She says to Martha that women at the bar have got to stick together, but then she says: 'Sometimes women at the bar don't like me because I'm sisterly out of court, and vicious in it.'" The first series of Silk ended with Costello (Maxine Peake) taking silk but miscarrying her baby after being assaulted by a former client.
Luckily, these days she incites more of a sisterly spirit of collaboration, as evidenced by Bionic's many contributors, including riot grrrl feminists Le Tigre.
Her model of self-fulfilment still offers a marked contrast to the sisterly solidarity of early feminists, of course.
Natasha Walter gave a warm, big sisterly account of the deluded idealism of Alan Hollinghurst's Nick Guest.
Since that single's crossover heyday, the sisterly duo of Erica and Tina Campbell have released five albums of their contemporary spiritual grooves and snared two Grammy Awards.
She calls Austen's writing "lovely", extols the "wonderful" work of her fellow critics, snuggles up to her "sisterly circle" of fellow scholars in Oxford, and gives smoochy thanks to her "dearest husband" for his support.
After all, should a group of blue monkeys grow too large it will split into factions, and the sisterly comrades of today may be flaying you a new pair of anklets tomorrow.
And on the other there is the sexless, sisterly figure of Suzanne Pleshette's Sergeant Pearson, the bracingly competent, kindhearted officer in charge of the tour's logistics.
Often, though, this sisterly state of bliss is only half the story.
There was certainly no hatred in Brooklyn, where the emphasis was squarely on sisterly celebration of the woman whom Henry James backhandedly called "everybody's dear, Jane".
