#feminist-pussycat

[hard--headed--woman]

the straights are SO MAD that you said the ones who don’t wanna have sex aren’t LGB or “queer”.

also why is “you don’t want me to exist!!!!” their go-to response for “you don’t belong in our community because you do not fit the basic requirements”? Do they think they only exist if they are a part of our community and without it they have no personality?

[schlock-luster-video]

On October 25, 2012, Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was screened on The Angry Brothers Omaha Shock O Rama.

Here's some new Haji art to mark the occasion!

[riverdale-retread]

Archie gives his (should be iconic) "I was born alone, I'll die alone, I'll sing alone. I'll be okay" declaration in E1E5 to Valerie while giving up singing with her with the sunniest of smiles, all because Josie called him Yoko Ono for taking Valerie away from the Pussycats and he looked it up and this was years before the Lindsay Ellis video was released so he didnt want to be considered evil. But the thing HE was trying to do was work on a song about "I'll Try" (as in, his s.a got revealed in the most brutal way and then nobody thought he needed care) with an age appropriate girl who actually thought his music was worthwhile! This is so an instance of what the feminists have always said - that racism and misogyny do hurt white men! And he says it haha joking so it totally passed me by BUT HE REALLY FEELS ALONE and he doesn't want anyone else to feel ruined since THAT'S HOW HE FEELS ALL THE TIME.

[certainwoman]

"Film programming, a key facet of film exhibition that is often overlooked in film theory and scholarship, I would argue, played a pivotal role in this shift toward queers loving queer “bad objects” that had long been accused of producing homophobic and transphobic injury, shame, self- loathing, and stigma. “Programming,” which I define as the practice of selecting and grouping films to be exhibited for a specific venue and anticipated audience, was, over time, able to change the meanings and affective associations of once offensive texts. Although there are several queer examples of this phenomenon, it is perhaps the ongoing programming of lesbian “bad objects” that presents the most complex case studies, given the intersection of gender and sexual oppression and the illuminating feminist reading strategies that had become especially prominent by the 1990s.

(...)

I zero in on several specific programs to demonstrate how repertory programming, by way of repetition, leads to reparative relationships with individual films by continually putting them in relation to other films. As I will explain, this comes with time’s passing, as texts lose their relevance and intensity, but repeated programming and viewing also weakens a text’s unity or rigidity, making films riper to be treated by audiences as what Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick refers to as “part- objects” or what Richard X. Feng deems “scavenged bits and pieces,” those shards or fragments of texts that can unmake and remake attachments.The examples that follow help tell the story or explain how problematic texts were “reclaimed,” but the programming of films such as Daughters of Darkness or Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! also lend nuance to theoretical definitions of reparativity. The later relationships lesbian feminist audiences forged with these films reveal that the reparative position entails more than a simple reversal of the paranoid one.

"Reparative reading” has become a popular practice adopted by queer theorists of affect since Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick first employed Melanie Klein’s psychoanalytic concept in her essay, “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading; or, You’re So Paranoid, You Probably Think This Essay Is about You.” This essay, which urges critical theory to integrate joy, pleasure, and healing into its analyses of cultural texts, has also made some cameo appearances in film and media studies. Strangely, however, no one has considered it in relation to those films that have been maligned in the past but later exonerated. Reparativity is a less reactive and more robust framework for approaching the questions laid out here than the notion of “reclamation,” which suggests some kind of cultural ownership, or “negotiation,” which might in turn suggest wishful thinking and feeling on the part of the spectator. “Reparativity,” in my conception of the paradigm, is not meant to simply explain a kind of unadulterated pleasure that takes the place of negative feelings. It is not simply about “feeling good.” Reparativity, instead, leaves room for a messy plentitude of simultaneous spectatorial psychological and emotional states in which empowerment, ambivalence, and shame, among others, may cohabitate. Like Patricia White’s use of the psychoanalytic term “representability” instead of “representation,” “reparativity” over “reparation” here attempts to gesture at what is available and apprehensible— as an open question or a proposition— to a spectator, as an option that may prove enriching or insufficient, and that may change with time."

Marc Francis, For Shame!: On the History of Programming Queer Bad Objects

[girlactionfigure]

HAPPY 63rd BIRTHDAY to PENELOPE PUSSYCAT!!

