A woman can be naked and feminine and smart.

Bridget Power as "Jo."                                    PHOTO: Jess Husband

by Carissa Pritchard

Today is the first day of shooting, the Director’s apartment is doubling as “Jo’s office” and call time is 8am. I leave at 7:30am to beat the traffic but discover peak hour went out with the forty-hour workweek. Seemingly it now starts with the early morning Tradie run, followed with the highly mortgaged and culminates with nine to fivers. This is the point I get on the road.

Arriving an hour late I’m relieved to learn Director, Garnet Mae, has popped out for supplies and met with the same problem. A few coffees in a missing Director becomes the least of our concerns – we just ran out of toilet paper. Luckily actress Bridget Power, playing “Jo”, is keeping us entertained, plus the make-up artist has a box of tissues.

I ask Bridget how long she’s been acting.

“I had a break from it whilst being an interior designer for Star City, which I just finished. I started acting when I was 13, did commercials and television until my late 20’s. Then I did Playboy – I was playmate of the year. Now that I’m 46, I’m far enough away from it to discuss it. I thought it was empowering because there’s so much judgment about it, if you can cope with that it toughens you up. Young girls are so sexual now, now it’s kind of a prerequisite to anything, but that hadn’t happened then.”

How did people judge you?

“People think you’re stupid; they find it hard to imagine that a woman can be naked and feminine and smart.”

So why did you do it?

“Money.”

Whilst we wait Bridget satirizes everything from red lipstick – she avoids it because it makes her look like “a big mouth” – to rugby, she likes watching it, not just to impress guys. Considering wit is a primary indicator of intelligence, I understand why she’s annoyed with societies correlation of female sexuality with stupidity.  

Finally Garnet appears with camera equipment under one arm and a 24-pack of Sorbent under the other. Since we’ve been rationed to one tissue each, we’re happier to see the Sorbent.

The scene is dressed, the lights are lit and Bridget takes her place. But due to technical difficulties, we now have to wait a little longer. She pulls out a bottle of red nail polish and applies a new coat. I ask her what she wants to do in the future. 

“Act. I’m better at being someone else.” 

Why? 

“I’m more comfortable being lots of different people. It’s hard to be consistently me.” 

Her nails are dry and “action” is finally called.

Yes, she can act, but I wonder why a woman in a body most women crave, feels better being somebody else. 

That night I kick back in front of commercial television and witness an ad for the new season of Beauty & The Geek. My flat-mate asks whether I think it’s worth watching.

“Absolutely. I know it’s a cliché – they’re gorgeous, great bodies, but when they open their mouths, you feel so much better about yourself.” 

She asks, “Do you really think they’re that dumb or just playing it up for the show?”

I think about Bridget. Why does society make sexy women stupid? Why do women incite it? Feminists are quick to criticise men for how they stereotype women, yet two men created Reservoir Cats. Perhaps women could start with changing how we view each other.