Attainable You

Recently I was rewatching Star Trek Deep Space Nine on Pluto TV and Paramount+.  And later I was watching She-Hulk Attorney at Law on Disney+.  I got thinking of some serious sexist male pig questions.  So for this entry I will be wearing my pig snout.  Oink oink.

If you watch DS9 back in the 90s you'd probably remember they killed off Jadzia Dax (played by Terry Farrell) in the end of season 6 because of a contract dispute or whatever.  Fortunately she was one of the most easily replaced characters because she was a Trill with a worm inside that stored all the experiences of her host bodies.  So at the beginning of season 7 they brought in Ezri Dax (played by Nicole deBoer) to replace her.

And so it brings the sexist male pig question:  which do you prefer?  My sexist male pig response is that obviously Jadzia was hotter.  Buuuut, in a way she was too hot.  I mean she was not like supermodel hot but definitely like regular model hot.  Whereas Ezri was more cute like best friend in a romantic comedy cute.  I mean she's shorter and her hair was shorter and her boobs were probably a little smaller, so not the tall statuesque beauty of Jadzia.

So obviously if you're just going to make a holosuite program to rut with one of them like a wild boar, you'd pick Jadzia.  I mean, obviously.  Buuuuut when the program is done, who'd you want to take home?  You'd take Ezri home because she's cute and yet probably not as much maintenance.  I mean, Jadzia is so hot you'd always be worrying that some other dude is going to come after her.  Ezri is the one you could actually be friends with and take home to your moogie.

In the end, Jadzia is probably way too hot for me to even have the courage to ask out.  Ezri is the more attainable one.  Though in reality neither is attainable for me, but this is my blog, so there.

I had a similar debate when watching She-Hulk.  Again if you're looking for just a one-night stand you'd obviously want She-Hulk.  She's taller, her boobs are bigger, and her hair is better.  The only worry is that she's so strong she could crush you like a grape, so you'd probably have to be on top.

Buuuut after the one-night stand, Jennifer Walters is the one you'd want to stick around.  Sure she's short and her boobs are smaller and her hair isn't as good, but she's a real person not a big green monster.  She's better in control of her Hulk form but it's still probably going to freak people out.  Like Ezri, Jennifer is the cute girl you could take home to mama.

So I think in both cases what you have is the male fantasy vs. the reality.  Fantasy is great and all that, buuuut fantasy usually doesn't end well.  I mean look at all those superstar models and actresses who get married to some famous athlete or actor or whoever.  Most of those marriages end up failing because after the honeymoon is over, most of them probably have a shitty personality and probably so do the guys they marry.

A lot of the time when I create female characters, I try to make them more attainable and not supermodel hot.  In the Scarlet Knight books I deliberately make mention of Emma's big feet and that her breasts aren't huge and stuff like that because the point was that she wasn't supposed to look like Wonder Woman.  She's actually kind of gawky.

In Chance of a Lifetime, Steve Fischer doesn't turn into a supermodel.  Stacey Chance is a fairly plain girl with brown hair and maybe a little bit larger than average breasts.  Because the idea was he turns into basically himself if he'd been an 18-year-old girl, not that he turns into a supermodel.

The Girl Power stories I did make some of them less attainable, though mostly to poke fun at comic book tropes.  Like when the government first gives them their costumes, the Supergirl-type's costume has a boob panel and the Flash-type's costume has high heels.

With the Eric Filler stories this can get me in trouble because the nature of these stories is that people want the fantasy.  They want the supermodel-hot girl not the cute girl next door.  I find that kind of annoying sometimes.  I mean I don't want to make every single character a living Barbie doll with blonde hair, huge breasts, and ridiculous curves.  That gets boring for me.  Sometimes that's what the story calls for.  Other times I'll use a character who's a little less stereotypically hot.

One thing I'll do sometimes is have a guy turn into the Barbie doll but when he decides he wants to stay a girl, then he'll turn into a more normal version.  You could see that as a punishment but really that's probably better for the character in the long run as she won't have to worry so much about sexual assault or saggy breasts or not being taken seriously because of how gorgeous she is.  It gives her a chance to have something of a normal life.

And maybe that's the happiest ever after ending of all.  Or probably not.

So does anyone dare to comment?