First appearance: For Scent-imental Reasons (1949)

Born Penelope Pussycat, an animated cartoon character, featured in the Warner Bros. classic Looney Tunes animated shorts as the protagonist of the Pepé Le Pew shorts. Although she is typically a non-speaker, her "meows" and "purrs" (or "le mews" and "le purrs") were most often provided by Mel Blanc using a feminine voice. The character did not originally have a permanent name; she was alternately referred to as "Penelope", "Fifi", "Pussycat Purr", and "Fabrette", and animator Chuck Jones' 1960 model sheet simply calls her "Le Cat". The name Penelope Pussycat was created retroactively for Warner Bros. marketing.

The character first appeared in the 1949 short For Scent-imental Reasons, which won an Academy Award. While the skunk had been used in several earlier cartoons since Odor-able Kitty (1945), the addition of his female pussycat paramour in For Scent-imental Reasons solidified his characterization and the structure of all further Pepé films.

As the unfortunate target of unwanted physical attention, the character has been examined in feminist film criticism as an example of a "rape-revenge narrative"; however, this reading is complicated by the ending of some of the cartoons, which flip the dynamic and leave Pepé as the unwilling recipient of the cat's affections.

In the 1959 short Really Scent, she was voiced by June Foray, in the 1962 short Louvre Come Back to Me!, she was voiced by Julie Bennett, and in the 2000 film, Tweety's High-Flying Adventure, she was vocal effected by Frank Welker. Her first (and so far only) speaking role was in the 1995 short Carrotblanca, where she is voiced by Tress MacNeille.

Madhotcollectibles.com

[philipgirvan]

My review of Afterlife With Archie no longer appears on the Comic Hunter blog so am posting it here:

While drafting this blogpost I wondered if others had this love/hate relationship with Archie Comics so I polled a number of people via Facebook to get their thoughts. Here’s a sample:

I read them as a kid, and I'm embarrassed about that now. (Sexist, demeaning, traditional gender roles, lack of diversity all the way around.) I guess it was mostly because they were readily available that I read them. And maybe it's crap like that, and growing up in the Catholic Church, that helped me to become/realize I was a feminist, which I am grateful for. Better to be awake than in the dark.

I read them and liked them but I always thought they promoted 'the American dream', white Pickett fence type of thing... Also had horrible values for women... Archie would getting loving from the hot evil woman and when she didn't want him he ran back to the girl next door who was waiting for him always... They always made fun of the dumb, ugly and out of town people... Riverdale was a place you had to earn your stripes greaser style and be home in time for supper... Fun to read though haha

I loved Betty & Veronica storylines best, like all the girls. I was reading them probably between the ages of 8-12?? I think they informed my understanding of male vs female roles....hmmmm, that explains a lot!

I never understood a freaking bloody moment of that crap and HATED it....still do. I also hate anyone who read it. Hate.

Loved Archie comics as a kid, and have bought the odd digest as an adult for mindless reading on long flights. I identified with Betty and thought of my older sister as Veronica. I was mostly interested in all of the female characters (B & V, Josie + Pussycats, Sabrina, etc)- their hairstyles, fashion choices, taste in boys, etc. For some even stranger reason, I loved the beach comics the best in a kind of a 'Beach Blanket Bingo' way.

The outright sexist content is too much. recent readings of current issues prove they reinforce negative gender stereotypes, female competition, bad self image values lower class putdowns, and many more negative aspects. The sunny, vintage illustrations hide a truth based out of bad values & sexual manipulation. We have put a stop on them in our house.

I read them and remember thinking at one point how odd it was that I continued to do so despite never really laughing.

Ok so Archie Comics. My best friend … used to read them. She and her sister had dozens and they would be scattered everywhere; piles of them under the bed and being a voracious little reader, of course I checked them out. Yes, I was a kid who would go over to play at someone's house and start reading their books. Ok so I HATED those comics. And I was shocked. How could I hate something my best friend liked? I hated everything about the comics : the story line, the graphics, and the characters. I had a sense that I was supposed to relate to either Betty or Veronica and I had a sense it was supposed to be the dark haired one that I would relate to, but I still hated her. I felt like the stories were about a world that didn't fit with mine at all, and I could sense what the comic wanted me to think and feel but that it Just Wasn't Right. And on some level, it frightened me that there was this Thing in my world that was clearly cool with lots of others, that I wished didn't exist. At that age I was still frightened by being 'a little different' but the evidence was mounting. Thank you for this little morning homework assignment. I still hate Archie.

