It’s Morphin’ Time

Happy National Power Rangers Day!

Earlier this year, I mentioned that I’d written a brief and hyper-emo treatise on power dynamics using the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers as an illustrative allegory.

I wrote it around the same time as this piece (for similar reasons) but didn’t publish it because it just didn’t feel right, either in tone or in timing.

But, given such an appropriate holiday, the timing feels right now. Please enjoy this ridiculous little thing.

(Told you it was real.)

I think a lot about power, in the way that people who’ve been powerless often do. 

I think about how it’s in the interest of people who have power to pretend that such dynamics don’t exist. Everyone is the hero of their own story. And they’re good people, aren’t they? That’s enough, isn’t it? If they don’t acknowledge that power exists, then it doesn’t really matter how they choose to wield it.

And when that becomes untenable, when it’s no longer possible to pretend that they have a type of power that other people do not, they become afraid.

And sure, I think a little bit of that fear comes from the possibility of losing their power. But truly, deep down inside, I think what powerful people are really afraid of is that those other people will somehow realize that they are not, in fact, as powerless as they first appear.

~*~

I loved the Power Rangers when I was a kid. I wanted to be the Pink Ranger, and she was probably my first Mary Sue-type love. (Shut up, I was nine and Kimberly was awesome.)

I’d always find a way to be in front of the TV when it came on, which is saying something for a kid who was both a voracious reader and a zombie in the mornings. But when Saturday re-runs came on, there I was, camped out in the living room and ready to morph.

I loved that basically the only requirement for becoming a power ranger was having an attitude. I mean, of course those teenagers had other qualities, but attitude was the main thing. I would’ve made a great power ranger.

And I absolutely adored the Megazord. All of the Power Rangers teaming up to form a dino battle machine to defeat the bad guys? Sign me up.

It’s funny, though. When I thought of it today, I didn’t remember that Rita Repulsa was the first main villain. (That probably makes me a bad feminist. Ra ra, women can be the evillest of villains, too! And we so often are, aren’t we?)

The villain I remembered was Lord Zedd, using his staff to zap, like, some poor unsuspecting octopus and elephant and transforming them into an evil amalgamation with an amazing name.

Really, what I remembered was that, with enough power, you can turn anything into a monster.

~*~

Here are some things you’ve probably guessed about me: I am suspicious of authority to the extreme. I have an overdeveloped and often rigid sense of justice. And, to quote yet another bard, my words shoot to kill when I’m mad.

But (despite all evidence to the contrary, I know), I actually really hate being angry. I rarely ever am. I’m irritated, I’m flabbergasted, I’m incredulous, I’m sharply amused, and I’m good at projecting those feelings through my writing. But I hate being angry.

I hate being angry because it’s an awful feeling, as it’s so often a result of being powerless. And anger without action just compounds that powerlessness – all the worst emotions, with nowhere to put them, so they just form an ever-tightening vise around one’s heart.

I didn’t start Bad Job Bingo because I was angry about shitty jobs or shitty companies. I started it so I wouldn’t have to be angry or powerless anymore. It gave me agency over my own life and the ability to laugh my way through my job search at a point when that vise around my heart was squeezing until I thought it was going to be permanently bruised. I stopped being angry and started being useful.

And I know now I wasn’t alone in feeling that way because so many of you have reached out to tell me so. If I thought using Bad Job Bingo by myself was empowering, it’s been nothing compared to sharing it with all of you. We make a pretty great Megazord, don’t we?

I was recently reminded that there are Lord Zedds in the Tech world who, when they see a Megazord, will only ever see a bunch of ungrateful folks with an attitude. I felt that brief moment of powerlessness, and, as much as I didn’t want to, even let myself be angry about it for a while.

But now I’m back to my nerdy self, handing out Bad Job Bingo cards like power coins.

Here’s your coin, pick your color. It’s morphin’ time.