100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #93
93. Candice "Cannie" Shapiro, as seen in the novel Good in Bed and Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
I think the most complicated relationship a woman has is with herself, and self-image plays a very large role in that. You can be the most "successful" woman in the world (great career, great relationships, money in the bank) but none of that seems to matter if the woman's weight is not what she wants. I know beautiful, wonderful women who are enslaved to unnecessary diets and bizarre exercise plans in order to fit some arbitrary definition of beauty; these are the same women who lose massive amounts of weight and, even when they hit their goal weight, think they still need to lose more weight because they aren't as thin as they thought they'd be or their life didn't magically improve the way they thought it would. And it isn't as if I'm immune to it; having gained a great deal of weight in a short period of time, I am deeply involved in a love/hate relationship with my body, and half of the reason I love Jennifer Weiner's books so much is because of the way she describes this struggle with yourself.
When we first meet Cannie in Good in Bed, she has recently gone on a break from her loser, do-nothing boyfriend only to have him turn around and get a job writing a sex column for a Cosmo-like magazine, making Cannie the subject of his first article. Titled "Loving a Larger Woman," Bruce recounts his relationship with Cannie. Understandably upset, Cannie is ready to murder him when everyone begins to point out that the article isn't really insulting of Cannie; if anything, the article emphasizes that Bruce was always more comfortable with Cannie's weight and body than Cannie was. Cannie decides to enroll in a weight loss study where she meets Peter, a doctor who has a soft spot for her, especially when she has to drop out of the program due to an unplanned pregnancy, where she gets no help from Bruce. Cannie also ends up befriending one of the biggest movie stars in the world when she is sent to interview her, and that opens up some career doors for her. When Cannie finally does lose weight (following the premature birth of her daughter Joy, a total hysterectomy, and crippling depression) her life doesn't magically get better; Cannie begins to realize her weight has very little to do with her life and the person she is, and the only people who are making it an issue are herself and terrible people.
In Certain Girls, we pick up with Cannie 12 years after Good in Bed, now the mother of a teenage daughter who is embarrassed by her. After writing a book about her life, Cannie has retreated to ghostwriting a sci-fi series and trying to be the kind of solid parent she lacked growing up. Her decision to have a child with Peter via surrogate once again leads to Cannie raising a child under less-than-ideal circumstances, and we see that, while Cannie has become more comfortable in some respects, she still has insecurities when it comes to her body and her attractiveness in comparison to her husband's.
What I love about Cannie is, she is a strong, independent person who has the same insecurities of every woman but especially of "larger" women. When Bruce moves on with a new (slimmer) girlfriend, even though Cannie thinks he's a loser (gets all of his money from his parents, a grad student in permanent limbo, has a long ponytail), she panics and wonders if she made a mistake because what if no one else ever wants her? She frequently over-analyzes herself into panic, and, even when she knows she's doing the right thing, she wonders if people will hate her for it. One of the largest issues for Cannie is her father, who walked out on the family never to return and was unbelievably cruel to Cannie before he left; even when she meets again in Los Angeles, he does not recognize her or care to know her. Cannie often wonders if this is going to color all of her relationships with men, and it's something I think a lot of women can relate to. Cannie is smart, capable, a little neurotic, and frequently insecure, but she always keep moving forward, determined to have the life she wants.
And that's admirably kick-ass.
I think the most complicated relationship a woman has is with herself, and self-image plays a very large role in that. You can be the most "successful" woman in the world (great career, great relationships, money in the bank) but none of that seems to matter if the woman's weight is not what she wants. I know beautiful, wonderful women who are enslaved to unnecessary diets and bizarre exercise plans in order to fit some arbitrary definition of beauty; these are the same women who lose massive amounts of weight and, even when they hit their goal weight, think they still need to lose more weight because they aren't as thin as they thought they'd be or their life didn't magically improve the way they thought it would. And it isn't as if I'm immune to it; having gained a great deal of weight in a short period of time, I am deeply involved in a love/hate relationship with my body, and half of the reason I love Jennifer Weiner's books so much is because of the way she describes this struggle with yourself.
When we first meet Cannie in Good in Bed, she has recently gone on a break from her loser, do-nothing boyfriend only to have him turn around and get a job writing a sex column for a Cosmo-like magazine, making Cannie the subject of his first article. Titled "Loving a Larger Woman," Bruce recounts his relationship with Cannie. Understandably upset, Cannie is ready to murder him when everyone begins to point out that the article isn't really insulting of Cannie; if anything, the article emphasizes that Bruce was always more comfortable with Cannie's weight and body than Cannie was. Cannie decides to enroll in a weight loss study where she meets Peter, a doctor who has a soft spot for her, especially when she has to drop out of the program due to an unplanned pregnancy, where she gets no help from Bruce. Cannie also ends up befriending one of the biggest movie stars in the world when she is sent to interview her, and that opens up some career doors for her. When Cannie finally does lose weight (following the premature birth of her daughter Joy, a total hysterectomy, and crippling depression) her life doesn't magically get better; Cannie begins to realize her weight has very little to do with her life and the person she is, and the only people who are making it an issue are herself and terrible people.
In Certain Girls, we pick up with Cannie 12 years after Good in Bed, now the mother of a teenage daughter who is embarrassed by her. After writing a book about her life, Cannie has retreated to ghostwriting a sci-fi series and trying to be the kind of solid parent she lacked growing up. Her decision to have a child with Peter via surrogate once again leads to Cannie raising a child under less-than-ideal circumstances, and we see that, while Cannie has become more comfortable in some respects, she still has insecurities when it comes to her body and her attractiveness in comparison to her husband's.
What I love about Cannie is, she is a strong, independent person who has the same insecurities of every woman but especially of "larger" women. When Bruce moves on with a new (slimmer) girlfriend, even though Cannie thinks he's a loser (gets all of his money from his parents, a grad student in permanent limbo, has a long ponytail), she panics and wonders if she made a mistake because what if no one else ever wants her? She frequently over-analyzes herself into panic, and, even when she knows she's doing the right thing, she wonders if people will hate her for it. One of the largest issues for Cannie is her father, who walked out on the family never to return and was unbelievably cruel to Cannie before he left; even when she meets again in Los Angeles, he does not recognize her or care to know her. Cannie often wonders if this is going to color all of her relationships with men, and it's something I think a lot of women can relate to. Cannie is smart, capable, a little neurotic, and frequently insecure, but she always keep moving forward, determined to have the life she wants.
And that's admirably kick-ass.