This week media researchers announced that on-screen representations of women are still lacking in range and quantity, despite improvements over the last few decades.
But don't worry - Geena Davis will save us!
And in the spirit of the wonder that is Friday (a day for celebrating, not sulking) here are my top 10 feisty and fabulous females from film and TV.
Who are your on-screen icons?
1. Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) in Labyrinth (1986)
Alas, I realised too late that spoilt and petulant weren't exactly desirable traits in a child, so for years I sought to be just like Sarah, running around the garden (pausing for the occasional foot stamp) as if I had been transported to a magical land by David Bowie, to the dismay of my much less petulant big sister. Still, I remember being dazzled by the image of a girl who looked *just like me* on TV; it gave me the beginnings of confidence about my blue eyes, pale skin and dark hair... And I've never lost my passion for a bejewelled man in tights.
2. Angela (Claire Danes) in My So-Called Life (1994)
Ahh, Angela. How I loved you. You brightened my world with your painfully realistic adventures in friendship, boyfriends, sex, drugs, school, parents, coming out, holding out, finding out... You were desperate to enter an adult world that you weren't quite ready for, desperate to work out where you did (or didn't) fit in, and desperately embarrassed by your cheerfully ordinary family. You were a beacon of angst-ridden hope in many a teenage girl's life, and a longed-for grungy alternative to the hideousness that was Beverly Hills 90210 (before you), and Dawson's Creek (years after). Fourteen years later, I cherish my MSCL videos. And I definitely don't occasionally rewind them to watch Jordan Catalano kissing.
2a.Rayanne (A J Langer) in My So-Called Life
It would be rude to remember MSCL without also remembering sheltered, emotional Angela's best friend, Rayanne. She drank, she did drugs, she f**ked boys, she got Chinese food from Tino at lunchtime. She was cool. And more than a little naughty.
3. Leocadia (Marisa Paredes) in The Flower of my Secret (1995)
Pedro Almodóvar's films have always featured a plethora of incredible female characters, from wallflower HIV-positive nuns to fearsome bullfighters, neurotic artistes and calm-as-can-be mothers. Leocadia is a gloriously self-obsessed and self-indulgent writer, with a rich smoker's voice and a tendency to drink on bad days. Through the death of her marriage, and the rebirth of her writing career and another relationship, she finds a new voice, and emerges both vulnerable and triumphant. And she has *massive* hair.
4. Sky (Stephanie McIntosh) in Neighbours (*forever and ever*)
This woman's a bit of a soap radical. Gutsy and uncompromising, she lost her mum while only a baby, survived a lethal spider-bite as a child (oi noi, it's a red back!), dabbled in a bit of bisexuality, freaked out the local kids with her hippy hair and wild ideas, expressed herself through art, championed local causes with a spot of activist journalism, had a baby with her boyfriend's brother, nursed said baby through a life-threatening illness, and ended up in prison, before eventually leaving town for a new life by the sea - and all before the age of 20! Girls, it seems, really can do everything.
5. Alice (Leisha Hailey) in The L Word (2004 onwards)
Everyone's favourite friendly bisexual, Alice is creative and original, loveable and irritating in equal measure. If there are 20 straight men, 13 straight women, 5 gay men and 3 lesbians on TV then there are approximately 1.2 bisexuals. Alice is an icon who'll make you feel better about the world, and her L Word home, created by and for women, is totally addictive. I dare you not to *need* the boxsets.
6. Shane (Katherine Moennig) in The L Word.
This lovely lesbian is here just because I fancy her. No better reason than that.
7. Callie (Sara Ramirez) in Grey's Anatomy (2005 onwards)
Callie is the first truly curvy (and I don't euphemistically mean 'fat', I mean
curvy. Seriously. Check out those curves.) and even vaguely ethnic woman to make my list. I am ashamed of myself, but methinks it says more about who's allowed to be on TV than who I relate to. She's a doctor who doesn't take any shit from the whiny surgical interns, and she looks incredible dancing in just her pants.
8. Marion (Julie Delpy) in Two Days In Paris (2007)
If, like me, you really don't believe in romance, and the thought of hearts, flowers and chick flicks makes you shudder, Marion is the woman for you. Not only did the talented Julie Delpy write and direct this film, but she stars in it (alongside her real life parents and some bloke from Friends) as an impulsive, passionate and slightly eccentric woman trying to rekindle her relationship with her neurotic boyfriend. It's hilarious, strangely beautiful, and absolutely captures the maddening deliciousness of modern love. Anti-romantic heaven.
9. Maria (Samantha Morton) in Code 46 (2003)
As an actress Samantha Morton is predictably unpredictable, and in this low-budget, often-improvised film she embarks on a passionate affair that's doomed to failure. But she's quietly rebellious, and you can't help but love her when she goes down fighting. Plus, she's made it in Hollywood without the flowing locks that pretty actresses are *supposed* to have. Shaven-headed ladies everywhere, I salute you.
10. Juno (Dollymix darling Ellen Page) in Juno (2007)
You know I don't need to explain why.
Related: Girls on Film Part II: The best female directors | 10 film's we can't wait to watch this year
