Alpha female: owning the worst case scenario (Once Upon a Time in the West)
I love this scene.
Cheyenne is a bandit who breaks into Jill's house looking for a hidden treasure from her late husband.
This is the dialogue that ensues:
Cheyenne: Ma'am, it seems to me you ain't caught the idea (<- seeks to intimidate her hinting to rape and violence)
Jill: Of course I have. I'm here alone in the hands of a bandit who smelled money. If you want to, you can lay me over the table and amuse yourself. And even call in your men. Well, no woman ever died from that. When you're finished, all I'll need will be a tub of boiling water. And I'll be exactly what I was before. With just another filthy memory.
Her answer is a huge power move.
Jill:
- Shows to him she's not afraid of being raped, thus removing his power of intimidation
- She takes his own intimidation one step further ("you can even call your men", LOL), and owns it
- Indirectly shames him and nudges him to be a better man ("that's all the intimidation you've got, raping me? You can do better")
- Speaks aggressively instead of acting submissively, showing she's a power player as well
- With "Just another filthy memory" Indirectly shows that she's just like him, a tough as nail woman who's been there, done that
Man, I'm in love with Claudia Cardinale :).
Masculinity VS Femininity: Overblowing the Differences?
This scene is a great example of why I've never been a big fan of the pop literature of "being in the masculine" VS "being in the feminine" (think of "men are from mars" or "the way of the superior man")
Of course the two genders are different. Very different.
Yet, "the masculinity VS femininity genre" often overblows the differences with lots of stereotypes and "rules" that stifle instead of freeing.
The way I see it, high value men are more similar to high value women than they are to low value men -and the opposite is true as well-.
What makes the two genders most similar is in taking responsibility for one's life and stepping up to the plate when needed.
High quality feminine women will prefer not being the ones pulling the cart, but when the chips fall and you need to step up to the plate, guess what they do? They will take charge and responsibility.
And they'll be able to act more like men, only to go back to being more feminine whenever possible.
Highly recommended movie, by the way.
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The way I see it, high value men are more similar to high value women than they are to low value men -and the opposite is true as well-.
Thats a very interesting idea.
We can think that, as those books you mention are mean to be selled as most as possible for profits, the content is catered/tailored to average peoplo to whom those gender rules may apply more strictly.
Great intuition, Stef.
I am not sure as of now, but it might be indeed that more "normal" folks, as in "not very driven and focused on getting ahead" are more dissimilar gender-wise.
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