Nichelle Nichols as Nyota Uhura, on the bridge of the Enterprise, Star Trek the Original Series

Diagnostic Girlhood Crushes

Karin Kallmaker Favorite Things

Smart. Competent. They talk back. They wield magic both figurative and literal. They dance and sing, and know how to defend themselves. They’re classy, stylish, and I truly, deeply, wanted to be their besty bestest friend.

I fell hard for them all at an impressionable age, and they all spoiled me for life. They’re the reason why I always knew that women were the heroes of their own lives.

  • Secret Agent Emma Peel made her own decisions and rescued herself, more often than not – I even named a character after her.
     
  • The down-to-earth, supports herself, and always right Della Street who never tolerated disrespect. When her boss was super busy solving murders who did all the lawyering? She did.
     
  • Superhero Batgirl (the purple motorcycle and spandex version) who was a librarian and made her own crime fighting agenda. Though she was sometimes rescued by some guy in a cape, most of the time Barbara Gordon rushed into danger and saved herself in the end.
     
  • The ultimate subverter of mansplaining Mary Poppins. My adoration started very young.
     
  • The technologically competent, linguistic genius, musical Nyota Uhura. Nobody ignored her rank a second time. When her equipment broke, she fixed it. A favorite moment isn’t from the original series, though. It’s in The Search for Spock when a cadet who’d belittled her experience and age ends up stuffed into a closet.

    Uhura from Search for Spock pointing phaser at off screen cadet and saying "Good boy, now get int he closet."
        My discovery of Star Trek and Lieutenant Uhura was a little later than the others, but early enough that I accepted and believed that the visuals of integration and equality I saw in most episodes was the way the world really was. We should be so lucky.