Tuesday, 2 June 2026

Tarot and the Subconscious Mind (Without Any Woo-Woo) #TarotThursday

Debdatta Dasgupta June 02, 2026

Mention tarot, and people tend to sort themselves into two camps. The first camp assumes you are trying to predict the future while the other assumes you’ve misplaced your critical thinking somewhere between a crystal shop and a moon ritual.

Neither of the reactions has much to do with how I actually use tarot.

I have never been interested in using Tarot to predict the future. I was always interested in why it works so well as a tool for self-reflection. Because whatever else tarot may be, it is remarkably good at helping people notice thoughts they didn’t realise they were having.

The other aspect that fascinated me was the relationship between tarot and psychology. I have come to think of tarot less as a mystical system and more as a language for the subconscious mind. A deck of cards cannot magically solve your problems. What it can do is present symbols, stories, and archetypes that encourage you to look at your life from a different angle.

Sometimes a different angle is all you need when you are overwhelmed by life.

We - humans - love storytelling. We understand ourselves better through metaphors, images, and narratives long before we understand ourselves through logic since the subconscious rarely speaks in bullet points. It prefers symbols, emotions, memories, dreams, and associations and tarot speaks that language fluently.

So through this article, let’s explore tarot as a psychological tool and why it works surprisingly well for self-reflection, and what it can teach us about the strange, symbolic language of the human mind.

Humans think in stories

We like to imagine that we’re rational creatures. Presented with evidence, we carefully weigh the options, analyze the facts, and arrive at logical conclusions. At least that’s the story we tell ourselves. Psychologists have spent decades showing that emotions, biases, intuition, and unconscious assumptions influence our decisions far more than we’d like to admit. Most of us don’t think our way through life nearly as much as we feel our way through it and then create explanations afterward.

Long before we understood neuroscience, we understood stories. We learned through myths, folktales, songs, and symbols. We recognise ourselves in fictional characters. We see our struggles reflected in novels. We hear a lyric and suddenly find language for something we’ve been carrying for years. That’s why a character like Kaladin Stormblessed resonates with readers battling depression. It’s why people see themselves in Shah Rukh Khan’s characters. It is why a song written by someone living on the other side of the world can feel strangely personal.

Stories give shape to experiences that often feel too complicated to explain directly an tarot works in much the same way.

A tarot spread is a collection of prompts and a symbolic story waiting for your mind to engage with it. And in that sense, tarot and psychology have more in common than most people realise.

Both help answer the question: What is happening beneath the surface of conscious awareness?

Symbols are the native language of the mind

If you’ve ever had a strange dream, you already know that symbols the subconscious mind rarely communicates in plain language. It doesn’t send a memo saying, “You are feeling anxious about change.” Instead, it gives you a dream about missing a train, losing your keys, or showing up to an exam you forgot to prepare for.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung believed symbols and archetypes form a bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind. Whether or not you agree with all of Jung’s theories, it’s difficult to ignore how naturally human beings respond to symbolic images.

Consider a few tarot cards:

The Tower often evokes ideas of disruption, upheaval, or sudden change.
The Hermit suggests solitude, introspection, and stepping away from external noise.
Death, perhaps the most misunderstood card in the deck, rarely points to literal death. More often it represents endings, transitions, and transformation.

Notice that of these meanings are fixed. The symbols create a framework, but the emotional response belongs to the individual looking at the card.

That is where the real conversation begins because when a symbol evokes fear, excitement, resistance, relief, or curiosity, it often reveals something that was already present in the subconscious mind. A tarot card simply helps uncover it.

Your response to a card is the point

When I first started learning the cards, I assumed the meaning lived inside the deck and after learning and working with it for over a decade, I think that the meaning lives inside the reader.

Imagine two people pulling The Fool. One person sees possibility. The other sees risk. One feels excitement. The other feels panic. The card hasn’t changed. Different people see it differently. And, even the same person can see it differently at different stages of their life.

