As women, there’s something about layering cucumber, lettuce, tomato, and bacon between slices of bread that we just love doing. And as most men know, we yearn to reinforce the patriarchy’s sense of humour, while also being sandwiched between gender norms and societal stereotypes.
Jokes aside, we’ve made it to the 21 Century. And while our love for an exceptional sandwich hasn’t receded, it surely is empowering to see gender lines being blurred – especially in mainstream media. TV trends are, more often than not, an accurate depiction of the prevalent era; and it’s wonderful to see TV personalities who refuse to accept the sandwich as it is.
Here are four women on TV who effectively break gender stereotypes as we know them.
Selina Meyer
Selina Meyer is the protagonist of the hit comedy series, Veep. She is portrayed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for six years in a row for her portraiture of America’s first female Vice President.
With a character as compelling as Selina and a personality as versatile as Julia, Veep gives us a genuinely empowered woman, who pretty much sails the ship entirely on her own. What’s new about that you ask? Well, VP Meyer is every bit as shameless, conceited, and unabashedly power-hungry as every male politician in the game. If we’re striving for a world of equals in the male-dominated world of politics, then Selina Meyer is certainly leading the pack.
She’s as blunt as anyone, breaking the stereotype of the ‘chatterbox’ woman ﹘ “Why don’t you put on your running shoes and get to the fu****g point, Jonah?” She’s also confident to the point of being borderline narcissistic; as is evident by statements like “That door should only be half its height, so that people can only approach me in my office on their goddamn mo********ing knees.”
Rosa Diaz
Among the badass female characters on a TV screen to look out for, is Stephanie Alvizurion’s Rosa Diaz on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Rosa is an NYPD detective at Brooklyn’s 99th precinct, and is the most threatening cop in the dynamic team. The typified ‘bad cop’﹘ leather pants, biker jackets, and an expression as hard as nails ﹘ Rosa is often a scare to even her own colleagues. If we haven’t established how inherently savage she is, here is her explanation to liking ‘Robocop’ –“It’s got everything I like ﹘ gratuitous violence”. She’s also a fairly stoic woman (gasp!). In her words, “It’s very embarrassing having feelings”.
What makes Rosa special on Brooklyn Nine-Nine is that she’s at par and, in fact, physically more intimidating than the male lead. She also hits it off pretty well with the intimidating team captain, who happens to be a gay black man. Plus one to Brooklyn Nine-Nine for progress!
Denise
Denise is an African-American lesbian on the hit Netflix series Master of None, and OH MY is she a delight!
A chilled-out, loyal friend, a genuine well-wisher, and the queen of comebacks, this bff of the protagonist is a highlight in an already exceptional show. She’s played by Lena Waithe, who herself is a ‘queer woman of color’. Not only is Lena the first African-American woman to be Emmy nominated, she’s also a winner. And Denise is, essentially, a heightened version of Waithe.
The ‘Thanksgiving’ episode of the series was inspired and partially written by Waithe, and was loosely based on her own experience of coming out to her family. This was quite revolutionary, considering it was the first time in on-screen history that a black woman embraced her homosexuality. She also has fairly-founded views on being a woman ﹘ “If you’re born with a vagina, everybody knows that creepy dudes are just part of the deal.”
Lana Kane
Voiced by Aisha Tyler, this Archer character is every bit as dynamic and renegade as the woman herself. While Tyler is a talk show host, actress, author, producer, writer, and director (phew!), Lana is a compelling field agent at ISIS ﹘ International Secret Intelligence Service.
Lana’s character is fiercely independent and in numerous instances puts Archer, the protagonist, in his place. She’s always setting his mistakes right and getting them successfully through missions. Strong, intelligent, and short-tempered with no tolerance for nonsense or insults, she remotely conforms to the typical sassy-black-woman trope, while simultaneously embracing her feminine, yet empowered side.
She decides she wants to be a mother, and chooses IVF over getting married and having a ‘complete’ family. This just goes to show how confident, self-aware, and compelling she is ﹘ a self-image that’s not unfounded.
Fiction or not, these revolutionary women are definitely slashing down stereotypical expectations and inspiring men and women alike by the thousands ﹘ and sandwiches sure had nothing to do with it.
As women, there’s something about layering cucumber, lettuce, tomato, and bacon between slices of bread that we just love doing. And as most men know, we yearn to reinforce the patriarchy’s
