A Rambling Raconteur

Dear Nathan, 

(Obviously not Fillion. Nathan Fillion would never do this to me.)

I’m Rey. And Ripley. I’m also Wonder Woman, Sarah Connor, Trinity, Imperator Furiosa, Beatrix Kiddo, Katniss Everdeen, Gamor, River Tam, Tauriel, Princess Leia, Elizabeth Swann, Marion Ravenwood, Hit-Girl, Black Widow, Jessica Jones, Buffy Summers, Lara Croft, Leeloo, and a bunch of others I’m not even gonna bother to list. I’m also a sci-fi and fantasy fan and author. 

You say you don’t want to be patronizing. That word. I do not think it means what you think it means. Let’s be real here. You don’t think we are all “beautiful, talented, intelligent flowers.” It’s okay though. I know you’re a little scared of us. I can only imagine how quickly you would cross the street if you saw Ellen Ripley walking towards you on the sidewalk. But you’re a gentleman, you say! You aren’t trying to embarrass us! You just want to point out that our slip is showing or whatever 1950s-era metaphor you want to use. 

Listen. Your entire argument is that we are members of the weaker sex. Apparently you are physically larger than every woman you come into contact with on a daily basis, and thus obviously stronger than these poor, whimpering creatures. Just a quick lesson from a power-lifter’s daughter: size isn’t everything. You quote the Bible a handful of times in your letter. Have you read the story of David and Goliath? I mean, in case you have only read the Bible in one-verse, out of context snippets, I’ll summarize. David = small dude. Goliath = REALLY big dude. They fight. Goliath wins, because duh! Height and muscles! 

Just kidding. David won. The runt of the litter. The little guy. It’s like a thing, with God. He tricks you up like that. 

He even made sure to keep those pesky uteri away from the weak, pitiful women because there’s just no way that any of them would have survived if they had to endure the rigors of childbirth in a time before epidurals. Oh wait! That’s right! It IS women that he gave the uteri to! They’re the ones who painfully shed the lining of one of their internal organs once a month, and can—with the right materials—successfully manufacture additional members of their species and then spend hours and hours physically pushing them out of their bodies. I’ve seen men burst into tears and fall to the ground because they got kicked in the testicles and I’ve seen women in active labor read books while breathing through contractions. 

And here’s the deal about fighting: practice makes perfect! Do you know why some of those tiny little ladies you have run into could probably decimate you in a back alley? Because they have trained to do so. Do you know how many self-defense classes there are out there specifically for women? I was taught how to incapacitate a larger-than-me assailant by the time I was 12. The women you mention are either highly trained and/or have practiced exhaustively and/or they are imbued with the friggin FORCE. 

So no. Women are not the inherently weaker sex. You gotta take humans on a case-by-case basis, bro. 

And anyway: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

Sincerely,

Bad-Ass Woman United