#feminisn

[paigegonerogue]

Something that TLOU HBO did that I loved was that they let Ellie be an actual, real fourteen year old girl.

I feel like so many shows just assume that teenage girls are inherently unlikeable, so they portray them as stupid, annoying pests who should never be take seriously. Sometimes if they don’t do that they’ll go in the opposite direction, making their teen girl characters distance themselves from the demographic by being so unbelievably charming, mature, and witty that it becomes impossible for real people, especially real teenage girls, to live up to it. (As great as The Last of Us Game is, it very much does that).

A lot of times that ‘perfect teenage girl’ philosophy also carries over to appearance, with teen girl characters always dressing and looking mature, stylized, and unrealistic.

(Not the main point of the post, but you can absolutely see how these portrayals harmfully affect real teen girls by making them feel like they aren’t worthy of love unless they conform to impossible standards) (is this getting about me? Pfffffft, nooooooo…)

But The Last of Us HBO doesn’t do that. It lets Ellie be a real teen girl with all her faults. It doesn’t portray her as annoying or idealized, it portrays her as a real person who deserves to be taken seriously, and that’s something that will always help the flawed-14-year-old still inside me. She’s awkward and abrasive and charming and funny and brash and sweet and it sees her not as a pest but as a person. Someone who doesn’t always look perfect or fashionable. She’s someone who cries and screams and gets flustered without it being something to make fun of.

Craig Mazin, the main writer for the majority of the show, doesn’t see being a teen girl as something inherently wrong. I think it’s because he has a now-adult daughter who it’s clear he adores. He wrote Ellie with so much respect and care, and it’s clear he loves the character (and is also a fantastic show runner)

Thank you, Craig Mazin

[invisiblewoman1996]

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[womenaremypriority]

it’s really interesting to me the “black pill” in men’s spaces is the realization that women don’t care about personality and are destined to sleep around and look for the most high status men and don’t actually care about love or men at all. While in women’s spaces the “black pill” is the realization that male violence is genetic and the reason we have male and female in the first place is because we have different roles and men have evolved to chase and violate women. Just says a lot about our respective idea of the worst possible scenario, I think.

[female-gaming]

All mainline Pokémon games after Pokémon Crystal (2000) let you play as a girl!

Platforms: Gameboy, DS/3DS, Switch

Playable Female Character: Varies, Customizable, Nameable

Skin tone options: Not in older games, limited, curly hairstyles are available

Female Combat: Turn-based, same as male characters

Genres: Role-playing

Impractical femininity: Varies, but often yes

[themousefromfantasyland]

Barbieland, Patriarchy and Unequal Systems of Power

Spoiler alert!

Ken and the other Kens are the antagonists of the story. After he and Barbie go to the real world, Ken comes back to the Barbieland inspired by the real world's Patriarchy. He transforms Barbieland in Kendom, where Kens have all the power and all Barbies are submissive to them.

Barbie, the resistance led by Weird Barbie, and a mother and daughter she met in the real world, then save the day by pointing out all the inconsistencies and injustices women have to deal with in patriarchy. This fixes the brainwashing the Kens did on all the Barbies.

One criticism I see on the internet is that the movie was too nice and forgiving towards the Kens, and I disagree.

I don't think Ken is the villain of the story, but patriarchy itself.

I think the whole point of the film is that the patriarchy corrupts everyone, fails everyone and that unequal systems of power always breed their demise.

In the status quo of Barbieland, Kens has no jobs, are effectively homeless, and have no positions of power. They have no real independence and are just accessories to Barbies and Barbies are often dismissive of them.

This doesn't mean that Barbies are villains and Kens are the good guys. That's absurd. Barbies are often very nice and gentle with Ken, but because they are dolls. There's no real malice in any of them, which avoids all the more terrible consequences of these types of unequal systems. But it's still a system where some have all the power and resources and the others have to watch by the waist side.

The most important part here is that although Ken brings the patriarchy to Barbieland and brainwashes all the Barbies, there's no indication that he is doing that on purpose.

All we see is that Ken falls in love with a world where men rule and women are submissive and try to establish that in his homeland, and for some strange reason, all the Barbies agree with that. The Kens did not force anything on them. The Barbies for some reason, gave up their independence to live in a Ken world. There's even a joke comparing the Barbies' situation with the indigenous people's infection by colonizer's diseases, and I think that's the key to understanding the concept. If patriarchy acts like a virus that infects the Barbies, there's no indication that the same isn't true with all the Kens.

Patriarchy is a virulent ideology that infects everyone, men, and women alike. Several analyses link the Kens' sudden infatuation with patriarchy with young boys falling down the alt-right pipeline, and I think they are all correct. But there's also a subtle message here on girls being brainwashed by conservative movements.

Think about all the ways women can also be enablers of the patriarchy, of how much-internalized misogyny is a thing. Of all the women who somehow became fans of Donald Trump. Of all the TERFS. Of all women in Evangelical megachurches. Of Anita Bryant.

Is only by reminding them that the patriarchy doesn't give a hoot about their needs and well-being that they are rescued from these dangerous ideologies.

And now we reach the most important part.

The patriarchy is a system where men control and exploit other men, with misogyny being the only thing that gives this giant mess common ground. It's by making women the enemy to be controlled and exploited, that men forget that they are also being controlled and exploited.

In the end, the Barbies trick all Kens into fighting each other, and while they are busy fighting each other, the Barbies quickly reach power again.

Because Kens replace the unequal power system of Barbieland with an even more unequal system, a system that is so much worse that it actively feeds on their worst insecurities, the Kens lose, and Barbies win the day.

In the end, they are much glad that they lose, some even missing the company of their Barbie friends.

