Like much of the world, I've been watching the new Game of Thrones show, "House of the Dragon", and it got me thinking about female empowerment. Without giving any spoilers (and hoping against getting any, as I'm only on episode 3), a lot of the show's focus seems to be on young Rhaenyra Targaryen, and her claim to the throne. Now, I'm enjoying the show very much, I think it's a good show, so this isn't specifically about it, per se. I've no way of knowing where the show will go. So I don't mean House of the Dragon here.
But it seems to me a lot of our current entertainment that's "empowering" to women gets something essential wrong. A strong focus for many of these modern shows and books and movies and everything really seems to be follow the message that...
...women can do anything men can.
Okay. But who's your audience here? Because as a girl, I've never for a second doubted that, nor do I know any women who've been like "well, with a can-do attitude, maybe I'll be as good as a man". We're not talking physical feats of strength, for try as we might in this twisted world of ours, women and men can not have the same physical strength. It's called science, and we loved it eighteen months ago, remember?
Anyway, this isn't about that. This is about me genuinely not understanding who these shows are preaching to. Women? Women who know they're capable of incredible strength and resilience, and intelligence? Really? Because it doesn't seem like a very powerful message to us. Kinda like a guest coming into your home for the first time, telling you where the outlets are. Yeah, thanks, kinda figured that out already.
Okay, so then, are they saying this to men? I'm sorry, but the men who are open-minded enough to actually be receptive to that kind of message already know how things stand. Most likely, they've got a woman in their life who is doing all those manly-man things, like being clever, and witty, and strong. As for the others? The ones who do think women are inherently inferior? Do you really think putting a sexy badass woman on TV will convince them of something the flesh-and-bone women that have come into their life, something their own mother were all incapable of teaching? That's a mighty task you've set yourself. One you're bound to fail in.
So then, who does that leave? No one. Which makes me think these people's message of so-called empowerment and equality is nothing but dust in our eyes. Just another meaningless example of virtue-signaling that leaves the world no better than it found it. I do think women are capable of extraordinary things, I just think there are better ways of suggesting that. Saying a woman can do anything a man can do is first of all reductive (because it caps her possible achievements at "whatever a man can do"), and redundant
And personally, I'm not too impressed by the feats and attributes creators are giving these "empowered" women. Seems to me a large majority of it is men's stuff. The late great George Carlin excellently expressed this "Doing the most horrible, harmful things men can do -- is that the best women could come up with?". And it does seem to be a pattern. Most of these empowered characters are very tomboyish, and masculine. They dress in man's clothes, to suggest they don't want to associate with the perceived members of their actual sex. But isn't that actually oppressive? It just seems to me truly strong women shouldn't get ahead (on screen or off) by distancing themselves from other women, and playing at being a man, but by proving women, with their feminine qualities and long flowy dresses are just as capable, and just as resourceful.
I'd really like to see a strong female character on-screen who is extremely feminine. I don't mean sexy, because Hollywood long mastered that double-faced sword. We'll give them a strong, independent woman, but we'll make her so that every straight guy watching gets a hard-on. Must be all that juicy, suggestive empowerment.
And I get the appeal of the tomboy who distances herself from the "hens" of the court, in search of adventure, but maybe it would be more empowering for her to win and prove her worth, while sitting in a circle with those hens, knitting. You know, doing traditionally feminine things. Because putting down all of those traditional endeavors and having a female shine through her masculine qualities isn't really creating a strong female character. It's just creating an exception that proves the rule (that women don't have the same worth as men). Which is very offensive, I feel, and very deluded.
Though it does suit the mass delusion we've built for ourselves around this subject, and which only seems to have gotten worse in the past 30 years. It seems traditional, feminine women are being attacked from every angle. Motherhood's so passe, and such a demeaning waste of your professional potential. Of course, if you do succeed in the professional world, you'll have to don a suit, and act like a man, and when called out, you'll say it's a man's world, and it may be, but you're sure not doing anything to change that for your own daughters. Shame on you. Reproductively, a lot of women have actually been convinced that it's "empowering" to have sex like a man, as Carrie Bradshaw famously put it in Sex and the City 20 years ago. A lot of young women seem to be under the impression that the strongest, most badass thing they can do is be easy, and promiscuous.
It just seems to me we could be doing so much more with the topic of female empowerment. There's so much room for play and interpretation here, why does the entertainment industry seem fixated on the same reductive stereotype?
Anyway, what do you think? Do you think women are being represented in a way that's actually strong and empowering and "wall-breaking"?
Because it doesn't seem like that to me.