Hall of Fame

Until I can unearth research to prove the GadgetGirly-ness of real life women in history, here are some of my favorite characters who have demonstrated genuine prowess as Gadget Sisters.

Agent 99 of TV's Get Smart

Gadget Sisters have emerged on the scene slowly as television began to give us alternative role models to Mrs. Cleaver. One of the first I can recall was Agent 99 of Get Smart. She actually was smart, resourceful, pulled Max out of the fire on a regular basis and saved the world from KAOS with her handy shoe phone.

Next into our living rooms was intergalactic receptionist, Lt. Uhura, who sported the grandmother of what we girls know today as the blue-tooth headset.

Lt. Uhura from the original Star Trek

She actually made that thing look pretty darn fashionable and not terribly uncomfortable. Note how it is stylishly coordinated with the earring. An important message for women about to embrace strange new worlds of technology, “Don’t lose your feminine sense of style for functionality, sweetie. Yes, you can have it all.”

About all I can remember from the eighties was Linda Carter as Wonder Woman. Talk about gadgets! Wonder Woman must be the original Gadget Girl since she was technically a comic book before a TV show. She had that cool lariat that made people tell the truth, those stylin’ bracelets that could deflect bullets (with matching tiara) and the invisible plane. (Who thought that one up, anyway?) There are so many truly geeky discussions I don’t dare start on that topic.

Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager

Star Trek continues to bring us women who manage to combine the seemingly impossible. In Star Trek Voyager we meet Seven of Nine who is part totally svelte babe in a bodysuit, part elusive and emotionally unavailable victim, part smart as all heck scientist, and part evil Borg machine. (This is what I prefer to call complex and multi-dimensional.) But, dude! The girl was a gadget. She could park herself in a charger at night just like my cell phone.

Mac the gadget Chick of Chicken Run

At the beginning of the new millennium I became a parent, so I started to notice Gadget Girls showing up in fun new ways in animation. A favorite is Chicken Run, the delightful stop-motion egg-stravaganza (sorry, I get the pun gene from my father) featuring Mel Gibson as a rooster and a bunch of English actresses I don’t recognize as the chickens. In particular was Mac, the ingenious chick with a Scottish brogue who engineered a plethora of escape gadgetry. Perhaps “Mac” was short for MacGyver, because this chicken was able to fashion catapults and aircraft from common household items. She devised more escape plans in one movie than the entire span of seasons for Hogan’s Heroes.

Sandy Cheeks of SpongeBob Squarepants

And finally, there is the ubiquitous SpongeBob Squarepants gal pal Sandy Cheeks. Sandy is most definitely the brains of the bunch and proves it with her superior mastery of all things gadgety. There is the Tree Dome, her amazing Air Suit, space travel, and numerous inventions that have garnered professional acclaim from academic apes. She gets extra girlie points for attempting to glam up the Air Suit with a pink flower. Sandy demonstrates consistently that technology and inventiveness combined with quick thinking can, indeed, save the day.