Wednesday, April 26, 2023

The Once And Future Queen

Through quiet example my mother
taught me a lot about feminism
the rest I sourced
from sporadic cultural touchstones
perhaps the most titanic of which
the one that cast the longest shadow
was Linda Hamilton
in the 1991 classic
Terminator 2
from her pull-up pumping introduction
to her fierceness, her dominance
her raw unapologetic vulnerability 
this complex emotional bad ass
unspooled much patriarchal programing
for me and countless other 90's boys
when people talk about
the origin of the 'Strong Female Character'
they rightly point to Sigourney Weaver as Ripley
but Hamilton's Sarah Connor is perhaps
the most dynamic, the most potent
of this now questionable archetype
an inspiration and an image 
I've carried for 30 years
an influence that will never fade.

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