viernes, 18 de abril de 2014

HYPER AND ASPERGER GIRLS IN FICTION

Most hyperactive characters in fiction (reflecting the gender ratio of the disorder in real life) are obviously male. And, when energetic girls like Luna Lovegood, Pinkie Pie, or Ty Lee -who, like yours truly, also are the rare kind of extroverted Asperger's- show up on screen, they appear in a lead role, but not one of the most important (they're either featured as "major supporting characters" [Luna, Ty Lee], or share the spotlight with the rest of a team in which they're not the leader). Or so I thought.

The books are not called Luna Lovegood and Whatever Features
(I wish they actually were!).
Notice her reading upside down in her Establishing Character Moment.

A deconstruction of a lighter shade comes with Luna Lovegood's Cloud Cuckoolander tendencies, which have left her an easy target of teasing and ridicule amongst the other students. (In example, she tells that the Ravenclaw kids prank her by hiding her stuff and forcing her to search for it all alone). Consequently, Ginny Weasley had been pretty much her Only Friend at Hogwarts until her 4th year at the school... However, neither of these facts bothered her significantly, and she does what she can to live her life at the fullest.
Ty Lee is just the Perky Female Minion (hyper girl who happens to be a lieutenant in the evil organization), or PFM, in the enemy ranks. Like most other PFMs, she is good at heart and performs a heel-face turn at the end of the day, leaving and betraying Azula in The Boiling Rock.
Like Harley Quinn, now in the spotlight as part of that Suicide Squad...
Batgirl: How could you help Joker do it, Harley?
Harley Quinn: Okay, so he roughed the kid up a little. But I'll make it right.
Batgirl: Yeah, you're Mother of the Stinkin' Year!
Pinkie is the Element of Laughter. The comic relief and upbeat one of the mane six, but not their leader.
  • "Party Of One" deconstructs Pinkie Pie with her role as the Genki Girl. When people (well, ponies) start making up excuses to avoid her birthday party, and discovers them trying to do something without her, she extrapolates that everyone has gotten tired of her and gets clinically depressed as a result.
No hyper girls in lead roles, all of them restricted to the roles of the comic relief and the PFM. So I thought, until I met a couple of works or three that changed my mind on the subject.

France, nineteenth century, The Misfortunes of Sophie (Countess of Ségur).
Sophie is a gentry girl with dozens of wacky ideas and outrageous pranks, born and raised on a noble estate and "terrifying" all of its residents (parents, pets, friends, or servants). Making cold tea with clovers for leaves? Leaving a wax doll in the summer sun? Stepping on quicklime to take a shortcut? Passing out from too much cream and bread? Sophie does all of this and more! Her intentions are always good, but she gets always into scrapes...
Sophie, based upon the author's own childhood experience (she was a real-life "Sophie"!), became so popular that she wrote a sequel, The Model Girls. In which Sophie, unfortunately, loses her kindly parents in a shipwreck, when sailing to Louisiana, and gets a guardian who happens to be the textbook definition of "wicked stepmother." Does such a Dickensian turning point break her? Not even the least! In fact, the stern and somewhat sadistic Madame Fichini meets her Waterloo: the more she whips Sophie, the more pranks her defiant ward, afraid of the whip at heart, carries out. Snatching pears from a nearby orchard, keeping orphan hedgehogs as pets (Madame has a valet drown them in the garden pond), getting accidentally drunk on Madame's wine (she goes a little too far)... 
In the end, Sophie's friends and servants discover that she is rebelling against her guardian, finally convincing Madame Fichini to give her ward painless punishments.

Sweden, 1941, Pippi Långstrump (Astrid Lindgren)
Pippilotta Virtualia Rullgardina Crossminta Ephraimsdaughter Långstrump.
Crown Princess of Curlycurly Isle, on top of that!
Astrid Lindgren has also created some other book series about hyperactive girls, like Maddikins or Lotta on Troublemaker Street, but Pippi remains the only one to attain international fame. Why? Because Maddikins and Lotta were normal girls who didn't make such a fuss in their home communities. And they were muggles without any special powers. 
Margareta "Maddikins" (Madicken) Engström.
Lotta riding an oversized bike. With Oinkers, her favourite stuffed pig.
Pippilotta Virtualia Rullgardina Crossminta Ephraimsdaughter Långstrump (that's her full name, if you wonder!), on the other hand, has the strength of Hercules and the wit of Odysseus, an angel for a mother and a pirate captain for a father, a spider monkey and a speckled horse for pets, an impressive estate and treasure chests choc-a-bloc with pieces of eight. She's seen everything, learned on her travels how to do magic and to walk on her hands... and how to give the local Maths teacher, Mrs. Pryzelius, more than a disturbance. She's also helped in the arrest of criminals, leapt down a waterfall inside a keg, and most lately discovered that she's actually royalty (her father has been crowned king of Curlycurly Isle, which means she is...)!
I have seen Pippi many times on TV and on stage in Sweden, and I have even got a ragdoll of this freckled redhead, energetic and willful enough to storm the Bastille on her own!

USA, 2010, Phoebe Flower book series (Barbara A. Roberts)
I recognized myself in the titular character. A strawberry blond girl who makes trouble at school, at home, and on the streets. The people of her rather provincial local community (where she was born and raised, and she still lives) take for granted that her parents' divorce (she lives with her mother) is the cause of her impulsive behaviour and her excessively cheerful personality. But Phoebe Flower is always well-intentioned, meaning to cheer the others up or lend them a hand. One day, she is diagnosed with ADHD, which changes her perception of herself as well as others' percepton of her. Now Phoebe must learn to control herself and face the challenges ahead, while appreciating her own warm nature.
I wish these Phoebe Flower books were someday published in Spain!

There is even the Free Spirit archetype, which describes a hyperactive female!!:

The FREE SPIRIT: eternal optimist, she dances to unheard tunes. Playful and fun-loving, she travels through life with a hop, skip and a jump, always stopping to smell the flowers and admire the pretty colours. She acts on a whim and follows her heart, not her head. 
Motivated by following her heart.

Virtues:
-sincere
-upbeat
-imaginative
Flaws:
-impulsive
-meddling
-undisciplined 


No hay comentarios:

Publicar un comentario