The lunar chronicles really shows how easy it is to avoid the not-like-other-girls stereotypes just by. Yknow. Having multiple girls in your story?
Like wow look at how Cinder doesnât like fancy dresses sheâs so cool and different and wait. Oh her best friend Iko is fashion obsessed and also a badass? Oh Winter is conventionally attractive and still cool as fuck? OhâŠ.
Wow look at Scarlet and how badass and angry she is sheâs not like those other overly emotionalâ wait what? Cress cries a lot and thatâs totally fine? Winter is an emotional wreck and Scarlet fully helps and supports her through it in her own ways? OhâŠ.
Wow cress is a hacker thatâs so cool sheâs obviously the most capable womanâ oh shit Cinder is the best mechanic in New Beijing? Oh Scarlet is a pilot and runs a whole ass farm? Oh thatâs not even any of their main personality traits????
Oh ew Winter wears ball gowns everywhere and her problem is that sheâs too pretty and sheâs obsessed with this one boy thatâs so stupidâ oh wait? Sheâs slowly losing her mind because she refuses to manipulate others? She uses her docile appearance to her advantage and understands social structures better than anyone else there? Even though she doesnât have any STEM abilities itâs her ability to make people feel heard and understood that makes her so powerful?? Oh.
Even Iko whoâs the most fashion-obsessed boy-crazy of the bunch is still deeper than that, a lot of that coming from her desire to be seen as her own person and establish an identity apart from her programming, which is just very real to growing up. Girlhood is a spectrum, and when you only see one type of girl, you get the message that thatâs the type of girl itâs okay to be.
TLC doesnât just subvert that, it actively addresses it. Cress is jealous of the others sometimes, and she actively has to remind herself that itâs not Iko or Winterâs fault that theyâre conventionally attractive, and it doesnât make anyone any less of a person. Scarlet initially assumes that Winter is doltish and crazy and doesnât realise until much later that sheâs much more than she seems. It feels uncomfortable to read those parts now for me, mostly because I recognise myself in them. Weâre taught to see other women as rivals, but jealousy is treated as an evil trait instead of a normal symptom of our upbringing. Showing it, letting it be something we all have to overcome, letting ourselves be ugly for a moment, is just as important as showing why our jealousy is misguided.
Show me all the girls. Show me the girls who had boy band posters plastered on their walls. Show me the girls who would rather wear cargo pants than skirts. Show me the girls who love high heels and fancy dresses. Show me the girls who fall somewhere in between. Show me the girls who like science and the girls who like to fight and the girls who spend all day wrapped in stories and fictional worlds. Show me the girls who dream of their Prince Charming and the girls who never even thought about it.
Because all of the girls deserve their happily ever after.