And that is precisely why tarot for self-reflection can be so effective.

The value isn’t in discovering what the card means in some objective, universal sense. The value is in noticing your reaction to it. Some questions to ask yourself at this point would be:

Why does this image make you uncomfortable?
Why are you resisting this interpretation?
Why does this particular symbol feel surprisingly relevant?

Questions like these often reveal far more than the card itself.

In many ways, tarot functions like a psychological inkblot test with better artwork. The images provide a focal point and your subconscious supplies the associations. Then you find yourself talking about fears, desires, frustrations, hopes, and possibilities you weren’t consciously planning to examine because the cards gave your mind somewhere to start.

Can tarot help with self-reflection?

One of the biggest challenges with self-reflection is that we often don’t know where to begin. Sit down with a blank journal page and the mind can become surprisingly evasive.

How am I feeling?
I don’t know.
What do I want?
Also don’t know.

What’s bothering me?
Excellent question.

For me, this is where tarot becomes genuinely useful. A tarot card changes the dynamic and gives you a way to ask better questions. Instead of staring at an empty page, you have an image, a symbol, a story to respond to. Maybe a card highlights balance or maybe it suggests withdrawal. It could point toward uncertainty too.

Whether the interpretation is “correct” becomes almost irrelevant as the image creates a doorway into reflection. A card can spark questions that otherwise wouldn’t occur to us.

What am I avoiding?
What am I holding onto?
Where am I resisting change?
What am I afraid of losing?

In that sense, tarot as a psychological tool that help illuminate thoughts that were already present, waiting patiently in the background of awareness.

Tarot for creativity

Of all the ways tarot can be used, this is the one I return to most often. When people imagine creative blocks, they often imagine a lack of ideas. In my experience, the problem is usually the opposite. There are too many ideas, too many possibilities and too many directions competing for attention.

A card can introduce a perspective I hadn’t considered. It can highlight a theme hiding beneath the surface of a writing project. (Where do you think this blog idea came from?) It can suggest a question more interesting than the one I was asking.

Sometimes I pull a card before writing and ask: What is this piece really about? The answer I give often reveals something I already suspected but hadn’t fully acknowledged. I’ve used tarot to explore characters, writing projects, relationships, and recurring life patterns. I’ve used it to understand why some stories stay with me long after I’ve finished them.

Why does a particular novel linger?
Why does a specific song refuse to leave my head?
Why does a fictional character feel so familiar?

Problem with predictive tarot

This is probably where some tarot readers and some skeptics will become equally annoyed with me.

Humans love certainty and we want guarantees. Especially when we are paying to get answers. We want to know whether we’ll succeed, whether we’ll be happy, whether we’re making the right choice, whether everything will work out in the end.

The future, unfortunately, remains stubbornly unwilling to cooperate. This is why predictive tarot is so appealing. It offers the possibility that uncertainty can be reduced, managed, or eliminated.

The problem is that uncertainty is part of being human and no card can remove it. No reader can provide permanent reassurance. If a tarot reading tells you exactly what will happen, there’s nothing left to explore. No questions left to ask. No responsibility left to take. Psychologically speaking, that’s not empowerment.

For me, tarot becomes most useful when it shifts the focus away from prediction and toward awareness.

Instead of asking: What will happen?

I find myself asking: How am I approaching this situation? What am I not seeing? What assumptions am I making?

Those questions may not predict the future but they often help improve my present.

Why skeptics and believers both miss the point

One of the most interesting things about tarot is that both its harshest critics and its most enthusiastic supporters sometimes make the same mistake by focusing on certainty. While the skeptic wants proof, the believer wants confirmation. Both look for definitive answers. And tarot isn’t particularly good at providing them.

The most valuable conversations I’ve had with tarot didn’t happen because a card made me notice something.

A fear I hadn’t acknowledged.
A pattern I kept repeating.
A possibility I had been ignoring.

In that sense, tarot occupies an interesting middle ground. You don’t have to believe the cards possess supernatural powers and you also don’t have to dismiss the experience as meaningless.

