texts on losers
batching here for reference
related:
Do you remember when the massive Statistical “Which Character” Personality Quiz was going around? It’s really fun if you haven’t taken it. It batches together hundreds of buzzfeed quizzes across movies, tv, books, and places your personality out of literally thousands of characters. When my friend took it, her top result was McLovin from SuperBad. We lamented: this only is happening because there is not enough female loser representation in media !!
We do have Broad City… but even then, I think this show is mostly about female friendship (a genuine, heartfelt, real depiction). And I’m not sure Broad City reflects the female loser as she actually is, instead it influences women to behave like losers. I dunno there is a certain brand of randomsauce Lady who Thinks She She is Ilana that you come across every once in a while. She’s rapping her Starbucks order to a beleaguered barista at this very moment.
We do have Fleabag. Especially because Fleabag is so cool in her slacking hopeless spiral. Cool factor is a necessary element of how we depict these types of characters, with a secret admiration for them, their rebellion, their disregard. But she’s not a loser or a failson in the eyes of those around her. She’s only a loser in her own context, which we become privy to.
But maybe that’s part of the thing about the female loser, that’s different than the male slacker,,… it’s interior, it’s digested, it’s grappled with. It has less visibility. Female losers surround us but we just don’t notice because they’re all wearing cashmere sweaters and Zara jeans.
I think we are more comfortable, culturally, with the female dork, with her ambitions, her love of learning, her rich inner world. To be a visible loser as a woman (in dress, manner, self-talk, etc) is completely antisocial. It makes us sad. We think: damn bitch you live like this??
