#not tagging her as libber gordon because uhhhhhhh she deserves better than that

[penofwildfire]

Sometimes I just have to think about how society has placed such specific expectations on mothers (and of course women in general, but in the eyes of the patriarchy "woman" and "mother" are basically synonymous), to the point that my own mother has tried more than once to make me dislike a female character solely because they don't perform motherhood to her standards. And the first time, it worked!

I remember distinctly arguing in favour of Misako with my mom a few years ago (it was the classic "why did she abandon Lloyd" debate of course), and she went as far as to joke about Misako being on drugs at the time of the abandonment. And for years afterward, I was convinced. I even got my boyfriend on board with the concept when I first introduced zir to the show.

It took a WHILE to undo that damage in my brain. So imagine my annoyance when I brought up Libber, and how bad I felt for her (marriage to that asshole can't have been fun), and my mom, instead of sympathizing, claimed that Libber was just a selfish ditz who was content to live the high life of an actor's wife until a kid got involved. This baffled me. Because I always saw Libber as a victim. From the little we see of her, it doesn't seem like she even knew Cliff very well when they got married (that little starry-eyed spiel she goes on about him reeks of puppy love), and based on the book titled "Cliff Gordon's Guide to Wooing Women" it certainly doesn't paint a pretty picture of their life together.

Yes, based on timeline she would've stayed with him for nearly 2 decades before having Jay and disappearing. But again, from what we see of her, she was basically a kid when she got married. It's not difficult to imagine the isolation she must have experienced, the abuse, probably mostly emotional and financial in nature. On a related note, it doesn't seem to be unusual for citizens of Ninjago (and elemental masters in particular) to have children at older ages than we as viewers consider the norm.

What I'm trying to say is it blows my mind that my mom can't see how having a child could be a catalyst to finally escape a situation like that. Because even if Libber had come to terms with her own circumstances, who the hell wants to raise a kid with a womanizing douchebag?? (Spoiler Alert: my mother. In fact she raised four of them).

Anyway I'm not entirely sure where I was going with this but uhhhhh unpack your misogyny, folks!