[ SECRET POST #5439 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5439 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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02.
[Eurovision]


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03.
[Animorphs]


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07. [WARNING for discussion of incest/underage ships]
















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #778.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Shocked, or angry? I haven't seen a lot of historical things where women's reactions to sexism seemed unrealistic. Just because they knew it existed doesn't mean all women just took it lying down, especially if they encountered a form of sexism they hadn't personally experienced before, like not being able to even attempt a particular trade because they were told "Go away, no women allowed."

Like, I've seen people ask "Why are you shocked lol" in internet arguments when the person they're arguing with is not shocked, just showing a reaction, so I'm a bit skeptical people know what that word really means.

The one example of actual shock that seemed out of place in a historical setting like you're talking about, is in the 1993 A Little Princess movie, when Sara's told that Becky can't talk to her because "She's a servant girl, and she has dark skin," and Sara goes "SO?!" Bitch, you literally grew up in India. Cut the wide-eyed bullshit.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

You make a good point that you can still be understandably outraged at bigotry, even if you "expected" it.

The show that inspired me to make the secret is Miss Scarlet and the Duke (set in the 1880s) where Eliza just always seems blind-sided at the fact that the police won't take her seriously as a private investigator. She's implied to have wanted to be a PI since she was a child, with a father who taught her his skills and presumably mentioned to her that it would be a constant challenge to work as a female PI. Anger would be completely understandable, but she just never seems to proactively strategize or plan around this very likely outcome.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

/not the one you replied to
Yeah, I've seen the show and OMG her attitude annoyed me so much. If it had just been in the FIRST episode, I'd have let it go - okay, you didn't imagine just HOW bad it would be, and you thought that the combination of the cachet of dad's name with the Duke being a friend of yours who knows you would make it easier. But EVERY. Single. Episode. it was the same wide-eyed garbage of "... but, oh no! I'm not respected! Oh no! I'm not actually strong enough!"
And don't get me started on the fact that, no, even with servants, there is ZERO WAY that she'd ALSO not be able to even boil a fucking egg because god forbid your progressive heroine have ANY "female" skills at all.

[(Anonymous)]

"Just because they knew it existed doesn't mean all women just took it lying down..."

Who said anything about taking it lying down? The secret doesn't talk about that at all.

[(Anonymous)]

I encounter a lot of, let's say, "outraged shock" in historical fiction: the women (or whichever disregarded POV is at work) sound like a modern woman dropped back in time. "What do you mean I can't vote?!" Outraged, absolutely, but if they're over the age of like 5, it should not be the first time they're suddenly becoming aware of whatever limits society has inflicted. Their reactions should be different, their strategies to overcome should be different, and quite honestly, for a LOT of them, their aspirations should be different -- maybe they long for women to have security without a husband but can't countenance having (or wanting to have) a career or college education, for instance. Maybe they didn't try to open a bank account until later in life, or something, but they would have been steeped in their culture just as we are steeped in ours, with so many things just Understood and Taken For Granted that they would have absorbed since birth.

Aside from historically illiteracy in general, I think people also just don't appreciate how hard it is to be a pioneer of a new idea in a society that actively rejects it. Terry Pratchett (GNU STP) had a line in one of his books about how hard it is to be the first one to climb a mountain, but within a couple decades, little old ladies will be wandering up for a picnic. Depending on the historical time period in question, that mountain might even be non-basic education for daughters as well as sons! Let alone voting and other social and civic fulfillment. It just does such a disservice to the setting while lazily perpetuating the same old girl power story that conveniently exemplifies the most obvious of sexisms (or equality story::racism), which I think (pet hypothesis) helps people collectively think "Well, I can't be *ist because I don't [blatant horrible pop culture representation of inequality], and look, we don't [blatantly do that thing] anymore! Society is great, and *ism is over!"

I've got a lot of thoughts and feelings on this subject. :X