omg a conversation where someone gets educated on feminism that doesnt make me want to cry
why isn’t it this easy all the time??
my friend broke down gender for somebody a few days ago in really similar terms
my parents definitely did not raise me to be a queer feminist filled with the wrath of a thousand enraged dragons and yet here i am
If a major tenet of your feminism is tearing down Beyonce then I seriously question YOUR feminist credentials. I have literally never seen a female celebrity held to as high of standards as Beyonce. Ever. Folks dissecting lyrics that they can’t properly contextualize because of a lack of cultural connection to African American culture. Trying to break everything down. Complaining about the word “bitch.” Really?
Making fun of her supposed illiteracy. Because a woman who doesn’t have a degree or speak in standard white English doesn’t deserve respect. Yep, that’s REALLY feminist. Well, bourgeois white feminist anyway.
Then people are making fun of her outfit choices. I just read an article claiming that she is turning herself into an object. An object? And a so-called feminist wrote that? You sure you’re not a misogynist in disguise? They’re probably the same people who thought she didn’t have the right to be angry about a man sexually assaulting her on stage.
If you hate Beyonce and view her as the antithesis to women’s empowerment and feminism then I sincerely question your dedication to feminist praxis. Your feminism is probably loaded with classism, elitism, and racism. Not for me.
And same goes for folks who attack Nicki Minaj. Not about that life.
Tumbling over the past year and a half has made me see the problems of gender roles that exist in media, but sometimes it gets to the point where I over analyze every single piece of television or film that I come across. (However this in no way means that I think feminist media criticism is wrong, or should be avoided!) Mostly I just over think everything.
I’ve thought about this a lot and I think the answer is MORE, and MORE DIVERSE female characters.
We’re used to having one or two female characters in a cast of mostly men, and hold them to a higher standard because of that. So all of feminism is resting on the shoulders of one female character - and that DOESN’T WORK. Because there isn’t one right way to be a woman.
If casts had more diversity of gender, we could have warrior women and non-warrior women, sexual women and non-sexual women, feminine and non-feminine, and mixtures of all of the above…all are completely legitimate ways to be a woman.
We’re used to seeing a lot of hypersexualized, scantily clad, one-dimensional stereotypes of women without stories or motives of their own. We respond by asking for characters that AREN’T THAT, but we may end up pushing too far in the opposite direction, and demonize traits like sexuality, conventional attractiveness, and traditional femininity as “sexist.” That’s why the most popular female characters are the ones that are most similar to male heroes - the Arya Starks - emotionally distant, unattached, solve their problems with violence, not remotely sexual. That’s fine too of course. I love Arya. It’s just not…the only way to be.
WE NEED FEMINISM BECAUSE WHEN LANCE ARMSTRONG GOT CANCER AND LOST A TESTICLE IT WAS ALL ABOUT HIS HEALTH AND HOW INSPIRATIONAL HE WAS BUT WHEN ANGELINA JOLIE GETS A DOUBLE MASTECTOMY TO PREVENT HERSELF FROM GETTING CANCER, IT’S ALL ABOUT HOW SHE WON’T BE A SEX SYMBOL ANYMORE AND HOW MEN ARE OFFENDED CAUSE SHE WON’T BE AN OBJECT FOR THEM
