Help me find my female role model.

April 26, 2010 10:38 PM

Who is the female equivalent of Chris from Northern Exposure?

Looking for fictional/real life examples of women who are a lot like Chris (the DJ) from Northern Exposure. His female equivalent would be poetic, laid-back, sensitive (but still very sexy), an autodidact and able to talk to anyone, to name but a few characteristics...

posted by OlivesAndTurkishCoffee to Society & Culture (18 answers total)

Tough one! The only person who came to my mind is Sarah O'Conner, Ruth's sister in Six Feet Under.
posted by thebrokedown at 10:56 PM on April 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

2nding Nancy Botwin from Weeds.
posted by sharkfu at 12:52 AM on April 27, 2010

Hm, that makes me think of both Mrs. Landingham God and Little Girl God in Joan of Arcadia.
posted by qrs136 at 1:14 AM on April 27, 2010

hmmm.. i know there are certain... criteria that she might not meet, but how about Mrs Madrigal from Tales of the City?
posted by Philby at 1:50 AM on April 27, 2010

Whoopie Goldberg.

She's so cool, she's sexy.
posted by three blind mice at 4:48 AM on April 27, 2010

Jessie Spano was completely uptight--I don't think she fits the bill.

Kaylee from Firefly?
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 5:25 AM on April 27, 2010

Just to clarify: My opinion of Chris as a character was that he was a bit of satire of those kind of guys too. Sure he was sensitive, but also new-age flaky and credulous about everything, at least through the eyes of someone rigorously rational like Joel.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:44 AM on April 27, 2010

Ally Sheedy, the female lead from Short Circuit, seems like she could be DJ Chris's sister.
posted by ian1977 at 6:04 AM on April 27, 2010

Drew Barrymore?
posted by maloon at 6:09 AM on April 27, 2010

Phoebe from Friends?
posted by iviken at 6:15 AM on April 27, 2010

How about Marilyn from Northern Exposure?
posted by JanetLand at 6:51 AM on April 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

I probably making too much of the DJ aspect, but how about the Minnie Driver character from Grosse Point Blank? The on-air musings were similar, at least.
posted by werkzeuger at 7:28 AM on April 27, 2010

I was racking my brain trying to think of which female role model was an annoying, smug know-it-all who acted like a superior jackass all the time, until I read the rest of your question and realized that wasn't what you were looking for at all.
posted by Aquaman at 7:51 AM on April 27, 2010

When you said autodidact, sensitive, able to talk to anybody, and yes, sexy--that's Ruth-Anne Miller from Northern Exposure.
posted by apartment dweller at 8:52 AM on April 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Second Marilyn. Chris is way up into lit. because he doesn't allow himself to feel it the way The Feminine does.
posted by Pamelayne at 8:53 AM on April 27, 2010

The movie Beautiful Girls gives you three examples, but for the purposes of the plot, two of them are portrayed as being romantically unattainable. Andera (Uma Thurman) is so perfect, she's out of everyone's league ("Do you see her face? Girls like that are born with a boyfriend"). Marty (Natalie Portman) is perfect, but she's only 13 ("Alas, poor Romeo, we can't do diddly"). Tracy (Annabeth Gish) is the real choice -- while she's only a "7," she's a "7" in every way ("Piano players are sexy, salesmen are uncles."), making her ultimately the most desirable.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:13 AM on April 27, 2010

Molly Dodd, from the TV series of the same name. Maybe not as philosophical as Chris, but definitely poetic, sensitive and sexy. Sadly, you still can't get a legal copy of the series.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 2:19 PM on April 27, 2010

Dharma?
posted by maloon at 2:53 AM on April 28, 2010