Live the Story You Want to Read

Lately I’ve been watching more TV, and also thinking about more of the movies I’ve been watching over the years through the gender lens.  Actually I’ve been critically analyzing a lot of things through the gender lens lately, but I think it’s a pretty interesting exercise.  Conclusion: I don’t like the types of “women” the media shows me I can become (in neither India nor the US).  I don’t know if it’s just me, but I think I always used to look to media (at least subconsciously) for answers to life questions, or for charting the path for my future. This job didn’t work out, what do other women do?  This guy doesn’t like me, what should I do?  I’m in a new country, how do I make friends?  And I think if we are honest with ourselves, at least some perception of who we are (or who we should become) stems from these preconceived notions of who we can be.  I think deep down, our minds hate ambiguity, and being able to draw conclusions about some plausible future helps us be more at peace, no matter how uninspiring or unpromising that future looks (I mean hey, at least we have a suggestion).

But what if we just re-imagined all of it?  What if we made the conscious decision to throw whatever we know out the window and create our own versions of what we want to see for ourselves?  What if I say, no, this is what to me, the ideal woman does, and it doesn’t matter if nobody else thinks so because at least I do.  What if we create as we go, and ignore all boundaries that, well, who knows constructed in our heads?

What if instead of making the movies we watch into the novels of our lives, we decide to take a stand and write the novel first (because we all know the book is always way better than the movie)?

I think the world may be a more interesting (and potentially happier) place.