With access to a TV (thanks uber-cool roommate!) I’ve started having my favorite shows on in the background when I spin, write or read. I find myself attracted to TV shows with butt-kicking, geeky women.
1. NCIS–a police procedural with a military twist.
NCIS has two butt-kicking and brilliant women I would like to highlight: Ziva (Mossad agent and temporary NCIS agent) and Abby (Goth forensics genius).
Here NCIS agents are trying to detain a Marine with PTSD who is reenacting his escape from Iraqi Insurgents, and also having super-soldier drugs tested on him:
Abby is normally known more for her brains and quirky clothing than her fighting skills. Here she is kidnapped from NCIS (embed disabled by request).
2. Bones–another police procedural, this time from a forensic anthropologist’s view.
Dr Temperance Brennan (“Bones”) has 3 blackbelts. NOTE: I am still trying to find a good clip of Brennan kicking butt. Booth/Brennan fans (that is, fans who want Bones and her FBI partner Seeley Booth to be together) dominate YouTube to the extent it is difficult to find *any* clip which is not about their relationship. This is an ok example of how Bones operates.
3. Burn Notice–a spy for the U.S. government is blacklisted and must get help from his friends (including his explosives-expert ex-girlfriend Fiona).
(she is cooking fresh, homemade C4 in the clip.)
I like following the fictional stories of physically dominating and geeky women because I like collecting role-models. I don’t want Abby’s fashion sense, Bones’s lack of social awareness or Fiona’s pyromania; but I would not want Anne Lamott’s financial problems, Hilary Clinton’s husband issues or Isabella of Spain’s martial commitments. I can still look to them as thoughtful, intelligent, powerful female role-models. TV role-models will always be missing importance pieces that real-people role-models will have. But it is still fun to see how women function when they do not have to deal with rent or periods or the Metro. Fantasies allow us to explore aspects of our world directly without the burden of complex reality. I find value in these simplified worlds because they allow idealistic clarity which the real world eschews.
Inspirational Quote:
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.–Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
For bonus Ziva goodness:
