Okay, yes, I do think that Stratt being a woman had something to do with her being chosen to lead the project, and therefore her becoming a scapegoat later. However, I think people forget that there’s an element to why she was chosen that is also super chilling.
Stratt is just not a likable person to those around her. In the book, they list her being blunt, having no sense of humor, and rigid morality as part of the reason they chose her in the first place, and in the film, she’s just so far on a different social wave length from the other characters that no one is able to really get into her headspace. Even if the person in question doesn’t know about her power and they things she did, she’s shown to just weird people out in general. To lead the project, they chose someone who is perceived as bitter and dry and cold to everyone because even when that person has the best of intentions, it is an easy person to hate.
I think that also adds another element to the karaoke scene, and to a lesser degree, the historical studies scene in the book. They’re moments where she has the option to express herself in a way that is distinctly her, and therefore, the characters have the uncomfortable realization that she does not want to be a dictator with a rotting moral compass.
(Yes I headcanon her as autistic, and yes I am studying The French Revolution. Why do you ask?)
