a suspect in my interrogation room. Now that man was out of control and it was up to you to manage it.
Detective Rey Curtis: Well, that kid was out of control and you know what scares me? That somebody like that can go to school with my daughter.
Lt. Anita Van Buren: You think you're the only one who loses sleep? Look, if you don't like the way this place is run... transfer.
9. Anne Shirley
Anne is a little similar to Jo March, who was in my last post. Both are hot-tempered, bold, clever, imaginative, caring and complete girls in their series' first books chronicling their adolescences. Then, both become more docile and bland as they settle into marriage and early matronhood.
However, it doesn’t bother me nearly as much with Anne as Jo and that’s not because Anne got The Guy in the form of Gilbert Blyth and Jo didn’t. I actually like Mr. Bhaer more than Gilbert. It’s because Anne actually found what she was looking for at the beginning of Anne of Green Gables- a loving home and all of the security and confidence that comes with that and then along the way, she got to go to college and live the urban young girl life for several books. She got the husband, the puffed sleeves, the parents, the chance to school and the readers to be happy for every step of the way. As opposed to Jo who never got to experience fully the adventures and cosmopolitan intellectual life that she wanted in Little Women.
I love Anne from awkward, pigtailed orphan at the train station to happy mother of four on the eve of World War I!
Anne: There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting."
10. Patti Hewes
It’s a cliché that we don’t want to see the sausage-making process of corporate law. It’s also a given that most of the high powered businesspeople have anatomical sausages of their own if you catch my drift…
Patti Hewes is fascinating because her causes are invariably noble while her methods are anything but. Patti forces the audience to look into the mirror of the justice system. Do we need Pattis in order to protect the environment, recover funds from Ponzi schemes and punish Enronesque corporations? If we don’t need people who use Patti’s manipulative and oftentimes brutal methods, how come Patti succeeds in the world of “pristine and noble” justice while many other more ethical attorneys fall short?
You would expect an alpha woman, anti-heroine like Patti to resent strong females who can compete. PATTI HEWES LAUGHS IN THE FACE OF CLICHES!! Patti will always be competitive but she genuinely respects strong and smart from Ellen Parsons to Claire Maddox.
Marilyn: So you understand that men have their secrets.
Patty: Yes, but so do women. And I find that women are better at keeping them.
11. Marjorie Morgenstern
Normally it’s a huge pet-peeve of mine when female characters give up their big dreams for domesticity but Marjorie is an exception for that. Few things are as ephemeral and difficult to achieve as Broadway Dreams. The business is ugly and it spits up and destroys more people than it makes stars out of.
Marjorie is so representative of mid-twentieth century women who came of age in the 1940s and settled down in the 1950s but with more than a touch of New York glamour and the self-awareness of the newly prosperous Jewish community. It was relatively recent in the 1940s for pre-marital sex to become expected on the part of some dating men, while still resented by future husbands. The culture of celebrity and girls looking to make their names in shining lights started in the 1920s and became a cliché in the 1940s. Due to her historical time period and constraining family, Marjorie had just enough latitude to sow wild oats but just enough constriction and gendered expectations that she lived in fear of what her wild oats would reap in a way that the men of the piece (Noel, Wally, Sandy) never did.
A large part of Marjorie’s appeal is what she represents but the character, herself, is delightful. Witty, fun-loving, open-minded but loyal to her family and their traditions- she’s very much someone I’d like to be friends with.
Marjorie had about reached the conclusion that boys were on the whole more fascinated by sex withheld than by sex granted; and since this is nearly the sum of wisdom on the subject of young love, she managed for the time being to keep out of trouble.
12. Anita Van Buren
My favorite Law and Order female character! Unfortunately, she’s so under discussed compared to the famous lesbian subtext of Olivia and Alex or the controversy of Serena or Casey. Perhaps that’s because there’s little to discuss and debate about Anita. She’s not a flashy character.
She’s a brave, strong, deeply compassionate woman who, incredibly rare for L&O detectives, tries her best to adhere the letter of the law even if it slows the case’s investigation. She has her detectives’ backs in front of others but is never afraid to dress down hardened NY male detectives and get them to listen and shut up. She’s a survivor of cancer, gunfights and perhaps worst of all, bureaucracy.
Lt. Anita Van Buren: Your conduct was unacceptable.
Detective Rey Curtis: Why? Cause I let a father discipline his kid?
Lt. Anita Van Buren: No one lays a hand on a suspect in my interrogation room. Now that man was out of control and it was up to you to manage it.
Detective Rey Curtis: Well, that kid was out of control and you know what scares me? That somebody like that can go to school with my daughter.
Lt. Anita Van Buren: You think you're the only one who loses sleep? Look, if you don't like the way this place is run... transfer.