Today is Inspirational Women's Day

[chozo_hybrid]

Captain Janeway from Star Trek

Lady Space Columbo, my brother would agree with that.

If I had to go with a fictional character, Lady Catelyn Stark/Tully from Game of Thrones. I really like her strength of character, so far anyway, I'm halfway through season two.

As for a real person, one of the women I work with is really awesome. Always helping me and despite her small size, she's quite short, she commands and deserves a lot of respect and always gets the job done. She's also really fun at parties

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Hmmm... lessee...

#1 Catherine Helen Spence - Australian Social and Political Activist, Suffragette, author and journalist. Was the primary reason for South Australia becoming the 3rd place in the world to allow women the vote (after some town in Montana (?) and New Zealand) and the first place in the world to allow women to stand for election.

#2 Aung San Suu Kyi - Burmese Politician and Political Activist. Democratic reformer and major pain in the arse to Burma's oppresive SLORC government.

Too early for me to think of a #3 yet... might come back and edit one in later.

 

[Hollyday]

My choice is definitely Malala Yousafzai

Spoiler: If you haven't heard of her, Cenk Uyger at The Young Turks does a pretty thourough job of explaining how amazing she is

Just as a side-note, I'd never heard of International Women's day until I came to live in Italy, but here it's massive. Everyone gives each other mimosa flowers and women go out together to eat or have a drink, which is pretty unusual here because most restaurants and bars are exclusively mixed groups or groups of men (I live in a little town in the south where it's very traditional).

 

[Korenith]

Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, Virginia Woolf and Angela Carter. Yes I am a lit student...

 

[Spinozaad]

#2: Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Now she is certainly inspirational.

Why, if I might ask?

Read a little about her, if you still need an explanation after reading this, I probably won't be able to offer anything that satisfies you_ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali
Enjoy.

I know Hirsi Ali from her time in the Netherlands, and while I tend to agree with most of her views in principle, I also think she's a bully, a ***** and inclined towards lies and slander.

You're not going to convince me that she's inspirational (to me she isn't), but I do wonder what makes her so inspirational to other.

Which, to be sure, isn't "bad" or anything. Honest curiousity.

 

[gorfias]

Margaret Thatcher. She seemed tough (telling George Bush Sr. not to go wobbly), getting the Falklands back, and trying to put some capitalistic dynamism into GB which was suffering (reportedly) from Demoscerosis.

She was what GB needed at the time.

 

[Harrowdown]

Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis. Also, Alison Bechdel. Angela Carter. Amy Adams maybe, being one of Hollywoods best stars currently working. Anne Bronte, the lesser known of the Bronte sisters that wrote books about enduring, intelligent female characters finding fulfillment and meaning in places other than a mans pants. Lots, really.

 

[Sonofadiddly]

Sigourney Weaver. Soraya Chemaly. Bea Arthur.

And Betty Motherfunkin' White.

MALALA YOUSAFZAI. Oh and Margaret Cho. Damn these ladies are badass.

 

[Gentleman Adventurer]

Anna Komnene, one of the greatest female historians ever.

 

[Risingblade]

I do wonder though. If today is women's day, does that man the other 364 days are men's day?

Sure, and White people get 11 months out of the year! /rollseyes

White and Black people get everything =[

 

[Daveman]

My great grandmother was an absolute legend. She was fantastically clever and was fortunate to never lose her wits in the slightest even though she lived into her 90s. Everyday she completed the cryptic crossword, a feat I have never been able to perform once, and wrote many a beautiful poem for her family and friends every birthday, a tradition I poorly emulate.

I'm weirdly proud of my scottish atheist heritage on that side of the family and her last words on her death bed really inspire me to seek the truth rather than just try to keep everyone happy. She said "I really wish I could believe that when I die I'll go to a happy place and that all my friends and loved ones will be there with me. I really wish I believed there was a heaven and a god. But I can't, because it's nonsense."

Here's to you Great Gran, you absolute bloody legend. Here's hoping I, like you, live long and live well, not like my male Scottish ancestry who all drank and smoked their way to early graves.