Sometimes a symbolic system can be useful simply because it encourages reflection. Not everything has to be either magic or nonsense. Some things are valuable because they help us pay attention. Tarot, for me, belongs firmly in that category.

Stories, Songs, Tarot Cards, and the search for SELF

The more I think about it, the more I suspect tarot isn’t as unique as people imagine. It’s simply one version of something humans have always done. We look for ourselves in stories, songs, films, and in works of art.

We hear a lyric and suddenly understand a feeling we couldn’t explain. We encounter a fictional character and recognise a struggle we’ve been carrying for years. We watch a film and walk away thinking less about the plot and more about ourselves.

Tarot operates through a similar mechanism. It presents symbols and asks us to engage with them. The meaning emerges from the relationship between the symbol and the person looking at it. That’s why two people can draw the same card and walk away with completely different insights.

The Deck is a mirror

Even after 10 years, I still don’t know whether tarot predicts anything and the older I get, the less important that question seems. What interests me now is why a collection of illustrated cards can so consistently reveal thoughts I’ve been avoiding, assumptions I’ve been carrying, or possibilities I haven’t considered.

Perhaps the answer lies in psychology. Perhaps it lies in storytelling. Perhaps it lies in the human tendency to find meaning through symbols and narratives. Or perhaps the answer is a combination of all three. What I do know is that tarot has become one of my favourite tools for self-reflection. Not because it provides certainty, but because it encourages curiosity. Not because it tells me what will happen next, but because it helps me pay attention to what is happening now.

The more I study tarot and psychology, the more convinced I become that meaning often emerges through interaction rather than instruction. A symbol means nothing until someone encounters it. A story remains dormant until someone sees themselves in it. The same is true of tarot.

Whether you call it psychology, symbolism, or intuition hardly matters.
What matters is that sometimes a deck of cards helps us see ourselves more clearly.

FAQs

- Can tarot help with self-reflection?

Yes, many people use tarot as a tool for self-reflection rather than prediction. The cards can encourage you to explore thoughts, emotions, assumptions, and patterns that may already exist beneath the surface of conscious awareness. In this way, tarot acts more like a prompt for reflection than a source of answers.

- Is tarot psychological or spiritual?

It can be either, depending on how you use it. Some people approach tarot as a spiritual practice, while others view it as a psychological tool that uses symbols, archetypes, and storytelling to encourage introspection. The two approaches are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

- How does tarot connect to the subconscious mind?

Tarot cards communicate through imagery and symbolism. Because the subconscious mind often responds strongly to symbols, stories, and metaphors, tarot can help surface thoughts and feelings that may be difficult to access through direct questioning alone.

- Do you need to believe in fortune-telling to use tarot?

No. Many people use tarot without believing it predicts the future. Tarot can be used for journaling, creative thinking, self-discovery, decision-making, and reflection. Its value often lies in the questions it raises rather than the predictions it makes.

- Can tarot improve creativity?

Many writers, artists, and creators use tarot as a creativity tool. A card can provide an unexpected perspective, suggest a theme, spark a story idea, or help you see a project from a different angle. Tarot can be particularly useful when you’re feeling creatively stuck.

- What is the difference between tarot and psychology?

Psychology is a scientific discipline that studies thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Tarot is a symbolic system. While tarot is not a substitute for therapy or psychological treatment, it can complement self-reflection by encouraging people to explore their inner experiences through symbols and archetypes.

- Is tarot related to Carl Jung?

Carl Jung did not specifically endorse tarot, but many tarot readers draw upon Jungian concepts such as archetypes, symbolism, the collective unconscious, and individuation. These ideas help explain why certain tarot images resonate so strongly across different cultures and individuals.

- Can tarot predict the future?

Some people believe tarot can offer insight into future possibilities. Personally, I find tarot far more useful as a tool for understanding the present. It may help illuminate patterns, assumptions, and choices, but it cannot eliminate uncertainty or guarantee a specific outcome.

