Cool Without Others

So with this week's movie, Jules et Jim, and what I fell of the ambiguity of, and possible lack of, cool in this movie I feel it more appropriate to write this weeks second blog with relation to part of the discussion that was had in class after the movie. It was said that part of being cool is doing what you want, when you want. Cool is having power over others, it is being a big shot, it is having respect from others. The question is if a woman can be a cool as a man, and does the fact that she is a women change what makes cool cool.

I believe that women can be just as cool as men. There are many movies and TV shows that show that women can be just as cool. In The Chronicles of Riddick Kyra is super cool. She is independent, awesome, doesn't take , can kick ass, everything that would make someone cool no matter the gender. She is able to stay right with Riddick in the fighting, running, and is only lesser in a level of brute force strength. Kyra is cool. In The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep plays the very powerful Miranda Priestly, a self made editor of a prestigious magazine. She has respect, she is powerful, she answers to nobody. She is a very cool woman. Last, I will mention Fiona Glenanne from the TV series Burn Notice. Fiona is one of the coolest women I have ever seen on a movie or TV show. She can take care of herself, people are afraid of her, and she can blow stuff up (what more do you want in a woman). All of these women are very cool and they have trates that would make anyone cool.

So now the question comes up why is Catherine not seen as cool when she has many of the same traits that these other women share. She is independent, she does what she wants without caring what others think of her, but one factor comes up in my eyes that does not make Catherine cool. Catherine does not care about who she hurts, and even hurts people on purpose. In all of my other examples, there is at least one person that they care about, and even Kyra, a hardened criminal cares about the others in the prison and Riddick. So, at least to me, you cannot be cool if you just don't care about anyone else.