“Oh my god! Why are you such a bitch?” “Well…considering my role-models, I never really had a chance.”

Here’s a nice little fluff piece to keep you amused while I cram for my Arabic test tomorrow.

 

It’s not a rare occurrence for me to catch myself saying something and follow it up with, “GOD! Why am I such a bitch?” or for others to either ask that same question about me or just give me a look if I say something bitchy.

And there’s the shocking number of comments and emails that this blog generates that say things along the line of “You should be more respectful” and “You should watch what you say”. Essentially, ‘why won’t you pull your punches a little when talking about Islam, or liberals, or PETA, etc. You hurt people’s feelings”, and I have to say that it’s not in my nature to pull my punches or say things in a nice way. I say things in an honest way and sometimes that honesty hurts.

But I’ve always been this way, it’s not my conservative views that make me act this way. I never had a chance to act any other way really…not when you look at the women who were my role models on TV when I was growing up.

My family didn’t watch a lot of TV shows regularly and several of the ones we did were good, but I wouldn’t say they had strong female role-models for me. I’m a child of the 90s with a family who is full of science fiction nerds. I grew up on Star Trek and Star Wars…and quite a few of the more obnoxious “family” sitcoms of the 90s, (like Home Improvement).

However, none of those are the shows that had the the female role models that I looked up.

So here’s a run down of the female influences that television had in my life and, as you’ll see, there is little doubt about why I’m such a bitch and why I refuse to pull my punches.

Here there be spoilers.

Doctor Janet Fraiser in Stargate SG-1

My dad got me into science fiction early and Stargate, the movie and the series, was part of that. One might think that my role model from this show might have been Samantha Carter, genius Astrophysicist and blonde bombshell, but she wasn’t. I don’t know why, but I never connected with Carter for some reason and I suppose Fraiser just had that right mix of caring, she takes care of the team and didn’t even think twice about adopting an orphaned alien girl; competency, she invents dozens of brand new cures for alien diseases and side affects from “aliens made us do it” rituals; and a ‘no bullshit’ attitude  that made Jack O’Neill refer to her as a “Napoleonic power monger.”

She controlled her infirmary, and her patients for the most part, with an iron fist and she was brutally honest at times. She also stood up for what she believed in, even when her beliefs were unpopular with the other members of Stargate Command.

While I loved many characters on the show, I don’t think any characters death ever affected me the same way hers did in season 7 during the episode “Heroes”.

Leela in Doctor Who (The Tom Baker years)

Savage, headstrong, violent and doesn’t always do as the Doctor tells her to. Though, really…how many of his companions do?

I’m not actually old enough to have watch the 4th Doctor when he was on television originally, but the local public broadcast station when I was young played Tom Baker re-runs of Doctor Who and I remember Leela quite clearly. Who doesn’t remember a character like her?

The Doctor didn’t want a companion, she decided she was coming along anyway.

She was far more intelligent than you would ever expect a savage to be, yet she never stopped wearing her native clothing or carrying weapons which she was completely willing to use against her enemies…even if the Doctor disapproved of such actions. She traveled with him, but never really let him change who she was at her core.

I see her as the one who taught me that I could learn from people, hear what they have to say, but never let it change me. Also she was kind of a bad-ass…which you have to appreciate. Considering the throwing knives that she carried, my readers should just be happy that the only sharp part of me is my wit.

Xena and Gabrielle from Xena: The Warrior Princess

Gabrielle was the mouth, and sometime the brains, to Xena’s sword arm and tactical knowledge. Though Gabrielle didn’t remain the helpless damsel in distress for long.

Anyone who asked Xena to pull her punches would have been more likely to get punched themselves, than the actually get what they asked for. And Gabrielle was more of a snarky, smart-ass under pressure than I could ever hope to be.

Xena and Gabrielle were far from perfect, but they tried, at all times, to do the right thing. They fought evil, whether that evil was a marauding war lord or one of the Greek gods. They took each challenge in stride,with a few witty comments thrown in, and found a way to gain victory as often as possible…and not always through violence, though Xena certainly didn’t shy away from it when necessary…but one thing she never did was sugarcoat the truth to save a person’s feelings. The same thing goes for Gabrielle, the bard of the story.

 

So when you look at who I grew up trying to emulate. Is it really any wonder that I’ve become the person I am?

 

And that’s not a bad thing. Every single person I mentioned here was a hero for using the exact same character traits that some people criticize me for having today.

*shrug* Oh well…I am the person that I am. I’m not going to change to make someone else like me more.