Female Role Models

Sorry, this is going to be somewhat rambling and maybe grouchy.

I don't think that women get a fair shake in popular media. Movies, books, etc. I'm painting in broad strokes, and I'll gladly acknowledge that there are exceptions, in fact, I'll go even further and try to identify them. But for the purpose of this gripe, I'm working on the premise that men get to rescue fair maidens, kill dragons, drive fast cars, be crazy popular and have flocks of women swooning over them. While women generally get to be rescued, ride in the passenger seat, and swoon over men. They're always second fiddle, at best.

I'm sure that I am not the first new parent to think perhaps overly much about how things affect a child's outlook on life and the world, and their role in it. Naturally, I want to expose my child to things that will teach her in positive ways, introducing or reinforcing positive qualities, and minimizing negative ones. I liked the Little Mermaid, but by my recollection, its a terrible story for little girls. When you find a man that is dreamy, give up everything that you treasure for a chance to be able to follow him around all moon-eyed. While Mulan, or Belle from Beauty and the Beast seem like more positive female role models.

And don't misunderstand, I'm absolutely not opposed to a girl's right to be a princess, or to dream of growing up and marrying and having a family. I just think that princesses deserve to be in the spotlight too, and kill some dragons, and save some knights, and drive some fast cars. I'm not trying to make them into men with breasts either though.

Which leads me to ramble right into violence. I've recently started tuning in to discussions about exposure of children to violence and other 'non kid' themes on TV and in movies and books. I had a conversation that went something like this: "You know, Kill Bill is a great movie, and I wonder at what age one can introduce a kid to it. Beatrice is a crazy strong female role model. The movies are crazy-wild-over-the-top violent, *almost* enough that I'm like - yeah! my seven year old should watch that! - though certainly there are other themes in the movie that may not be appropriate. Anyway, I guess I'm beating around the bush to say that I don't know how much to or not to expose my kid to violence in media. I don't know how thoroughly to sanitize stuff." And so forth. I chatted about this with Maddie, and we compared our own childhood experiences. She had little or no supervision and could watch anything at all, while I was not allowed to watch the He-Man cartoon, and at one point was briefly banned from watching GI Joe. And we both turned out alright, I think.

I think I need to talk to some people, and read some books or studies or something. While I am not trying to say that I want my kid drenched in blood and gore from the get-go, I don't know what is right with regards to sanitizing violence. And I think its a more complicated question - because I think that simply parking a kid in front of tv, and letting them be exposed to tons of violence is not a good way to go without the parent/teacher being involved, and communicating. I dunno - I don't want to teach my kid that violence is an answer, but c'mon, violence is crazy entertaining. (don't hit me, that sortof an ironic jest)

So, who are popular but terrible female role models, and who are popular (or unknown/unappreciated) *good* female role models?

Anyone care to add anything?