# Best instances of soi-disant damsels in distress freeing themselves by trickery. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 30, 2013, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577 "2013-08-30T12:57:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/41 "2013-09-04T01:57:17Z")
Does Princess Leia strangling Jabba the Hutt with her chains count? ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/42 "2013-09-04T02:21:53Z")
If feel this particular moment from Mulhollands Super Stupor is entirely appropriate. [http://www.superstupor.com/sust12272007.shtml](http://www.superstupor.com/sust12272007.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/43 "2013-09-04T04:41:32Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > “In a manner reminiscent of Buffy Summers.” It’s in the OED, though I myself thing “Xenaesque” is more appropriate. Speaking of Xena, Gabrielle escaping from the cyclops should certainly count. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/44 "2013-09-04T12:31:32Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Does Princess Leia strangling Jabba the Hutt with her chains count? Nah. It was established in the first movie that Leia was one tough cookie. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/45 "2013-09-04T15:06:47Z")
> [@Iolanthe](#): > > White Collar, in the premiere of the second half of the third season. El, the wife of one of the leads (and definitely not part of the regular action - she’s an event planner, not an FBI agent,) is taken hostage by a recurring bad guy to force the two leads to give up/help transport a large stolen treasure. El tricks her way into an escape using a dog bite, a thermostat, a metal chair, and her diamond anniversary ring. Bonus points for the fact that she doesn’t try to seduce any of her captors at all - no feminine wiles used. (El is very awesome.) I was thinking of Elle when I began the thread. I didn’t list her because she didn’t _quite_ escape; she got out of the building she was being held in, only to be caught again by the thug she’d manipulated. But then the FBI showed up to finish the rescue. And yes, Elle is made of awesome. > [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Does Princess Leia strangling Jabba the Hutt with her chains count? Nope. That wasn’t accomplished through trickery on her part. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/46 "2013-09-04T15:22:27Z")
> [@Septima](#): > > If feel this particular moment from Mulhollands Super Stupor is entirely appropriate. [http://www.superstupor.com/sust12272007.shtml](http://www.superstupor.com/sust12272007.shtml) Beat ya to it by thirty posts. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/47 "2013-09-04T15:23:35Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Nah. It was established in the first movie that Leia was one tough cookie. Grabbing the gun from Han and blasting them an escape route during her botched rescue attempt might count, though. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/48 "2013-09-04T15:35:06Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Grabbing the gun from Han and blasting them an escape route during her botched rescue attempt might count, though. That’s not exactly guile. That’s the intelligent application of brute force. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/49 "2013-09-04T15:37:04Z")
Sharon Fields, the female protagonist of Irving Wallace’s “[The Fan Club](http://www.shelfari.com/books/360987/The-Fan-Club)” is definitely a winner for this trope. She’s a beautiful Hollywood movie star who came up rough, through the streets. A group of obsessed male fans of hers, believing PR stories about what a sexual dynamo she is, decide to kidnap her and get themselves some of that sexual dynamism. But she skillfully plays them off against one another and uses trickery to enable the cops to learn where to find her. She and the only member of the ‘fan club’ who didn’t rape her are the only ones who survive. Interesting bit of trivia: at the time Wallace wrote “The Fan Club” every book he wrote was being made into a movie. But the studios backed off on this one, in part because the real life kidnapping and murder of Dana Plato by an obsessed fan led to fears that a movie based on the book might lead to copycat crimes. ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/50 "2013-09-04T15:51:14Z")
**Miller** , so you did 😃 That’ll teach me to check every link. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/51 "2013-09-04T16:15:08Z")
Just thought of another instance of a damsel freeing herself, not so much through trickery as taking advantage of an incompetent villain. Kristin Davis, best known for her work as Amanda in “Sex and the City,” stars as Babette Watson, a psychic waitress abducted by a moronic serial killer in [Murder in Mind](http://www.bondagerotica.com/halloshame/loosievision/loosievision.html), which is basically a Lifetime Channel potboiler. The villain kidnaps her, then duct tapes her to a chair and gags her. But he ties her hands in front of her with the duct tape. Babette uses her psychic powers to alert the hero that she’s officially a damsel in distress, and when he comes to rescue her, a struggle ensues, the villain having anticipated his rescue attempt. The hero’s gun is knocked away by the villain and after much fighting, he stabs the hero unconscious. While they’re fighting, Babette frees herself from the chair and crawls over to the gun, and as the villain rises after his victory over the hero, she shoots him dead. She’s very much her own rescuer as her boyfriend totally failed at rescuing her … though if she’d thought to remove her gag (something she could easily have done) and warn the hero that the villain was going to attack, the hero might have been considerably less stabbed. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/52 "2013-09-04T16:35:41Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Just thought of another instance of a damsel freeing herself, not so much through trickery as taking advantage of an incompetent villain. Kristin Davis, best known for her work as Amanda in “Sex and the City,” stars as Babette Watson, a psychic waitress abducted by a moronic serial killer in [Murder in Mind](http://www.bondagerotica.com/halloshame/loosievision/loosievision.html), which is basically a Lifetime Channel potboiler. The villain kidnaps her, then duct tapes her to a chair and gags her. But he ties her hands in front of her with the duct tape. Babette uses her psychic powers to alert the hero that she’s officially a damsel in distress, and when he comes to rescue her, a struggle ensues, the villain having anticipated his rescue attempt. The hero’s gun is knocked away by the villain and after much fighting, he stabs the hero unconscious. While they’re fighting, Babette frees herself from the chair and crawls over to the gun, and as the villain rises after his victory over the hero, she shoots him dead. She’s very much her own rescuer as her boyfriend totally failed at rescuing her … though if she’d thought to remove her gag (something she could easily have done) and warn the hero that the villain was going to attack, the hero might have been considerably less stabbed. I will pay you $786,384,291 to never mention this movie, or any other Lifetime network movie, ever again. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577/53 "2013-09-04T19:32:36Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I will pay you $786,384,291 to never mention this movie, or any other Lifetime network movie, ever again. Who said you can’t make money by posting (or not posting) on message boards? Done! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-instances-of-soi-disant-damsels-in-distress-freeing-themselves-by-trickery/667577.md?page=2)