The Barbies forgive the Kens, but because they aren't saints, and won't give them everything they always wanted after being jerks with them for so long, they give a slightly more presence in Barbieland's judicial system. But this is enough to make them happy and bring peace back to Barbieland.

They are dolls, there's no actual malice in them. At their worse Kens are just jerks seduced by a poisonous real-world ideology. Real-world patriarchy is much, much worse and much more violent.

And by finding humanity in plastic dolls, maybe we can also fight cancerous ideologies that devour the brain of otherwise decent people and bring a more equal future to our real world.

[leguindyke]

Im trying to find a specific le guin quote; it was something about dismissing the inherent mysticism of womanhood, the idea that women are biologically tied to nature and this being a feminist concept? I think she called it "woo-woo"? Any help?

[actualadvocacybruh]

“Participate in history”

Didn’t know women were nonexistent in the historical records …. Also the same place women aren’t some mythical creature that magically knows more than men

Studies show women do better academically cause they are socialized to do so while men are told physical sports and labor is more important to masculinity

Humans aren’t that different and 99% of their abilities is down to socialization and conditioning as they develop

Women constantly outperform men in academics, now imagine if women were let participate in history…..where we would be by now.

[lgbtdivasdotcom]

WOMEN!!!!

hey guys I'm new on here and I just think it's so unfair that women get paid less than men (im 6'9 btw) and its also just so frustrating that women have to bleed every month! like that so painful 0mg... (I have a private yacht and a mansion) and like I with all women were just loved and appreciated cuz they are just so awesome (I go to the gym every day btw and I have a hot body) so yeah that's my vent I guess...I hope all the ladies reading this have a great day and all men... good day I guess...

[twow]

i didn't have super high hopes for the barbie movie going into complex feminism and political issues or anything considering its made by mattel but the right-wing and male reaction honestly had me really hopeful that i was wrong and that the barbie movie is trying to say something radical. and then i saw the movie and its just like. the most basic boring surface-level feminism movie ever. the most political thing they say is that women have it really rough under the patriarchy which like. yeah obviously. its also extremely nice to men like its clear that the kens turn bad not out of malice but misguidance and ryan gosling ken gets whole musical numbers and a whole arc about finding himself and getting to know ken w/o barbie. even the all-male leadership at mattel is depicted as well-meaning albeit buffoonish at times. so the fact that men and right wing audiences are claiming that the movie is anti-men or is this super radical film is just. incredibly sad to me. like even a movie this non-political with such surface-level corporate feminism is offensive to you? and even the leftists are acting like its revolutionary somehow. if your boyfriend didnt realize how bad women have it before seeing the fucking barbie movie you need to get a new boyfriend. idk. its just disappointing all around to see something as basic as "women have it rough" treated like its a revolutionary concept and it makes me genuinely despair for the future of women that the barbie movie is the most feminism some people have been exposed to. and even that little amount is too much for some people.

[gadzuuks-blog]

No one’s bubble needs to burst. In fact, everyone’s bubbles are getting bigger.

[invisiblewoman1996]

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[littleobsessionsandlifeslessons]

"Two years into the pandemic, there is talk about the new normal.

Here’s what that looks like.

It is open misogyny, visible on every platform and supported and promoted by upvotes on Reddit, laughing emojis on Facebook, comments about “that woman” on LinkedIn, and someone who looks like your Aunty referring to the PM as “Cindy” and calling her a “c...”.

It is targeted and increasingly violent misogynistic abuse and threats - illustrated by but not limited to the escalation in gendered hatred directed towards Ardern - being directed at public-facing women from central and local body politicians to journalists, public servants, academics and chief executives.

“If you block them they’ll find you, they complain to your boss, they’ll call in their tribe of helpers,” says Palmerston North City Councillor Lorna Johnson, ​who has received “terrible threats,” been abused for her looks and age, told her period will get in the way of doing her job, and to “go back to the kitchen.”

“The aim of this is to silence women in office and pressure us not to be in public life. Most of the time I shrug it off, but it was a big factor in whether I was going to stand again for election. Could I face another three years of this?”"

Link

[frigid666]

this is so real. dgmw women are still oppressed structurally, but there are less legal/social restrictions on women's lives than ever before + women are proving those socially-constructed things were what were holding us back the whole time, not any inherent inferiority on our part.

in turn, this is undermining men's WHOLE IDENTITY; their self-concept (masculinity) has been defined differently across cultures, but what it shares is an innate sense of superiority above women, which they reinforced by law. collectively men's brains are short-circuiting because they genuinely have no identity outside of using + abusing women, or aspiring to. now they have 2 possible paths: 1. they can double down + become more tyrannical, depraved + abusive to women as "punishment" for women's "lack of subordination" (which they have been made to feel entitled to) or 2. work to construct a new self-concept that isn't fragile + isn't reliant of another groups continued oppression. but it doesn't seem like many are willing to do the latter option....

this is what i view as one of feminisms' greatest accomplishments: providing women a self-concept outside of femininity, which always posited women as defined in relation with men. it provided us a means to see ourselves + our place in society as independent from our oppressors. men never created a self-concept of "man" outside of masculinity, which intrinsically ties them to the people they oppressed, never independently. it's a sad existence when u think about it.

Males are breaking down on a global scale. I would suggest connecting or reconnecting with IRL women at this time. Even if you disagree with them. I’m as guilty as anyone of letting female friendships slide due to differences of opinion. Obviously some women are beyond help and/or so far gone they might drag you down with them. Use your best judgment. But things are looking more dire by the day. Even a tenuous connection with an annoying but mostly good-hearted female friend could help as males descend further into whatever the loving fuck is going on with them.

[amargov]

wolf alice sounds in the background

[unironicallyroyal]

I’m not even gonna lie, Odysseus’ furious “WHO?!” honestly put me in check as a woman