I love it when things come together...

 A few posts ago, I talked about my love of TV, good writing and feminism. I mentioned a few women who inspire me, and the path they cleared so that I could enjoy many of the freedoms that we almost take for granted. 

Today, I want to mention a few men who inspire me. There are many men who inspire me, my father, my grandfather, friends, men who treat women as equals and with courtesy, and men who are genuinely committed to making this world a better place for everyone. 

There are, however, three men in particular who embody something very special, and that's why I'm mentioning them here. These three men are all writers (in one medium or another), they are all feminists, and they have all struggled with demons. 

Joss Whedon 

Joss Whedon is known to most people as the director of the third most successful movie ever, The Avengers. But for a small but dedicated fan-base, he is the creator of some of the greatest television ever. That he was never recognised as he should have been meant nothing to him. He continued to tell the stories that he wanted to tell, create a universe for them to live in, and people those worlds with some of the most extraordinary characters you'll ever meet. Buffy, Angel, Spike, Willow, Xander and Dawn,the Scooby Gang, are probably what lured his fans to him, but his piece de resistence is and always will be Firefly. Captain Mal, Zoe, Wash, Kaylee, Jayne, Inara, Book, Simon and River are as motley a crew as you will ever meet. But they define heroism, and the morality of their lives is never diminished by what has happened to them. 

I don't know specifically what Joss Whedon's demons are. He is very private, and I respect that. I do know that anyone who creates a richly-textured world in which high school is depicted as hell, complete with demons, vampires, werewolves, witches and other metaphorically symbolic creatures, probably didn't have a great time in high school.  

Aaron Sorkin

Aaron Sorkin is probably most famous for his Oscar winning screenplay "The Social Network", and for writing one of the most quoted lines from a film ever for Jack Nicholson: "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth". There is no question that these films are exquisite and deserve all the accolades they received. 

The Aaron Sorkin I love is the guy who created Sports Night, The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The Newsroom. The guy who made American politics so engrossing that many people actually believed that Martin Sheen was the American President. Sorkin's writing style is very distinctive, involves a great deal of fast talking and wry humour, but he is also not afraid to pin his colours to the mast and tell us what he believes. 

Sorkin's struggle with addiction is well-documented. He has managed to turn that around, and he has received acclaim and praise, deservedly so. He has created some of the strongest, funniest and amazing women in television, from Dana Whittaker in Sports Night, CJ Cregg, Amy Gardener and Donna Moss in the West Wing, Harriet Hayes and Jordan McDeere in Studio 60, to Mac and Maggie from the Newsroom. 

Stephen Fry

Described by writing partner Hugh Laurie as having "a brain the size of Kent", Stephen Fry almost defies description. He would be at home in the 19th Century, and yet is so thoroughly of this century. He is a Renaissance man it its purest sense.  He is witty, urbane and self-deprecating whilst showing us that being educated, intelligent and well-spoken can be very, very attractive. Now best-known as the host of smash-hit BBC series "Qi", Fry has been around since the 1970s writing for television, and later novels and a few biographies.His life seems like something out of a Noel Coward play, but Fry has admitted that Bipolar disorder, drugs and struggles to come to terms with his sexuality have led him to contemplate suicide many times. 

For me, this struggle makes him human. He is such a towering presence, physically and intellectually, that it is sometimes hard to believe that such creatures exist. But he does, he suffers agonies, and while I wouldn't wish that on anyone, knowing that someone like Stephen Fry, who is surely one of the great minds of his generation, has overcome enormous hurdles to achieve this greatness is comforting somehow, and makes me respect and admire him even more.