Tuesday, 5 May 2026

Strange comfort of being understood by a stranger (Min Yoongi a.k.a SUGA)

Debdatta Dasgupta May 05, 2026

There is something extremely absurd about feeling understood by someone who doesn’t even know you exist. We grow up expecting recognition from the people closest to us. We expect people in our life like our parents, partners, friends, the small circle that are witnesses to our lives. Yet, they are the ones that have made me feel invisible all my life. The people closest to me seems to understand and have sympathy/empathy for everyone they come into contact with, except for me. I only recently realised that sometimes it arrives from somewhere entirely unexpected. In my case, it came through the music of Min Yoongi, a stranger whose lyrics managed to articulate thoughts and personal experiences that I hadn’t yet found the language for.  

I find myself reflecting less on the celebrity he has become and more on the strange, quiet comfort of being understood by someone from a completely different demographic and from a different part of the world. My wish for him is that he continues to live well: healthy, surrounded by the people he loves, and still making the kind of music that reaches and helps strangers for years to come.

Alone on the Seesaw

The first time I understood the metaphor in Seesaw, it made me quite uncomfortable. A seesaw only works if both sides are participating. If one person stops pushing, the other can keep trying for a while, but eventually the imbalance becomes obvious and takes a toll on the one left of the seesaw. Relationships work the same way. There is a strange inertia in unequal relationships. You keep trying to push the rhythm back into motion, convinced that if you just try a little harder the balance will return. But it requires a moment of clarity that delivers the realisation that the other person had stepped off the seesaw a long time ago and the only real choice you have left is to get off it too.

I wish I had heard Seesaw few years sooner. It could have saved me a lot of time, energy and wasted efforts. But the thing is that now that I know it, I can not unsee the metaphor and that will probably save me a lot of wasted efforts in the future.

Only way out is forward

Then there is Never Mind. The line most people quote is the one that sounds like a motivational for the gym freaks:

If you feel like you’re going to crash, accelerate more, you fool.

There are moments in life where you realise that there can be no elegant exit from a certain situation. That there is no way left for a graceful retreat. The only way out of the cycle is to just push forward with all your might. It doesn’t matter if you are confident about landing safely. What matters is breaking the cycle, even if it means that you risk crashing out. 

The song doesn’t promise that pushing forward will feel good or even make sense at the time. It simply recognises that survival sometimes looks like acceleration when stopping would be easier.  But what always struck me about the song is that it felt like an acknowledgment of the toll that it takes on a person who is caught in a spiral.

Remembering why you chose the path

Ambition has a strange way of exhausting people who once pursued it with joy. Somewhere between the beginning and the middle of any difficult path, fatigue creeps in. The world has plenty of advice about pushing harder to achieve what you want. But very few talk about remembering why you started. And, even fewer talk about how important it is to stop, rest and to recollect yourself from time to time.

Snooze is that reminder for people stuck hustling everyday that rest is not betrayal. Pausing does not mean abandoning the path. Sometimes it simply means giving yourself enough room to continue walking down the path you have chosen for yourself without having to deal with burn out. In a culture that glorifies constant productivity, this reminder is more radical than it sounds.

The weight of what wasn’t said/done

Grief looks different to each individual, but what is common in every case is that it attaches itself to all the unanswered questions. Grief forces you to replay conversations that never happened (or conversations that should have happened differently), moments that might have gone differently, and even the choices that (you think of in hindsight) could have changed the ending.

For years I carried the quiet guilt of losing someone I loved and wondered if things might have unfolded differently if I had understood the situation that the person was in more, noticed more, had done more. The song, Dear my Friend, said some of them out loud for me and helped me understand some of my own emotions that I couldn’t really understand or put it into words before.

And sometimes hearing a thought expressed clearly by someone who has no stake in your life is enough to loosen its hold on you. It is enough to make you see the guilt you have been carrying from a different perspective.

