Empowerment

     When we talk about empowerment in the creative arts it’s usually in the context of female empowerment, sometimes extending to other minority groups gaining the strength to overcome disadvantageous conditions. To see a character like Katniss Everdeen, or perhaps Honor Harrington as leaders and strong warriors overcoming impossible odds is inspiring to girls reading their stories and wondering what they can accomplish in life. Personally, I hold to the idea that a well written story needn’t stop at its demographic. It can inspire everyone.  

     Too often, however, I see the styling’s of empowerment with none of the substance. I used to think of this as Spice Girls empowerment, although for you younger folks that might be Katy Perry Empowerment.  It’s the “You Go Girl” “You’re a smart, sexy, sophisticated girl on the town and you’re going places, Yeah!” school of feel good empowerment. Unfortunately, saying it doesn’t make it so, any more than someone saying I’m a loose cannon, a maverick who plays by his own rules but gets the job done makes me Dirty Harry. It’s the emotional equivalent of a sugar high, and it will not sustain you when you need it to. Real empowerment requires the earning of Real Power, not just the semblance thereof.

     I’ve never really publicly jumped on the bandwagon of trashing Twilight. I mean, what’s the point? It’s been well and truly panned by people far more eloquent than me.  Of the many things wrong with that series one in particular stood out with me.  Edward never taught her how to drive. It was just “Oh you’re such a terrible driver, I find that exasperating and yet cute and adorable. Now get your ass in the passenger seat.”  This is all well and good so long as he is available to drive her around. What would happen though if they were attacked by multiple vampires and the only way she could escape was by jumping in the car and burning rubber while he held off as many as he could? Well, my guess is she runs into a tree 100 yards down the road and dies because he never took her to a big empty parking lot after dark and practiced with her until she got it down. 

     There are millions of different kinds of power whether it’s money, or learning jujitsu or Spanish, or how to drive safely at high speeds. It’s not something you can just wish into being. It’s real and it’s useful and it’s yours to keep independent of anyone else. Real power is earned through time and effort. Sometimes someone helps you gain it. Sometimes it’s something you do for yourself.   Sometimes it’s only a change in the way you fell about yourself and is as simple as making a choice and sticking with it.  In Hunger Games Katniss made a choice not to let her family starve. She stopped reacting and hoping to be saved and started acting on her own to control her own fate. That was empowering.  She chose to break the rules of their oppressors by entering the restricted area to hunt. That was empowering. She made a bow and learned to hit what she was aiming at. That was empowering.  All this was real power and was there for her to call upon when she needed it to survive.