I thought about writing a comic book

On a long flight in a state of sleep deprivation, I watch Prof. Marsdon and his Wonder Women. Perhaps it was the state of sleep deprivation, but in that moment I thought it would be a great idea to create a female superhero like Wonder Woman.

I could base her on my Mother (who I frankly believe is super powered), my grand mother (who has triumphed over more than her fair share of misfortune) and silly old me (mostly because I know my thought process the best). So I could create a superhero who could span 3 generations.

But these aren\’t ordinary generations, these are sea change generations. My grandmother grew up in the hills of Kumaun region of the Himalayas, when the British still ruled India. From her childhood to when my mother was growing up, India became independent and some people started \”letting\” their daughters study. That\’s a sea change. From then to when I was growing up, cable TV (and I believe as a consequence of that feminism) swept across country, and I was brought up to be better than a son. Thats another sea change!

So I felt I could write a superhero who was immortal and had lived through all these lifetimes and perhaps I could write her to fix problems and fight the fights that I in my lifetime, my mother in hers and my grandmother in hers hadn\’t been able to, because we were limited by our mental cages – a gift of our upbringing and circumstances. She could fight for a woman in the 1920s to prevent her from being married at 6 years age to a much older man with kids her own age, or she could fight for a woman today who gets beaten by her partner but is too afraid to walk out, or a woman in the future who despite being the best pilot in the known universe isn\’t allowed to fly the newest spaceship (you know thats going to happen).

Of course she would have to have super strength if she is going to fight for women, because I believe the only reason women have had a raw deal is because men could beat up women, and that was reason enough for them to be ranked higher in the power structure. Like in the animal world if you are a fox you can beat a hare in a fight if you want (and you usually want because you are a hungry fox!), so you rank higher than the hare. But a tiger can beat a fox in a fight, so you rank lower than a tiger. In our primitive lizard brain, women are the fox, men are the tigers, and all other animals are hare (kids included unless you are into new-age parenting). Anyway, my superhero would have to have super strength because she has to be able to beat the tiger in a fight, and the tiger only respects strength.

So now that brawn is taken care of, I have some thoughts on her brain. More on that later.