Facing the past without becoming it

Trauma can shape a life in two very different ways. It can become a lens through which everything is interpreted, a permanent identity built around what happened. Or it can become something that is acknowledged, processed, and eventually integrated into a larger story. Amygdala leans toward the second path.

The song does not deny pain, nor does it minimize it. But it refuses to let trauma become a permanent excuse or a defining narrative. There is quiet strength in the idea that difficult experiences deserve to be processed and that healing is not about pretending the past didn’t matter. Actual strength lies in refusing to let the trauma dictate everything that follows.   

Proof that healing is possible

Then there is The Last. It is another song that doesn’t pretend that the past wasn’t difficult (see the theme of August D yet?) or that success erases all the struggle that led to the success. But it provides proof that healing is possible even when the starting point is messy, complicated, and painful. Not perfect healing. Just progress and sometimes that is the only believable kind of hope.

Expression as survival

One of the things that continues to strike me about Yoongi’s work is how deliberately he processes his thoughts through music.

Life is messy and not everything resolves neatly. But the act of expression itself becomes a way of moving through the world. Listening to his music and watching his process made me realize something about my own life.

For me, expression once had a different form: dance. Like many people, I drifted away from it over time. Life showed me so many aspects that I still have a block in my mind which has been very difficult to get over. I have been at it for 2 years and almost gave up so many times. But seeing Yoongi treat art not as a language reminded me that expression is not optional for some of us. It is how we process all our experiences. And returning to that language begins simply by remembering that it exists for me too and that I just need to find my way back.

Power of silence

There is also something interesting about the way certain public figures handle chaos. Both Min Yoongi and Shah Rukh Khan do it well, in their own way. Both share a quality that is increasingly rare: the ability to remain calm in environments designed to provoke reaction. What most people do not realise is that silence, in those moments, is dignity. It is a refusal to participate in noise that doesn’t deserve your attention. Watching that kind of composure reminds you that grace is not loud. Sometimes it simply means standing still while letting the world spin and spiral around you.

Freedom of not explaining yourself

One of the quieter lessons I’ve taken from Yoongi’s work has nothing to do with music itself. It is the fact that not everything we do needs to be explained and neither do we need to explain away our experiences. Not every decision requires public understanding or people’s validation. And often the most convincing explanation for your choices is simply the work you produce or how you decide to live your life.

Let your work speak

That brings me to something else both Yoongi and Shah Rukh understand instinctively: the work should carry the conversation. There is a temptation, especially in the age of social media, to constantly narrate your intentions, justify your choices, and explain your path. But sometimes the most powerful statement is the one that is never spoken. You show up, build something and then let the work speak.

All of this leads back to the strange premise I started with. Understanding does not come from people who are close. More often it is art that makes you feel seen. Sometimes a stranger articulates something you have been carrying silently for years. Not because they know your story, but because they have walked close enough to similar path to recognise it.

That recognition is very comforting because it explains everything that you have been trying to express. It reminds you that you are not alone in the things you felt, the things you survived, and the things you’re still trying to understand.

Tuesday, 28 April 2026

Snoopy

Debdatta Dasgupta April 28, 2026

You came to me

when breathing felt hard,

and somehow

you made it simple.

One more walk,

one more day,

my one reason

not to give up.

I let you go once

For you to have a stable life.

You filled it with love

like you always did.

Now you are gone.

It feels unfair

that I get to stay,

when you don’t.

Run free, Snoopy.

And wait for me, 
like it’s just a walk

that I’m late for.

Thursday, 9 April 2026

Live in the Moment - #ThirstyThursday

Debdatta Dasgupta April 09, 2026

The past is dead,
no replays allowed.
Future is a rumour,
no rehearsal required.

Live like every breath is borrowed,
Live life like it is on fire, and
Let the present consume you
all the way through.

Monday, 30 March 2026

Miley Cyrus and the Hannahversary We've Been Waiting For

Pratyusha Sen March 30, 2026

For the ones who used to idolise Hannah Montana in their childhood or teenage years, this has been quite a week!