I never ever touched it, I recall picking one up when I was a kid and thinking how out dated it seemed. Looking back now, the themes are relevant, but it obviously screams of an era.

My friends’ responses encouraged me that I wasn’t being unduly critical of Archie Comics. To me, the most annoying thing about Archie comics is that nothing bad ever happens. Archie’s car might get a flat tire. Jughead’s belly aches from eating 100 hamburgers. Reggie takes a beating. No big whoop. It rung false when I was a little kid and it sure as hell rung false when I actually entered adolescence and learned what kind of horrible bastards fill this mortal void.

Riverdale is a weird version of the suburban white bread American Dream. While we saw the dark side of this in movies like Blue Velvet and Pleasantville, bad things don’t happen in Archie Comics.

Bad things do happen In Afterlife with Archie #1. The worst things you can imagine. Awful horrible stuff, drawn grotesquely, gruesomely, and gloriously. Archie’s still a player, but he’s dropped the bow-tie and the sweater. Reggie’s still a weasel, but, for the first time, has remorse for his craven actions. The story pivots on Jughead, his friendship with Archie, and mainly his relationship to his faithful mutt, Hot Dog. I’m not going further discuss the plot except to say that Sabrina the Teenage Witch features prominently and her aunts Hilda and Zelda are finally portrayed as proper witches and not just a couple of odd ladies in funny hats. Afterlife with Archie #1 is hands down the best Archie comic I’ve ever read. It’s hands down the best comic I’ve read all year. If you haven’t read it, read it. And place your order for #2. These suckers are selling out fast.

[zjpg]

i’m a feminist until you turn on don’t cha by the pussycat dolls.

[venusdryad]

I LOVE YOU BUT WHY DID YOU CHANGE YOUR CAROL DANVERS HEADER

because i wanted to have more of a naturalist aesthetic. also i felt like i couldnt really get a nice color theme with it. ily too 😙💕

[octopisunsets]

@feminist-pussycat replied to your post “@feminist-pussycat replied to your post “Also? Also? I’m so fucking...”

ah yes, terf, the appropriate way to hate women. good job op

Imagine being such a misogynistic piece of trash that you reduce women to their genitals instead of treating them as individual humans, and when anyone else dares to treat them as more than a vagina or a penis, you claim they hate women. 

The absolute galaxy brain. 

TERFs are trash and should get kicked in the face. Sorry, I don’t make the rules. Trash is trash. 

[haram-terf]

hot pink, sapphire, jade

Hot pink - did you/do you had/have strong feelings against the color pink?

Back in my "not like other girls" phase, I acted like I hated the color pink, but now I think it's a lovely color. Though I do prefer more muted/darker pinks compared to loud ones lol

Sapphire - do you think you can sing well?

I can't sing to save my life 😂 I wish I could sing well though, I used to do it all the time in high school

Jade - ever written fanfiction?

Yeah.... not my proudest work ngl (it wasn't smut but the fact that it exists still embarrasses me sometimes) I've thought of taking it down but it seems like people enjoy the content so... I'll keep it up for a while longer I think

Ask game

[atallandpwrfulfemme]

i’m in that part of my 20’s where i almost exclusively listen to music from my childhood like a parent with their child would and i can’t stop

[femfreq]

We are joined by fellow punk rock prom queen Caitlin Durante to talk about all things Josie, Paddington Bear, and more!

Also don’t forget those 3 Small Words (Join Our Community!) and become a patron today. 😸😸😸

https://www.patreon.com/femfreq

[embroideried]

i will never forget that time in one of the dining areas at college when i was talking to my roommate and said smth smth “but they wont bc they’re a pussy” and some RANDOM GIRL goes “PUSSY? you mean STRONG AND BEAUTIFUL AND POWERFUL?” and i said. no. like a pussy.

[tumblequeer]

yessssssssss

[femestella]

'Riverdale's Josie is Finally Going to Get the Screen Time She Deserves... On Another Show