#threefictionalcharacters *ahem* Ladies That Sit in the Big Chair
I don’t see myself in the #threefictionalcharacters meme. As a female CEO, I was stumped to think of any women who sit in the big chair in TV or movies. I broadened my mental search. What about more generally awesome, powerful women? Erin Brockovitch! Julia Childs! Those were great movies. Nope and nope, those are real people — not fictional characters. Frida Khalo! Also a real person, though she feels more like a mythical creature.
Then I remembered… Janeway!! Yassssss, she’s a starship captain. Great, there’s one woman in leadership. I searched Google Images to find a headshot. The first one I clicked on had a caption that read “Now, I’m actually one of the only people out there who likes Captain Janeway, at least a lot of the time.” Oh my, LOL — even fictional women leaders are hated.
I took to Facebook to air my distress. Fortunately, I got back some immediate suggestions, most of which were characters I hadn’t heard of. I give you — a binder full of ladies who sit in the big chair.
The good news is now I have new shows to add to my Netflix queue. Who wants to get together for a Galantine’s Day film festival?
Too few women get top billing in their respective shows. They play the supporting role of straight (wo)man to the jaunty, naughty guy. M reigns in Bond so he doesn’t die. Lana cleans up Archer’s messes. Leela literally kicks asses to defend Fry in Futurama.
Well-behaved women seldom make history, or apparently leading roles either. The opposite of the competent woman behind every successful leading man is the straight up evil antihero — see Borg Queen and Veronica Palmer. The Hollywood Reporter’s list of best and worst movie bosses lists five women — every single one as a worst boss. All of the best bosses are men, according to them.
We don’t have enough powerful women in media in part because Sony doesn’t believe movies featuring women superheroes make money. Check out these two dudes shooting down half the human race, which we only know about because hackers leaked a whole pile of Sony emails.
Resting Bitch Face
Did you notice that these powerful women are all wearing their resting bitch face? (I didn’t cherry pick these images.) Our culture doesn’t have a vocabulary to describe women wielding power other than “bitch” or the more insidious version “unlikable.” They look fierce and amazing to me. Go watch Beyonce’s Formation again. There’s not a single frame of that video where she smiles. In fact, no one in the entire video smiles.
I’ve switched my LinkedIn profile photo to a non-smiling photo. If we all did the same we could start tipping the cultural conception of how women are expected to look and act in the workplace over to something that sees women as likely to sit in the big chair as a man.
Wipe that smile off your face and kick some ass, ladies!
P.S. Does your company need the services of a strategic planner who’s sat in the big chair and has 15 years of user-centered design experience? Come get at me.