Miley Cyrus finally gave the fans of Hannah Montana (her Disney persona) an hour-long walk-down-the-memory-lane. If you’ve been a fan of Hannah before Miley, you would know that there was a time when Miley Cyrus was sick of the persona she was playing for years on Disney TV. She was so done with it that we thought, at least I thought, that we would never again get to see Hannah and Miley together in this lifetime.

For those of us who grew up watching the show, Miley was never a separate person from Hannah. Both were the same person, but living different lives. So, when the show ended with Miley taking a long leap to shed her Hannah-skin, we were heartbroken. And some of that has been addressed in the new song that came out with the Hannahversary (Younger You).

I was the kid who urged her parents to buy the Hannah Montana CD, the Meet Miley Cyrus album (on CD), and The Hannah Montana Movie as well. I had huge posters of Hannah, and I used to feel elated with the fact that Miley sounds way too similar to my nickname at home (no, I’m not telling you what my nickname is).

Although I stopped watching the show after two seasons, I remember that I used to love the idea of living a double life and having friends and family who see you through the thick and thin of it. Moreover, what I really used to love and still cannot get enough of is Miley’s music. Be it as Hannah or Miley, I’ve loved her songs and lyrics. I still go back to playing The Climb whenever I need to ‘keep the faith’ about certain things.

But hey, let’s dive into Hannahversary special and talk about the moments that stood out to me more than others, shall we?

Fake It Till You Make It

During this episode, Miley talks about how she was being asked about Hannah Montana anniversary at events she attended. Instead of denying anything, she kept people on toes by saying that she’s been thinking about it, working on it, and it’s totally happening. In reality, however, she was doing that so she could convince Disney that people really want a Hannah Montana anniversary.

This reminded me that even though she’s Miley Cyrus and basically the one who made Hannah Montana so popular with her charisma, she couldn’t just make this happen if she wanted to. It had to have the potential to have an audience to get a green light.

And yet, accepting and believing that a Hannahversary is already underway is what helped to bring it to life.

Bottom line, fake it till you make it, babe!

“You Really Taught Me To Be Who I Am”

On screen, Hannah Montana and Miley Stewart had a great relationship with her father. Later on, when I discovered that Miley is managed by her mother, Tish Cyrus, I had no difficulty in imagining an amicable relationship between this mother-daughter duo. I have no idea why.

So, when Tish and Miley enter the envy-inducing Hannah Montana closet, we finally start to see how involved Tish had been in that show and still is in Miley's life. Then there’s a moment when both of them are looking through a memory book. Miley admits how Tish had always made her express who she truly is, and that it was because of her mother she is who she is.

The hug that followed is what I’ve always known in my heart. It felt really good to see them have that moment.

Hannah’s Wig Change Through the Seasons

Okay, I remember why I quit watching the show. It was the wig. Definitely, the wig.

And it felt so good to know that Miley and Tish almost quit the show because of it. I wish they had tried to bring back the Season 1 & 2 wig. I never liked that wavy, shorter hair on Hannah Montana. Turns out, neither did Miley. Ha!

Miley & her Father Reading a Scene Together

I had no idea that Miley had a fallout with her father at the end of the show. Their bond on-screen seemed so genuine that anything else was a little shocking. But Billy Ray Cyrus did show up, and they read a part from a scene in the last season of the show. And well, it was the first time I was watching that scene. It was funny and I'm glad it stayed true to its comedic nature even in the last few episodes.

What was so weirdly genuine about them together in this special was that moment when they tried to do their odd handshake thing. It was an endearing moment as she tried but couldn’t remember half of it, but her father kept it going… it felt like she was a kid again. I don’t think it was just me who misses that version of Miley (or ourselves).

Unexpected Cameo by Selena Gomez

I have to admit that I might’ve gotten introduced to Selena Gomez through Hannah Montana. But the on-screen rivalry between Hannah and Mikayla was something that was just hilarious. In my head, all these queens are super friendly with each other.

