(Popping in to offer my two cents. I don't know how much came from tv/movies/media and how much from my experiences as Not-Conventionally-Attractive-Person, but I feel like women were expected to exist in two ways: pretty and dumb, or smart and ugly. I wanted to believe that we - that I - could be smart and pretty. They didn't have to be mutually exclusive. Looking back on Carmen from an adult perspective, what I appreciate most about her now is neither her brains nor her beauty - it's her independence. She can do things for herself. In fact, she is better off when she works alone, without her bumbling henchmen. That is the Carmen I want to be like.)