I have no paid account and I must poll

[bluegargantua]

Hi,

OK, so when I was a teenager I would often fantasize about how much cooler I wanted to be. I pretty much wanted my life to be a James Bond movie poster:





Right, so I'm handsome and rich and I've got powerful handguns and cool secret gadgets and women dripping off of me and explosions in the background signifying that once again I have vanquished my foes and whatnot.

And maybe it wasn't a super-spy. Maybe it was a rock star or actor or major sports figure or Batman, but generally, if you encapsulated my power-trip fantasies, they could pretty much be summed up as the poster for an action movie. And I feel like I wasn't alone in that. I feel like most teenage boys have/had a similar kind of power-trip fantasy. The details might differ, but overall, I feel like this kind of irresistible uberman is pretty common for fantasy fodder.

I'm doing some writing where I'm playing around with this, but it occurs to me that I have no idea what teenage girls think of when they daydream about how much cooler they'd like to be. Does it look like an action movie poster? Does it look like the cover of a romance novel? A fashion magazine? Is it easily conveyed in a visual medium or are there more intangible qualities?

So I'm curious -- if you're a woman, how did you see your fantasy-idealized self when you were a teenager?

later
Tom

Comments

Wonder Woman

[msbutterpecan.livejournal.com]

I was a sexy, gorgeous, independent woman who could bring a man to his knees.


Wait...

Re: Wonder Woman

[bluegargantua]

Did you use a magic lasso to make him tell the truth. :)

Tom

Re: Wonder Woman

[msbutterpecan.livejournal.com]

Among other things...

[kadath.livejournal.com]

I was a Jedi, or some kind of unspecified Fleet Admiral of a giant awesome space fleet, or a super-scientist.

Fantasy self?

[avivasedai.livejournal.com]

I don't think I had one as a teenager. I had actually a disturbing lack of future plans of any sort. I was going to go to college - there was no option on that. After college, I had no concept of what my life would be or what I would be like. Sorry to skew your data.

Re: Fantasy self?

[methanopyrus.livejournal.com]

I skew his data too. I blank at this question. Besides the realism of wanting to go to college and attain knowledge, my fantasies were very self-involved. I did not want to impress anyone else publically like Mr. Bond. I liked dressing myself for myself, not for others, and I also wanted to be a vampire.

Vampire, nice.

[avivasedai.livejournal.com]

I think I always wanted to be able to hypnotize people. Now, I can. *grin* (I try to use my powers only for good; I mostly succeed.)

Re: Fantasy self?

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

similar here....actually I didn't think I'd make it out of High School. I now suspect I was horribly depressed throughout much of High School due to circumstances outside of my control.

I did however read a LOT of fantasy novels.

[missionista.livejournal.com]

For me it was various things: singer in a heavy metal band, model, someone who(through whatever applicable means) would come in and know everything and be able to put everyone else in their place.

[etherial.livejournal.com]

I was a rock-star actor carpenter teacher President.

[oldest-song.livejournal.com]

My idealized self was a supergenius, genderless or male. Went through a period of wanting to be the irritating boy genius from Seaquest, because he had a talking dolphin.

[neuromancerzss.livejournal.com]

That's so weird, I had a period where I wanted to be a talking dolphin...

[dervishspin.livejournal.com]

I was Princess Leia.

But not the Princess Leia from the Star Wars movie poster. I was always very consious that how Princess Leia stood in that picture was not how she was in the movie.

I was the Princess Leia that traded wisecracks with dangerous rogues, shoved walking carpets out of my way, used a laser gun to blast my way out of dangerous situations, was politically astute all while managing to be an iconic leader of men.

Now take that image, replace the gun with a sword... and that's pretty much what I grew up to be. :)

[sarahluna.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be Joan Jett.

I'm a rock star now, but a very different kind :P

[fnoxib.livejournal.com]

Freaky Chick & The Mystery Pants!

I want a Tee Shirt!

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I wanted to be some sort of a blend of Aragorn and Beorn, from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, respectively. Maybe a bit of Mowgli from Jungle Book thrown in: being able to talk to animals would be awesome.

Those ideas pretty well cover what I still want. : )


My mother has told me that when she was a young girl (probably younger than a teenager), at one time she wanted to be a cowboy. At another time, she wanted to be Jacques Cousteau.

[bluepapercup]

I wanted to be some sort of Nancy Drew/Romance Novel Heroine/Super Smart Person. Emphasis on the Romance Novel part of it.

Still recovering from all those false expectations. ?:-/

[velvetdragon64.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be a rich, famous model.
Which is kinda hard to do for a girl barely over 5 feet tall ;)