The biggest change I experienced this year is that I now feel much more confident in my understanding of myself as an individual. Especially as a younger woman in the U.S., I feel constantly bombarded by images and ideas of what I should dress like and what I should be interested in. Even growing up in a household where I was told that I could become whatever I wanted, I still felt external pressure to conform to this idea of what a "perfect woman" is. After constantly measuring myself to this idea and being found wanting, I came to the realization that no real person can be everything that society says a woman should be. This idiosyncrasy becomes the most obvious to me when I look at how people online respond to fictional female characters. When Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out in December, I was really excited since I love Star Wars and a woman was finally the main character. If I was a kid now, Rey would be exactly the kind of role model I would have loved to have, precisely since she isn't perfect. Despite her prominence in the movie though, her character was initially excluded from Mattel Star Wars toys featuring the new movie and many people credited her (spoilers ahead!) defeat of Kylo Ren at the end of the movie as his intention to let her escape rather than as a result of her talent. It's very frustrating for me to live in a world where people belittle women's accomplishments, and while it may seem trivial to use a fictional character to make this point, I really think that we have the power to shape society through the movies and TV we create. Rey is such a marked improvement from the portrayal of women in the original Star Wars movies but there are still people in society who are unhappy that a woman was the lead of an action movie and tried to argue that she wasn't important to the story.
As a strong woman who comes from a family of strong women, I'm sad that I have to continue to live in a world where my accomplishments will be viewed as lesser and people will continue to ask why I don't have a boyfriend, as if that is the only accomplishment I could make that would be worthwhile. As much as all of that bothers me, I realized this year that I simply have to stop caring if I don't compare to that ideal woman. That isn't to say it won't continue to bother me that we live in a world where girls are still viewed as less, but it means I won't second guess my right to be in political science (a field which is still mainly dominated by men) or my ability to competently debate politics. I won't change myself to fit the tiny model society has created for me. It's hard to stand up and say that, and there are times I wish I was more stereotypically "girly," but this year I've realized that haters are always going to hate and I won't let them limit my potential.
By Emma Flaherty
Emma Flaherty is an avid reader of YA novels, debater of politics, and a future academic in the making who has contemplated how many years it is appropriate to dress up as Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens for Halloween in a row.
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