I feel like her behavior very accurately reflects the shift in our culture from women who have an intense desire to make everyone happy (which is impossible), constantly trying to please others and put one's own feelings in a box, to women who are now staking claim of their identities, sometimes in an incredibly aggressive way. I think the pendulum has swung from an era of very quiet, trying to be sweet and nice women to women who have decided to speak out and fight back, but have gone into aggression/defensive territory. I remember in music school, I had this female conductor who was the nicest person I knew and never gave the orchestra any criticism. When the annual anonymous professor evaluations came around, a lot of people criticized her. They told her that she was too lenient and that they thought that she should raise her standards to make the orchestra perform better. This resulted in her completely changing her approach- she yelled, snipped and berated us at every. single. rehearsal. The band conductor, on the other hand, (different from orchestra) knew that he didn't have to be mean to have high standards. He didn't have to scream and snip to be heard.
I think that that's the stage that Carrie (and a lot of nice women in particular) are going through right now- finding themselves while also being bombarded with a black-and-white mindset. If you're overweight, you need to slim down; if you're skinny, you have no ass and aren't a real woman. If you speak up for yourself, you're a ranging feminist, if you don't, you're a sexist coward. I truly think that Carrie wants people to be happy, so when she sees a negative presence (of any kind- whether or not the criticism is constructive- her first reaction is to demolish it. But that doesn't work- people are rarely evil for the sake of being evil. They act out because of sadness or fear. Bullies are just trying to protect themselves (though this obviously doesn't excuse their behavior).
I think that this is why I don't really understand or necessarily want to be around "nice" people. They have amazing intentions, but in the end, they lack a backbone, and the honesty it takes to assess life situations accurately. So, when they get criticized in any way, they attack you for being "unpleasant." I mean...life isn't "pleasant." It really isn't. It's a mix of good and bad. I think that oppressed groups (woman, POC, LGBTQ+) will eventually find a place on the spectrum of finding themselves where they don't feel like they have to attack in order to be heard. I also think that a very simple reason for Carrie's behavior being interpreted as being so aggressive is that she has a very powerful voice, so when she talks, she just naturally projects and it comes across as quite loud lol
Of course, I could be wrong, these are just my own thoughts, I've really enjoyed hearing everyone else's perspectives.
I think that that's the stage that Carrie (and a lot of nice women in particular) are going through right now- finding themselves while also being bombarded with a black-and-white mindset. If you're overweight, you need to slim down; if you're skinny, you have no ass and aren't a real woman. If you speak up for yourself, you're a ranging feminist, if you don't, you're a sexist coward. I truly think that Carrie wants people to be happy, so when she sees a negative presence (of any kind- whether or not the criticism is constructive- her first reaction is to demolish it. But that doesn't work- people are rarely evil for the sake of being evil. They act out because of sadness or fear. Bullies are just trying to protect themselves (though this obviously doesn't excuse their behavior).
I think that this is why I don't really understand or necessarily want to be around "nice" people. They have amazing intentions, but in the end, they lack a backbone, and the honesty it takes to assess life situations accurately. So, when they get criticized in any way, they attack you for being "unpleasant." I mean...life isn't "pleasant." It really isn't. It's a mix of good and bad. I think that oppressed groups (woman, POC, LGBTQ+) will eventually find a place on the spectrum of finding themselves where they don't feel like they have to attack in order to be heard. I also think that a very simple reason for Carrie's behavior being interpreted as being so aggressive is that she has a very powerful voice, so when she talks, she just naturally projects and it comes across as quite loud lol
Of course, I could be wrong, these are just my own thoughts, I've really enjoyed hearing everyone else's perspectives.
