this image is from a story i wrote a friend quite a few years ago.
i like to write stories for my friends.
i just found this image again the other day, and i realised something. i realised that i wrote my friend as your stereotypical damsel in distress.
not just a damsel, a princess. a princess who needed to be rescued by her prince in punk clothing.
were i to write this story now, 5 or so years later, i'm sure it would be very different.
i do not like that women are portrayed as either damsels in distress or wicked witches. because did i forget to mention? the princess was captured by a wicked witch in the story, naturally.
weak helpless woman.
or evil wicked bitch.
what a choice to make.
maybe its the copious twilight* i have read. maybe its the feminist in me coming out.
but i believe there is more to women than the stereotype. yet very rarely do i find it portrayed in text.
the women i know are all kinds of complex, and original, and unique. and far from the maddening stereotypes.
i know a softly spoken dreamer, who is stuck in the grey of life.
she has hopes and wishes and dreams of flour baked goods and self sufficiency, sunshine on feet, and moments captured beautifully.
she knows where she wants to be.
but her past battles have left her a little weary, a little wary, a little broken.
for now it is her time of waiting, of feeling stuck, of sucking it up.
and this she can do, because of the hardships that came before. this she can do, because she has grown ten feet taller, and a little wiser.
i know a passionate learner living life through her viewfinder.
bruised and scared from the false reflection of her self, she struggles on, she keeps on.
seeking for glimpses, dependant on others, she believes in the power of community.
i know a conflicted adult girl. grown too fast before her time.
seen too much for her young eyes.
but so full of care and understanding. so full of wit and intelligence.
unaware of her strength that comes through weakness, and her beauty that has shaped her mind.
i know very well an over thinker.
a woman who strives to make beauty with her hands in a world that feels often dark and dismal.
exhausted in her brokenness, and whole in her hope.
she clings to the idea that we are greater than the sum of our parts.
that hope can never fully be broken.
it is their perseverance and their strength that stand out for me.
their character and ability to think.
they are women to be reckoned with, women much more common place than witches and princesses.
*do not fear. i am still very much in love with the saga.
but one would have to be blind not to see bella's complete lack of character and gumption. her apparent over night reliance (yes i said it, reliance, not love) with edward, and his consequent control and manipulation of her.
yes yes, i have arguments against it. she saves him. he is the tortured soul that needs her to complete him. blahblahblah.
but as i said. i am still in love. i take off my feminist theory cap when reading the novels, because quite frankly, they are bloody brilliant (read: possibly addicting).
