What does fierce even mean?

I've been watching America's Next Top Model (ANTM) for the last month and a half. Like my re-watch/new watch of Top Chef last year, I started my re-watch because I didn't want to start anything new that required me to really focus on what was going on. Watching old reality shows fits that perfectly. 

There are a lot of very questionable and problematic things about ANTM. This is not a post or piece about any of those things because it's all been written about and you can go Google that if you'd like. I don't think this show would be made today. Before I move on to what today's piece is about, I will say this (SPOILER). I just finished Cycle 20, which was the first cycle to feature male and female contestants. Cory, who placed third and was supposed to walk in the final runway show, was eliminated minutes before the show started. It was a crap move, and he was leaps and bounds better than both of the finalists. Cory was my favorite the entire season, and he could have truly been a disruptive force in fashion had he won. He's one of the most beautifully androgynous people I've every seen and he was robbed. (And yes, I'm aware he was involved in Cycle 21. It's not the same.)

Anyway, if you've watched the show or even just heard about it at some point, you know that the word "fierce" is said approximately 700 times in each episode. Like "smize," Tyra is responsible for making "fierce" something we say all the time to mean so many things beyond the actual definition of fierce. After watching 20 cycles of the show, I've now heard the word thousands of times and it's completely lost all meaning for me. When I see memes including the word or people tell me they want to be "fierce" or they want their daughters to be "fierce," I have no idea what it means anymore. It's wild how much one show can impact the way I think about a word. 

Today's piece is my attempt to capture my feeling about the word fierce losing its meaning. Not only does the color fade as the text gets smaller, but the thread strands do too. The largest "FIERCE" starts with six strands all the way to one strand. 

Details:
Stitches: back stitch
Thread palette: Y004 (6 strands), DMC 891 (5 strands), 603 (4 strands), 3609 (3 strands), 605 (2 strands), 818 (1 strand) - The first thread is from a set I got for Christmas last year. All of the threads are from DMC, except the neons.