“You betcha!”
March is Women’s History Month, and also the month when I’m re-launching this website with the help of my amazing, patient, smart web designer Aaron Y., so I’m trying to be a good feminist and good entrepreneur and blog more, and promote women more…so here goes. For the 31 days of March 2015, I shall attempt to highlight, every single day, a variety of women throughout herstory* who inspired me. I’m being honest and writing “shall attempt,” because my business is booming, so if I miss a day or two, you’re going to have to forgive me. (*Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)
I’m going to start Women’s History Month with Marge Gunderson, the heavily-pregnant female police chief from Fargo. Total girl-crush here. I’ve seen Fargo countless times, and each time I watch it, my respect and admiration for Marge Gunderson grows. She’s smart, compassionate, competent, pleasant, and able to assert herself without recourse to bad manners or profanity. (Oh my lord, I sound like someone’s MeMaw, but it’s true.) She corrects the men on her staff without demeaning them, or herself, in any way. Seven months pregnant and solving a grim series of murders, she’s comfortable in her own skin. Not once, during the film, does she waste her time, or ours, discussing her weight, her looks, or her insecurity. In Marge, the Cohen Brothers gave their audience a smart woman who wasn’t afraid of her brains or her ambition.
Now, I know that some readers are going to roll their eyes and think,”…you realize, Carlota, that she’s a character in a film…that’s she’s not real? That she was written by two men?” Oh, simma down, of course I do. And thank god for that! She may not be real, but that, in no way, lessens the incredible impact and importance of Marge as a role-model. A pregnant police chief, solving crimes, comfortable in her competence? You might have to re-watch Fargo, if you haven’t seen it recently, to understand why she was such a breakthrough character.
I shared that great scene wherein Marge questions the small town hookers who spent the night with our criminal “masterminds.” I love this scene because Marge gets the information she needs, without feeling the need to humiliate the girls; she’s trying to solve a crime, and understand what happened, not sit in judgement over other people. The audience knows what Marge thinks of the girls…but they don’t. If you haven’t watched Fargo in a number of years, Women’s History Month is a great time to re-acquaint yourself with a smart, ballsy woman who is sensible enough to retain and cherish her humanity even as other people discard their own, in all the snow, ice and blood.