Hiding fandom in the underwear drawer since 1977

Women have been really beaten about the last few weeks here in the US so a day to celebrate to women is certainly called for and timely.

inkvoices has a terrific set of recs, including some of my favorite fics and vids here. 

I will draw your attention to one link she had which I spotted last week and just adored, from The Mary Sue,
Non-Costumed, Non-Powered Female Heroines 

I invite you to share in comments or your own posts other recs, commentary, comment fic, or accolades for women who inspire, whether real or fandom.

So, I shall share three of my heroines.

Princess "Into the gabrage shoot, fly boy" Leia, probably my first real fandom heroine





Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood who went to jail for distributing "pornography" about how a woman could prevent pregnancy.  As one judge told her in her criminal trial, a woman does not have "the right to copulate with a feeling of security that there will be no resulting conception."  There are many excellent pieces about her, but here's a start.

And finally, my mom, who died several years of esophageal cancer.  Yep, she was a long time smoker and never was able to quit, as she viewed cigarettes as her best friend in a lot of ways.  She was a troubled woman, which I knew growing up and as an adult but didn't understand why until after she died and learned she had been abused by her father for years.  She finally walked out and never looked back, an amazing thing in that time for a young woman to do.  I now see with hindsight how much she was able to accomplish, for herself and her daughters, in spite of that terrible, terrible past.  As a teacher, she advocated a novel thing called listening and tried to teach the skill to elementary students.  Even though she did not understand them and could not use them, she saw the potential of computers as a teaching tool when the only computers out there were the first Apples and big mainframes with data cards and she worked to obtain funding to bring computers into classrooms.  She was a huge proponent of science and math literacy for girls.  She was attacked at a school board meeting by angry citizens because she advocated teaching children decision making skills.  As one angry parent denounced, "We don't want schools teaching children how to think.  We want our schools to teach them what to think."  This was in the 1970s in California and over 35 years later, I still recall my mother's defiance as one of the greatest moments of heroism I'd ever witnessed. 

Tag.  You're it.