On the Importance of Brenda and Shannen

I started my blog twelve long centuries lifetimes years ago - out of boredom; out of unemployment - as a profanity-and-mockery-tinged-marinated love letter of sorts to a show that altered my being on a truly epigenetic level at the age of 10.  But when I go back and read my old posts, I see that it's really been a love letter to the character of Brenda Walsh, and by extension, her portrayer, Shannen Doherty.

Never had I seen a character such as one Mz. Walsh: fierce, opinionated, loyal, wardrobe and hair to the GODS.  Wee me didn’t understand the concept of "feminism" at that time, but I knew she represented SOMETHING: a woman being treated differently than the men in her life; a woman being judged more harshly than the men in her life; a woman advocating for herself in the face of both of those things, ass-kicking and name-taking all the while. 

The character was eventually labeled “difficult" (much the same as Shannen the Person was labeled) but I never wavered: she was a Queen; a capital-I Icon; a VIP in my pre-teen-into-teen development; basically the Lady Gaga “talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping" .gif come to life.

And Shannen did that.  Shannen brought Brenda into the world and changed me forever.  Call it dramatic; call it ridiculous; say that she was just a character on a cheesy nighttime soap opera about entitled rich kids (I'm looking at you, STEVE).  But it's absolutely true.  Sometimes there are those actors that hit different for you.  Shannen was most definitely that for me, and I suspect that if you're visiting/lurking here, she was probably that for you, too.  

I always say my first crush was Luke.  But really: it was Shannen.