Shannon the Movie Moxie has alerted me to Entertainment Weekly’s list of the “20 All-Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture.” Five female characters make the list, and five out of the 20 ain’t bad–but it ain’t great, either. On the chart are Sidney Bristow (Jennifer Garner’s character on Alias), Foxy Brown (Pam Grier of the eponymous film), Nancy Drew, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver, of course, of the Alien films). These are all superlative choices, and it’s great to see these women up there with Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Jack Bauer and Dirty Harry.
Is there a shortage of cool women in popular culture (and by “popular culture,” the editors seem to mean “fictional characters primarily from film and television, plus Atticus Finch and Nancy Drew”), so much so that they only represent 25% of the people on EW’s list? Or did the list fail to acknowledge some of the coolest women?
I would have liked to have seen Marge Gunderson, Frances McDormand’s character from Fargo on the list. I never tire of watching the visibly pregnant Marge solve crimes while keeping her cool. Marge Gunderson is arguably one of the great cinematic heroes of all time. And it goes without saying that Grace Park, Katee Sackhoff and Mary McDonnell’s Boomer, Starbuck and Laura Roslyn from BSG deserve serious consideration (I am blind with bias here, I am sure).
Who do you think deserves to be on the list of coolest heroes in pop culture?
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I love your additions to the list. I remember the first time seeing Fargo and being so impressed my the character Marge Gunderson – what a phenomenal woman! I also have to agree whole heartedly with Laura Roslyn, she is a force to be reckoned with.
The one big overlook I would say is Sarah Conner (from the Terminator films). I’d also love to see Fry from Pitch Black (played by Radha Mitchell).
Some other amazing women in pop culture are Trinity, Lara Croft and one I’ve been championing recently is Gidget. While I’m not sure they can be called heroes per se, I think they are more in the spirit of it that some on the original list which took some liberties on the definition with the ruthless folks like Dirty Harry.
Agree with all these! I’m also a big fan of La Femme Nikita.
For more ideas, EW also has its annual “Butt Kicking Babes” list out:
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20152680,00.html
Shannon, I totally love the idea of championing Gidget as a cool woman of popular culture!
Let’s not forget Tina Fey!
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