Ten Women We Love in 2010

We love women around here. Okay, not in that way, but we do love them and can certainly appreciate their many charms. Unfortunately, we spend so much time on AfterElton.com talking about the menfolk that it might lead you to think otherwise. 

To remedy that, the AfterElton.com staff put their heads together and compiled a list of Ten Women We Love in 2010. Of course, this is far from a complete roster. There are lots of ladies missing: our mothers, Judge Judy, Rachel Maddow and Kathy Griffin to name just a few. What we were looking for with this list however were women we admire with strong breakout stories this year. Maybe they are a standout on a new hit TV show, or perhaps they've demonstrated unusual bravery and grace in fighting GLBT discrimination, or possibly they've been around for a long time, but have had a recent career achievement that puts them in a whole new league.

So, better to say these are the ten women we truly started to love in 2010. And we hope they're around for a long, long time!

Our list of ten below is presented in no particular order. At the end, we'd love to hear from AfterElton.com readers about the women that weren't on this list but should be. What women do you love in 2010? Let us know in the comments!

1. Betty White

This is Betty White's year. In January she won a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, there was that Snickers Super Bowl ad, she's signed on to star in yet another sitcom, (TV Land's upcoming Hot in Cleveland), the legendary Pinks hot dog stand in LA named a hot dog after her, and tomorrow night, thanks to a Facebook grassroots campaign, the beloved eighty-eight year will become the oldest person ever to host Saturday Night Live.

I met Betty White the year after my mother died which made made meeting the Golden Girls icon doubly memorable. Why? When I was a boy, my mom and I would watch The Golden Girls together and laugh our heads off at poor dimwitted Rose and the rest of the gals. But we both knew that Betty wasn't anything like her character, and my mom especially loved Betty because she knew that while she was sweet looking, she had a wicked sense of humor.

Betty was just as sweet and modest in person as she is on television, although given her age, I couldn't help but worry about her as she moved around the crowded room of reporters.

I love how humble she is about the year she is having — "If I'm sick of hearing about Betty White, imagine how everyone else must feel!" — Her career resurgence shows that not only is it possible for a person to have a third act, but a fourth and fifth one as well. And a very classy act at that. No wonder she's on our list.  --Michael Jensen