rhaenyra outsourcing motherhood to rhaena and assigning her that passive feminine role was REALLY interesting….. rhaenyra as a character is at her most fascinating when she is forced to navigate and ultimately perpetuate the gendered structures she despises and wishes she could transcend— the seeds of her tragedy already sewn here. just great character work
Stop giving away your power by letting what others think of you, define you. People’s perceptions of you hold no value unless you allow it. If you don’t agree with how others see you, create you own narrative and start defining yourself.
Shift your mindset from needing validation, to knowing who you are. Don’t walk into the room thinking “I wonder what they think of me.” Walk into the room thinking “I don’t mind what they think of me. I know who I am. I am the best.”
And sure, this mindset may seem like arrogance but it is far better than craving approval or trying to explain yourself to others.
You can either give your power away by depending on the approval of others or you can free yourself, become the main character and perceive yourself the way you desire.
The society of laboring and achievement is not a free society. It generates new constraints. Ultimately, the dialectic of master and slave does not yield a society where everyone is free and capable of leisure, too. Rather, it leads to a society of work in which the master himself has become a laboring slave. In this society of compulsion, everyone carries a work camp inside. This labor camp is defined by the fact that one is simultaneously prisoner and guard, victim and perpetrator. One exploits oneself. It means that exploitation is possible even without domination.