4 Badass Characters Who Taught Us To Ask For What We Want
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“Be yourself!” – along with her cousin “Follow your dreams!” – is the most annoyingly vague advice there is. OK, sure! We can try to be our most freakish, anxiety-riddled selves, but until what point? How do we know when to stand up for ourselves? Or call it quits on something that’s no good for us? Or push aside our instincts to run, run, RUN for what will ultimately be a greater good?
On the road to being world-ready and wondering what true chutzpah looks like, we turned to our old friends, TV and the movies, to round up some characters who made big, brave statements (and zero apologies) about their worth. Grab your notebook: Badass 101 begins now.
#1 Rachel Chu, Crazy Rich Asians
Having a disapproving mother-in-law would be stressful as hell. Having a disapproving mother-in-law who is also rich and powerful is enough to make you want to call it quits on your hunky boyfriend for good. (@ me Henry Golding)
Rachel Chu is no such quitter. Even when she knows Nick chose her over his mother, she stays resolute in her plan to keep the peace for the benefit of everyone’s long-term happiness. One extremely uncomfortable game of mahjong later, and the formerly-icy MIL, Eleanor, comes around to scrappy Rachel.
The lesson? There are times where you can have your cake (hunky bf) and eat it too (respect from hunky bf’s mum).
#2 Michael Scott, The Office
There are a lot of things Michael Scott fails to be – a good manager, a good secret-keeper, Michael Scarn. But one thing he excels at is loyalty.
By the end of season five of The Office, when David Wallace wasn’t taking his concerns about hot new boss Charles (played by Idris Elba) seriously, Michael was right to draw the line. Over 15 years and just as many awful managers, he had put up with a lot for the sake of Dunder Mifflin. Not taking a stand to prove what he was worth would have set a humiliating precedent.
So he quit! Albeit without a proper plan to start his own paper company, but the move was responsible for one of the most iconic “eff-you” lines in history: “You don’t know how high I can fly.”
#3 Donna Meagle, Parks and Recreation
Donna Meagle doesn’t have high standards. She has perfectly reasonable expectations for the type of men who deign to show an interest in her. That’s that.
No character ever blamed Donna for asking exactly what she wanted from a partner, and she never apologised for it. Which, friends, is how a lot more of us should approach our romantic lives – and life in general.
“Skilled positions ONLY for Donna Meagle*.” *And us too! Keep walking, 98.
#4 Liz Lemon, 30 Rock
Ah, the eternal quest to have it all. TV writer and purveyor of cheese snacks, Liz Lemon, reminds us through the entire seven-run series of 30 Rock that she deserves a great career, a loving partner, and a baby, despite what society kept telling her. She screamed it, famously, in an airport security line, mouth full of a meat sandwich, in case you needed a reminder.
A lot of things get in the way of her reaching that goal, too: the guy she thought was the love of her life moves to Cleveland, she gets rejected from an adoption program, she doesn’t have time to finish her disastrous reno attempts.
But, of course – spoiler alert! – she gets there in the end. It may have taken her many years and at least one Werewolf Barmitzvah, but she stayed strong.
Self-doubt? Lemon would tell you to SHUT IT DOWN.
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(Lead image: ian dooley / Unsplash)
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These know what they’re worth and aren’t afraid to ask for it – so how do you get there, too? A degree from ECU will equip you with the tools you need to tackle whatever the world throws at you (deeply competitive games of mahjong included). Learn more at ecuworldready.com.au