I’m watching the second season of Daredevil and one thing that I noticed – and really liked – was the jury selection scene for Frank’s trial.
The white men of the group said, “animal,” and “fascist,” and “unhinged.”
The women of the group – most of whom were WOC – were the ones who said, “I applaud him,” and “he’s a hero.”
Because when it comes down to it, Frank was dealing his brand of justice to scumbag men who thought they could do and say and take whatever they wanted.
And at the end of the day, it was the women of the city who were really protected by him, the ones who benefited from getting those particular scumbags off the street.
For once, the men of the world were scared to step out of their doors with the Punisher on the street, and the women felt a little safer with him out there.
And considering what Frank lost, that’s pretty much the entire point of his vigilantism.
Jesus fuck okay so I’m a waitress at this restaurant that’s open really late and it’s nearly 1am and this family comes in and I’m so tired that I handed their BLIND SON a menu and he’s like “ah… thank you… I’ll just… read this” in a serious voice and I fucking snorted
GOD DAMN IT I PUT THEIR FUCKING FOOD DOWN AND NO ONE WAS TALKING SO THIS LIL SHIT FUCKING EXCLAIMS “WELL IT LOOKS DELICIOUS” I LOVE THIS FUCKING KID
So I’m watching Leverage for the umpteenth time and the thing that had struck me this time through is Eliot and his weirdly specific knowledge about things he learned from former girlfriends.
Like, he kind of gets slotted into the ladies man sort of role, but he’s so much kinder about it than any other character on tv.
And having in-depth knowledge about stuff because of old girlfriends means that he has pretty clearly spent a looooot of time talking, and actually listening, to the women he was dating. Like enough that he knows specific stuff about the regulations for flight attendants, or MRI technology, or horse stuff.
I think this is a pretty solid embodiment of everything I love about this show. That even years and repeated viewings later I can still find something new that casts a slightly different light on the characters.
I often wonder how many more scientists we’d have if we congratulated kids for working hard rather than praising them for being smart. We need to get rid of the myth that science is only accessible to an intellectual elite.
Yes yes yes!
Malcolm Gladwell and Matthew Syed have both written books about this and it’s well known phenomenon in psychology. If you tell people they did well because they’re smart they actually under-perform in future, whereas if you tell them they do well because they worked hard they just get better and better. The myth of talent is really harmful and frustratingly persistent.
