by Lindsay Totty

From That Girl, created by Sam Denoff and Bill Persky
Nominated by Joan Winslow

That Girl skipped into my life, throwing her hat into my four-year-old soul. She was a good girl who happily lived alone, talked back to her father, palled around with a nice guy — the ideal liberated woman from the viewpoint of a small girl.

Especially one whose own father spat out the words "women's lib" and "independent" with the venom of profanity. As many did: the Women's Liberation Movement was deeply contentious inside many a home.

 

I can see all the limitations now, the conformity, the shallow safety. Still, what a character, young and energetic and free, coming into my living room, showing me how fun and easy it would be to have my own life, one day. A bright dream to dispel the dark old men tutting their displeasure.

Anne Marie planted humor and feminism in me, and they have always entwined.