I've found myself in the sad position of writing a blog on a Saturday night. I've been working all day and do not have the energy to go out. Or so I keep telling myself. I think the truth is that I want to stay in and watch my newly acquired boxset of Firefly (£9 in Cash Converters by the way, WIN).
The reason I'm working so hard (most of the time) is so I can save up to travel next year. I'm looking to go around the world which means raising a minimum of 6 grand if I plan on getting where I want to go. I'm so uber excited it is unbelievable. I feel like I've been waiting to do this since I was 16. I love exploring places and reading about them or looking at pictures is just not the same. I think that it's a sentiment held by many a sci-fi fan. We want to escape humdrum life and see something greater. There has to be more than just day to day life because what would the point be otherwise? And while I would ideally want to go into space I don't think my budget quite stretches that far. So I will go out and explore our own world.
And so I finally come to the reason for the title of this post. I like to think of myself as an explorer but I think really I love the things that I know too. So when I'm not feeling particularly brave, or there's something I have to do that I know I won't like or is a bit scary, I think to myself 'What would Starbuck do?' This can also be replaced with Janeway or Carter. Because these are the awesome female role models that I grew up with. Well Starbuck and Carter came later but they still hold a lot of influence. Janeway in particular inspired me from a very young age and my parents will even admit (actually they'd readily tell people about it to embarrass me when I was younger) that Kate Mulgrew's character was the one role model that I came back to time and again as I got older.
Sci-fi is full of strong female characters that girls could learn a lot from. They cut it alongside the men and are something to aspire towards. Not the big-boobed, fame-obsessed, shallow girls that seem to be occupying most people's minds at the moment. This is one of my big problems with TV at the moment. Great shows with real characters that are intelligent and could truly inspire young people are being cut for shows about people with boring lives that offer nothing in the way of inspiration to young people. If we spend so much time watching TV in our lives then at least a portion of it should be responsible.
I heard a very scary statistic a little while ago; 1 in 3 teenage girls in the UK now aspire to be topless models. I kid you not. 1 in 3. So you see why we need more Janeways, Carters and Starbucks on our screens. Female role models who use their intellects to get ahead. Who aren't afraid to do things and promote science to a generation of young girls. But this is coming from the girl who spent most of her high school life hiding the fact that she was a MASSIVE Trekkie...
That turned into a bit of a rant, but frak it: next time you're scared to confront someone or do something, just think "What would Starbuck/Carter/Janeway do?" Or whoever you're role model is. Because science fiction is full of them and they're not perfect but they're a hell of a lot better than the real life ones we're faced with now.
Now, where did I put that box set....
