Bridget Bond
Was trying to explain a female friend recently, men are predictable. Their desires are simple: to be unquestionably powerful, acquire the world's most beautiful women and drive the swankiest cars. This not-so-secret male fantasy has fuelled the unparalleled James Bond franchise since its inception. In fact, Bond is to men what Harry Potter is to kids. Both recreate daydreams about either alpha males with guns or boy wizards with magic wands.
But if human fantasies translated into literary and cinematic figures can become such instant hits, where has the secret fantasy of women escaped to? Why is there no franchise detailing the adventures of a goddess every girl wants to be? And what would this goddess be like? Imagine a female character who is stunningly beautiful, filthily rich, insuperably powerful and irresistibly attractive to men.
Would women queue up to watch her escapades many times over? In all likelihood, no. Such a woman has in fact been equated to evil incarnate, as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada. Then, is the fumbling, pitiful Bridget Jones the heroine of the female race? Women certainly empathise with her but, as we all know, nobody would want to be her. Rachel Green of Friends and Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City are possible contenders for the position but neither could command her own franchise or be as undisputed an aspiration as James Bond.
Women have traditionally been conceived as objects of desire, not desiring subjects. Has the modern woman not yet shaken off that blindfold to define her own superwoman? The conventional heroines of women were figures like Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet, who is rewarded for her relatively freethinking mind by being married off to a rich man. In India, the culturally enforced ideal is Sita. Every woman should want to be like her, to the point that some women actually do. How unfortunate that the female fantasy isn't the feisty and eminently likeable Draupadi, with her five husbands, unconcealed sexuality and obvious power.
In truth, though, there seems to be something wrong with each of these characters. Maybe a female fantasy hasn't yet been pinned down because she would need to be regulated by ideas of political correctness. Or perhaps this vacuum in popular culture will always exist because women will never settle for being as uncomplicated and predictable as children and men.