 

[awolflikeyou]

Cool thread.I would have to say maya angelou, helen keller and florence nightingale.

 

[Riobux]

maybe Maggie Thatcher or Meryl Streep.
Yeah, I just saw the movie Iron Lady...

Quickest way to annoy an university lecture hall filled with sociology students: Proclaim Margaret Thatcher as the best thing to happen to England in centuries. Especially if this university is based in the north of England.

To me though, inspirational women...I'm really actually scraping the barrel mainly because I'm going for actual women (not fictional) who have affected me some way or another. This doesn't necessary mean the person is "great" on a level of people like Elizabeth Loftus who discovered the effects of how you phrase a question. Affected me though, eh, it might be Jenn Ghetto of the band S.

Spoiler

The short way to describe the last eight years is it has been emotionally tiring. I'm generally not a happy person in day-to-day life to give the simple version of it. So I, like anyone in my position, reach out to other things as crutches. My poison is music. A specific type though, the depressive type. I prefer to wallow in my misery a bit every so often so I may work through things myself. However, for the longest time ever most depressive music were usually too clean. The closest thing to a perfect environment that I managed to forge when I used to write was with coffee, toast and I'm Not In Love by 10CC. The song picked not necessary the lyrical nature of it, but rather the atmospheric feel to the song. I also ended up finding and enjoying greatly A Warm Place by Nine Inch Nails for the same reason.

However, one day after looking more into Band Of Horses, I found out the lead singer used to be in Carissa's Wierd. So I checked it out and I loved it. The moody atmospheric depressive qualities of the lyrical nature and the instruments. It felt beautifully raw. Totally unlike bands like My Chemical Romance that tries to embrace darkness and combines overtly depressed lyrics with a bubblegum clean structure. Carissa's Wierd was covertly depressed and combined it with a muddy presentation. However, my favourite song by the band ended up being written by Jenn Ghetto, and it just so happens to be my most played song, favourite song and most depressing song I really know of. It was called So You Wanna Be A Superhero. The song depicted the feelings after a break-up. However, nothing was overt, nothing was blatantly stated "oh, you broke up with me, oh no". It was more clues to what might of happened, with descriptions of the mood. It was beautifully moody music.

I ended up finding out Jenn Ghetto now does the band S. So now I follow them since it helps me due to the rawness and atmospheric feel to the music.

I know in the end my explanation may come off as a weak "oh yeah, my favourite music artist", but it has helped me through the years and I hope if I return to writing short stories I could achieve even half the atmospheric quality of the music.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Leigh Brackett. Sci-fi short story writer turned novelist turned screenwriter. Got published in a whole bunch of magazines in the '40s. Worked with Ray Bradbury. Jumped to film and co-wrote The Big Sleep, the best of film noirs, with William Faulkner. Penned several Western screenplays for Howard Hawks and John Wayne in the '50s. Created the pulp classic Eric John Stark. Deconstructed film noir 20 years after with The Long Goodbye, one of Robert Altman's best movies, again using PI Philip Marlowe. And George Lucas personally asked her to help him write The Empire Strikes Back. I can only hope to have a career as stellar and prolific as hers.

 

[Starblazer117]

Karen Straughan also known as Girl Writes What.

 

[axlryder]

On a more personal level, Rumiko Takahashi was pretty inspiring to me. She's a very prolific manga artist who made several very popular series that many of you have probably seen: Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma ½, InuYasha. One of the greatest things about her work was how it bridged the gap between Shojo and Shonen and managed to appeal to both genders both in story and visual style (though she did pander a bit much on the male end). I always appreciated that quality in her work.

More generic ones are Rosa Parks, Marie Curie, Harriet Tubman, Irena Sendler, Joni Eareckson Tada, Helen Keler, Queen Elizabeth 1.

 

[axlryder]

Karen Straughan also known as Girl Writes What.

Yeah, I've always kinda liked her channel too. I think she's got some good things to say, and at the very least she has an intelligence and thoughtfulness about her that seems pretty rare on youtube.