TALK MORE ABOUT THE INTERNALIZED MYSIGONY OF BLYTHE I BEG OF YOU
(Also I totally chose greed)
Be careful this is Long
Blythe is a curious example of both pro female empowerment but also quite misogynistic.
First the female empowerment angle; She is someone that is very ambitious, and has a lot of respect for women in power. She values the effort it took to get there. Confident, domineering women, uncaring of the morality of their actions (she herself is pragmatic to a fault - easily sacrificing morals for the sake of getting ahead or advantage).
However, this respect does not apply to all women. She has a tendency to judge based on attraction and behaviour (some of it is rooted in misogyny, some in classism); as an example she tends to look down on women who behave in an unfeminine manner (sitting with their legs apart, having their feet up on the table, being crude or displaying typically 'masculine' characteristics) or if a woman is submissive and meek, especially if she is in a relationship with a man. In her perception, there is only a certain type of behaviour that is considered a strong woman.
She carries herself in a way that still both is confined to the societal expectation of gender while also striving to be better than it. She carries herself as a perfect woman (or what she considers as such) - clothing both elegant and revealing enough to be considered attractive, batting her lashes covered in makeup and long styled hair, crossing her legs when she sits and being polite, never eating too much and curtseying for authority. Yet at the same time, she thinks that submission to a husband is deplorable, that those that lounge and not behave like a lady are atrocious in their behaviour, that not fitting the conventional attraction standard is something to fix, that not being intelligent is a sin worthy of disrespect.
Her perception of a "strong" woman is very narrow, someone both defying the norms but still operating within them. To take what you want but not be reliant on others. To be confident in your sexuality without actually stooping to sex for gain. To be defy traditional femininity by not being a perfect wife or mother, but also not be masculine.
But all of this ties back to the fact that she was very much raised this way. She was a upper middle class woman in a white collar environment. She dealt with sexism all her life - from being leered at to the expectation of marrying and becoming a mother, both things she greatly detested and was the reasoning behind her seeking Theta out. In a way Theta is just a reflection of those same thoughts but amplified - she's Blythe at her WORST.
Kind of related but not on the same topic - it's why she doesn't feel any attraction towards people that fall into her "feminine wiles" because she gets bored of people that she considers "below" her. She likes a chase, to be a predator that had to WORK for it. Satisfaction of coming out on top. If someone falls fast, then that's "boring". The fact Raha did NOT immediately like her and was very cold and ambivalent towards her made her just itch to crack him open like a crab to get at the delicious insides.
She has a lot of brain cockroaches about sex and sexuality where she sees being submissive as accepting defeat - make what you will of her relationship with Raha. Or for example, Strahd/her ALSO would never in a million years work out because it would be the most radioactive toxicity known to man cause it's two people who refuse to even give an inch of power (Though those two definitely deserve each other in terms of their behaviour.) That's why she really looks down on women being in traditional roles or submissive to their partner because she just thinks she's being walked all over and eagerly takes that. She could NEVER work out with a dominant partner.
I tend to have that re-occurring theme with her and being a cog in the cycle of abuse (be it societal or Theta) and how she has to make the active choice of either perpetuating it or getting over herself. The desire to hold on the sliver of power is a result of feeling powerless, the distaste for traditional lifestyles is a kneejerk reaction to wanting to escape that, the femininity is what was drilled into her by society around her. It just comes down to a feedback loop of perpetuating the same things she experienced unfortunately and the onus is on her to break that loop.