But since Selena was never a big part of the show, I was not expecting her to appear. That part was like meeting your old friend and reminiscing about the good old times. I wish it was a bit longer, but then I wished the entire special was longer, really. Just the fact that they saw how their characters were so mean to each other and said sorry was so damn cute.

What else?

Well, I absolutely loved the performances. I have always loved the songs more than the show anyway. And I was thrilled to see Miley perform The Climb after ages. The Climb is one of my most favourite songs ever. The power of this song to keep me motivated through tough times is immense.

What I didn’t like about this special though, is how rushed everything felt. Plus, the moment when Miley was asked about Taylor Swift being in The Hannah Montana Movie, it just felt weird how there was an unnecessary attempt to turn it into a dramatic moment. Again, in my head, these queens are all about living their own lives and lifting each other up. So, when she mentioned "get your tea kettle out" or "Tish is standing with the lawyers" or "no shade", it just felt weird and so unnecessary.

But I was a little amazed by how performers assess where they're going to perform, even if it's in a freaking movie. And it seems totally normal and so amazing that they got Taylor to do that part in HM movie.

We loved Taylor in that barn. I loved her more than I loved Miley there.

Yes, I love Hoedown Throedown, but Crazier was way too good.

Anyway, Miley did follow up that sticky moment with a praise for Taylor and the song she wrote for the ending of the movie. Her words? "Banger. She ate with that one."

Of course, she did.

What did you like about the Hannahversary?

Sunday, 22 February 2026

Eloise Bridgerton is not a man-hater. Here's why.

Pratyusha Sen February 22, 2026

Eloise Bridgerton is not the most perfect Bridgerton. No one is.

She’s been my most favourite, though. And it made me wanna pick up my sword when the internet started calling her “man-hater”.

This moment from Bridgerton Season 4 (Part 1) went viral, where Eloise visibly cringes when a gentleman greets her with a kiss on her hand. I shared the video clip myself on Instagram stories because I thought this was hilarious.

People all over the internet watching Bridgerton snapped that micro moment from the series and started sharing relatable phrases attached to it, like “Eloise Bridgerton is my spirit animal.”

At that moment, when I was watching it, I asked myself, “How is she cringing so visibly? There are other men, other people all around her, and anyone can easily spot her facial expression (and talk about it).”

But there’s the difference between me and her. And that’s what makes me admire her even more.

I would’ve hidden my discomfort to avoid being the source of gossip, or rather to combat my inner demon of “What will people say?”

But Eloise? She doesn’t care what others say about her. And in that moment, she was being brave (probably unknowingly) by expressing how she truly feels rather than hiding it. Her reaction wasn’t specific to that gentleman who kissed her hand. It was basically the attitude she harbours towards socialising, especially in a society that is nothing but a marriage mart.

Since season 1, she has been expressing not only her disinterest but also how strongly she feels the system is rigged against women and what they want. And this micro moment captures it all.

So, when people started labelling her as a “man-hater”, it made me furious.

Eloise Bridgerton is not a man-hater. She hates the system that men created. The system that makes women believe that their only aim in life is to marry well and produce babies. She hates the system that gives freedom to men to pursue their dreams and desires but keeps women trapped in a gilded cage. She hates the system that makes women obsess over ribbon collections and correct posture.

Eloise scoffs at those interests and thinks they’re unimportant. But isn’t she just mirroring how everyone else treats her?

Eloise (and Penelope) loves to read. And even in that fictional universe, it is considered ridiculous. No one matches her where she is. And even when they do, they end up being delusional about the system she hates so much.

We all know that her turn (to fall in love) is coming.

But reducing one of the most complex characters to a simple tag of “man-hater” was the worst thing her fans could do.

It shows how shallow people's perception has been. It shows how people on the internet don't even think to bring forth well-thought-out observations, but they would rather use a catchy term to collect a bunch of useless tokens created by a system that keeps them trapped in a meaningless metaverse.

Anicca

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