Airplane rides leave me with a sensation that is outworldly and completely transformational at the same time. That is because as I move from one location to the next, the ride symbolizes the transition of my life to the next phase. Also, I have always physically felt something different about myself after every flight. This was especially true for the airplane trip after summer break, from home in Korea back to school in Monterey. If there really was a black hole in the universe that corresponded to a white hole in a foreign universe, to me, this would be analogous to that experience. The black hole would be analogous to Incheon airport back home, the white hole would be San Francisco airport, and the abstract space connecting the black hole with the white hole would be the 14 hour flight. One thing that made this trip especially transformational was the movie Zootopia that I watched on the way. At first, this was simply something to keep myself entertained. After all, the poster did seem like an innocent children's animation. However, after watching the movie, I learned that it was something so much more.

Zootopia is set in a fictional city called Zootopia, where animals have gotten rid of their natural ways of living and adopted sophisticated technologies and civilizations. Their ideal is for preys and predators to live in harmony, but the social discriminations resulting from size and strength are inevitable. The protagonist, Judy, is a seemingly cute, innocent bunny, but she has big dreams and ambitions. From childhood, she advocates her beliefs that in Zootopia, anyone can be anything they want to be- and indeed, she wants to be the first rabbit police officer. Eventually, she grows up and enters a police academy, where she faces difficulties at first due to the fact that most of her classmates are big predators, but works day and night to graduate as the class valedictorian. She goes to the center of Zootopia to become a police officer with high hopes, but is looked down upon by the chief and her colleagues. She is simply assigned parking duty, which dissatisfies her. However, when she encounters a case of fourteen missing predators, this intrigues her. She abandons parking duty and along with Nick, a fox she has befriended, she solves the case and is praised as a hero. The missing predators turned out to have eaten toxic fruits called 'night howlers'- that look exactly like blueberries- and have gone savage, meaning that they have gone back to their wild state. Mayor Bellwether, a lamb and another prey, deems all the predators dangerous and begins a propaganda against them. Judy and Nick reveals her malign intentions and the 'savage' predators are cured. Judy and Nick officially become partners when Nick becomes Zootopia's first fox officer.

As a prey, Judy clearly represents women and social minority. Around the world, many women are born with evident segregation and discouragement that they can never be equal to men. Conditions vary from place to place, as in some countries, women are faced with a wage gap in the workplace, while in others, one has to live in fear of death just for being born a woman. Some nations prohibit women from holding basic privileges such as getting education. There, women have to physically fight to gain something that they should naturally be entitled to, as seen from Malala Yousafzai's case. Judy and I share a similarity that we were both fortunate enough to come from supportive, non-discriminatory families, and that both our societies advocate equality. However, there are still many obstacles in the outside world for women to overcome. An example that I am familiar with is the STEM field. When one thinks of notable mathematicians, scientists, and engineers, there are few female examples. In schools, they advocate equal education for boys and girls. However, I have noticed that there has still been separation of fields for boys and girls, as more boys pursue the sciences and girls tend to pursue the humanities. From a young age, children are taught about equality, but it is often projected onto girls that boys are naturally better at math and science. As a girl who loves math and hopes to pursue it in the future, I am disappointed that this has led many of my female friends to fear math, and even to genuinely believe that math is a 'boy's thing'.

That is why the part where Judy overcame her physical handicaps in the police academy inspired me. When Judy first enters the academy, her teachers and classmates alienate her because police officers are traditionally large predators, while she is a small rabbit. She finds the training difficult, as the facilities are too big for her. She literally always finds herself falling into a hole. However, she studies harder than anybody else. She builds up her strength by constantly practicing and learns to use her small size as an advantage. For example, she could move more swiftly and target the opponent through narrow, unexpected spots. She always has a tough attitude despite her cute features. Later, she graduates the top of her class. From this scene, my goal became evident that I should not only prove many doubters wrong by keeping to pursue a career in the STEM field, but also strive to become the best. In my school, which is an all girls' school, I have always been one of the best math students, and I was okay with that. I never thought about how conditions would be different in the real world. There is a very big chance of working under a male employer or always being ranked under men. This shows that I have always been satisfied even under a shade casted by men. What was so enlightening about Judy was that not only did she become the first rabbit police officer, but she also became the best police officer. As I was relaxing in my airplane seat with my blanket on, this scene sent jolts through my bones, and it led me to think, 'why shouldn't I become the best in my field?'

Even if the movie only took up about 2 hours of my flight, it took up a major part of my mind ever since. There is a long scene where Judy rides a train from home to Zootopia and looks at the different cities leading to the capital, ready for whatever awaits her there. I have felt that I was there, standing next to Judy, saying that I know there would be barriers, but I can prove to the world what I am capable of crossing them. I used to think I always had to live under the shade of the status quo, where men usually are the social majority and policies and customs favoring them have not been changed. But now, I believe that as a social minority, I have the obligation to change the inequalities of the world, whether they are explicit or implicit. I have hope that even if you are a minority, with enough courage, intelligence, and abilities, you can be the protagonist of the society.