https://star-anise.tumblr.com/post/152713275599/lierdumoa-it-occurs-to-me-that-there-arent
It occurs to me that there aren’t very many genuine power fantasies for women out there in the media. There are perfection fantasies.
The girl every boy wants to be with vs. the boy who can convince any girl to be with him
The girl who withstands terrible trauma and emerges stronger and largely unscathed vs the man who lost everything and now devotes his grim existence to successfully meeting out destructive vengeance
The girl who’s brilliant at everything and also modest and gracious and well liked vs. insufferable genius with amazing skills so indispensable he can’t be fired even though no on can stand him
The girl who can achieve anything vs. the boy who can get away with anything
And I think the whole perfection fantasy is perpetuated by the role model message. Girls need characters they can aspire towards! Strong!Female!Characters! with admirable qualities!
So we sell girls the message that they can maybe have the life they want, (assuming their desires fit within acceptable parameters) if they manage to be significantly better/stronger/more resilient/more beautiful/more intelligent/more forgiving/ more generous people than they are, or probably will ever be.
Meanwhile we sell boys the message that one single marketable skill will blot out all their failings and heap glory at their feet.
I wrote some meta earlier on Grey’s Anatomy character Christina Yang and how important she is to me. She’s an asshole. She considers people less intelligent/skilled than her to be inferior. And she mocks them. Both to their faces and behind their backs. She’s also profoundly loyal. She also saves lives, sometimes on a twice daily basis. She’s also brave to the point of insanity. She’s also an amazing teacher, because she wants her students to reflect well on her, and because she wants a legacy. And every good thing she does, she does both out of kindness and out of selfishness. Her motivations are never pure.
And gifs of her will never feature the word “flawless” in sparkly text. Because “flawless” to Christina would be an insult. Because the entire point of Christina’s existence is proving that you don’t need to be flawless to win.
Women don’t need to be flawless to win.