thesnadger:

Okay but can we talk about how skillfully Wendy manages to
sidestep the “I’m a badass because I have six brothers”
cliche?

I mean at first she seems like a perfect candidate for it—she
has three brothers, her mother is gone and she basically lives in a
house filled with barrels of testosterone.  But her badassery is
never attributed to being surrounded by boys.

Like, sure. Her father was the one who entered her in the
lumberjack games, but she very matter-of-factly states that she
ruled at them, implying she had a natural talent and enthusasm. Her
dad made the whole family do apocalypse prep, and yet when the
apocalypse comes it seems that Wendy is thriving in a way her family
isn’t. We never see her brothers, who knows what happened to them? We
DO see her father–mister manliness–curled up in front of a fire,
terrified, looking like he has no idea how to respond to all the
cataclysmic weirdness going on.

Meanwhile Wendy manages to be incredibly calm and controlled.
That’s not her family’s influence—that’s all her. She handles
stress well during Weirdmageddon  because she’s managing anxiety
all the time. She deals with the mind-warping weirdness calmly
because she’s sought out and encountered the supernatural before and
come to terms with it on her own. She knows how to hotwire cars
because she’s a rebellious little troublemaker, and she doesn’t take
shit from anybody because that’s just how she is. Not how her family
is, how she is.

Her hyper-masculine family may have helped her learn some skills that proved
useful,  but she took to them on her own and she has an inner
strength that has nothing to do with her father’s influence. She’s a
flippin’ Corduroy, but more importantly, she’s Wendy Flippin’
Corduroy.

thesnadger:

Okay but can we talk about how skillfully Wendy manages to
sidestep the “I’m a badass because I have six brothers”
cliche?

I mean at first she seems like a perfect candidate for it—she
has three brothers, her mother is gone and she basically lives in a
house filled with barrels of testosterone.  But her badassery is
never attributed to being surrounded by boys.

Like, sure. Her father was the one who entered her in the
lumberjack games, but she very matter-of-factly states that she
ruled at them, implying she had a natural talent and enthusasm. Her
dad made the whole family do apocalypse prep, and yet when the
apocalypse comes it seems that Wendy is thriving in a way her family
isn’t. We never see her brothers, who knows what happened to them? We
DO see her father–mister manliness–curled up in front of a fire,
terrified, looking like he has no idea how to respond to all the
cataclysmic weirdness going on.

Meanwhile Wendy manages to be incredibly calm and controlled.
That’s not her family’s influence—that’s all her. She handles
stress well during Weirdmageddon  because she’s managing anxiety
all the time. She deals with the mind-warping weirdness calmly
because she’s sought out and encountered the supernatural before and
come to terms with it on her own. She knows how to hotwire cars
because she’s a rebellious little troublemaker, and she doesn’t take
shit from anybody because that’s just how she is. Not how her family
is, how she is.

Her hyper-masculine family may have helped her learn some skills that proved
useful,  but she took to them on her own and she has an inner
strength that has nothing to do with her father’s influence. She’s a
flippin’ Corduroy, but more importantly, she’s Wendy Flippin’
Corduroy.