Last weekend I decided to read The Queen's Gambit. Yes, the book that got turned into an inaccurate miniseries by Netshits.
People praise the show for encouraging women to play chess.
Here is the thing. We do have female chess players. Since 1941, we have female Grand Masters. My tiny ass country even has three sisters who are renowned champions and the youngest one is the head coach of the national men's team now.
The idea that women/minorities/gays need fictional characters like them to prove they can do THINGS is ridiculous and so condescending. The actual, real life people did the things. Take it or leave it, they are the way they are, if you need some prettified, perfect parable character who throws sassy one-liners to get into a thing then you were never passionate about it in the first place.
Specifically, in The Queen's Gambit novel the main character, Beth does just that. She isn't doing it because someone told her she can. She gets no support that way, people either don't care or just say "ah, this is your thing, have fun".
Which is why I'm annoyed by this show in specific.
It also makes it obvious she is not great at many other things and somehow idiotic people still YAS KWEEN the character. She is an alcoholic drug addict, who only cares as long as other people serve a purpose in her chess playing.
Well, that's the thing. They're really getting stretched with the 'first woman this and that" thing, and seem to often forget that the "firsts" already happened long ago. So what if the USA hasn't had a woman president yet? The USSR never had one, either. But many countries in the West did have female leaders .. I guess they forgot about, say, Thatcher and Golda Mier. Lord knows they forgot about Kim Cambell up here, and as far as Hollywood and directors go, look at how they seem to have forgotten successful women like Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Gracie Allen, and Penny Marshall. The first civilian in space would have been female, too, if the Challenger hadn't blown up.
I think it's mostly a reflection of general human species psychology, the narcissism is just getting more prominent, and there is nothing to select out the most obnoxious in society any more. And there are plenty of warnings about where pride/hubris/narcissm leads to in individuals ... imagine entire groups walking off cliffs because they think they see their own beloved reflection at the bottom.
See the glass as half full. She's still the first civilian and first woman to die on a space flight!
Now that’s something all women should be inspired by!
Quite the contrary: I have found that most of these people know of and DESPISE Thatcher. Based on the merits, they should love her. She started at the bottom, worked her way up, and showed through determination that she would have her way one way or another. But she is an icky conservative, so she doesnt count.