At some point in my education as a gender studies scholar, I learned that one of the (many) reasons that the purveyors of television, books, and movies feature predominantly male protagonists is that boys and men are reluctant to identify with female protagonists, while girls and women are willing and able to identify with male protagonists. So by featuring a male lead, studios and publishers hedge their bets: men will identify with the character, and women probably will as well. Whereas if they allow women to be represented in media, then they risk losing that sweet, sweet male consumer cash. So it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle—boys and men are never asked to identify with girls and women, so they never learn to identify with girls and women, and so then in the next generation we continue to feature primarily male protagonists, and value predominantly masculine characteristics. Because why risk positive social change if it could cost some money? Not in capitalism, thank you very much.
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“Pansy” Pokemon | Vol. 3 / No. 51.5
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Congratulations! Your Male Feminist has Evolved Into a Male Feminist Ally! | Vol. 3 / No. 52.5
I’ve said for a long time that the only requirement for being a feminist is to believe that men and women are equal. It’s a pretty low bar (that a disturbing number of people still can’t manage to achieve). You’ll notice that this low bar totally allows for the existence of male feminists. That’s partly because the favored enemy of feminism, The Patriarchy, is a structure that hurts everyone, including men.
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That Male Contraception Story Was Bad Science Reporting At Its Worst | Vol. 4 / No. 1.5
If you've been reading the news about the latest male contraception study, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was canceled because men are a bunch of wimps who can't handle the side-effects women have been putting up with for years. That's the story as reported by headlines like "Male birth control study nixed after men can't handle side effects women face daily," and "Yes, contraceptives have side effects – and it’s time for men to put up with them too." The only problem? Everyone got so caught up in the "lol men" that they didn't even bother to read the study.
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Trumpocalypse Survival Guide | Vol. 4 / No. 2.5
Photo: jeanbaptisteparis, CC BY-SA 2.0 As part of my complicated relationship with my gender, I’ve always hated my tendency to cry when I’m frustrated or despairing, because of the way tears are coded as “feminine” […]
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Those Wily Teenagers | Vol. 4 / No. 3.5
Well… It’s been quite the week, hasn’t it? Part of me wanted to do yet another article on the garbage fire that is the Trump administration, and the very real threat he presents to basically everyone on the planet, including the white people who voted for him. The rest of me reminded that part of me that I’m already having trouble sleeping at night. So I’m turning my attention to other things for a moment, in an attempt to not scream into the void forever. Don’t worry, I’m sure he will be the topic of many, many future Feminist Friday posts. So instead, this week I’m turning to an interesting little corner of the internet: teen pregnancy in The Sims.
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Revisiting Old Ground | Vol. 4 / No. 5.5
Whenever you’re in any form of activism, you spend a lot (a lot) of time explaining things to people that you have already explained many, many times. Because even though the majority of the people who are going to confront you on the internet (or in a bar, or on a street corner, or in your office, or in your dentist’s office…) about a social activism issue have literally all of the world’s knowledge at their fingertips and are perfectly capable of using Google themselves, they just won’t do it, and demand that you produce, on the spot, evidence for your cause or arguments about things like “why women and minorities deserve rights.” It becomes your job to educate people, rather than their job to educate themselves. And because these people don’t have the decency to gather together in one spot at one time and demand that you tell them things that they could discover for themselves, you end up having the same conversations over, and over, and over. This week, since Vani Hari and Kellyanne Conway were not in the same room at the same time (though really, they should be, because they both don’t believe in science and do believe in saying incredibly dangerous things) I get to explain, again, that being criticized for being a woman and being criticized while being a woman are different things.
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A Misogyny Double Feature | Vol. 4 / No. 6.5
Sometimes the clusterf**k that is the world unites stories in such an opportune way that, even while I am mad, I also have to give the world props. So here's two news stories that dovetail just perfectly into a handcrafted artisanal stinking heap of misogyny.
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Sometimes Rapists Get More Rights Than Their Victims | Vol. 4 / No. 7.5
It will probably not surprise you (given my part-time job of ranting on the internet) to find that I’m seldom at a loss of words. I will wax poetic at length about multiple topics, interject into various conversations, and rant endlessly. But sometimes rage can make me actually incoherent. One story this month made me temporarily unable to word. In Massachusetts, a 22-year-old woman is fighting for the right to not have to give her rapist visitation rights for the daughter she had. Because he raped her. …Yep, that is some quality incoherent rage right there. So since I’m too rageful to make this a cohesive narrative, let’s make this a List of Patriarchal, Sexist, and Other Types of Bullshit That Make Elle Mad About this Story.
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Survival Over the Holidays: A Handy List of Coping Strategies | Vol. 4 / No. 8.5
As of this writing, Donald Trump has been confirmed by the electoral college, with more electors going faithless against Hillary Clinton instead of against Donald Trump. Because if I think about this fact for too long my brain will explode (or I’ll start to look for tickets to Iceland) with Richard’s encouragement I decided to spend this week writing a handy guide about how to relieve your holiday stress by murdering your relatives reminding your relatives of the inherent worth of all human beings over the holidays.*
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Goodbye, Ms. Fisher | Vol. 4 / No. 9.5
It’s hard to put into words what Carrie Fisher meant/means to feminist fandom, and what she meant/means to me. It’s even harder to make those words coherent, especially since the keyboard keeps deciding to be all fuzzy (I’m not crying, you’re crying). But I’ll do my best.
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Crush the Sims Patriarchy | Vol. 4 / No. 10.5
So perhaps inspired by my recent foray into the world of teen pregnancy Sim mods, or perhaps because I feel like the entire world is spinning away from me and nothing makes sense anymore, I’ve been playing The Sims 3 a lot. It’s a nice game that I don’t have to pay a lot of attention to in order to play, which makes it easier to simultaneously binge CW superhero shows. But since it’s been a couple years since I’ve played, I’m starting to notice some things that I never paid much attention to. Namely, weird ways that the game has some pretty outdated notions of success and good behavior.
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Feminist Friday: Do We Need an Anti-Body Slam PSA? | Vol. 4 / No. 11.5
Someone’s gonna get a hurt real bad | Photo: slgckgc, CC BY 2.0 In this week’s Feminist Friday post, Elle asks at least one question we really shouldn’t have to ask: do we need public […]
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Just Turn Away | Vol. 4 / No. 12.4
Photo: “Telelobotomy,” by MattysFlicks, CC BY 2.0 A special Thursday edition of Feminist Friday. *** I promise by the end of this you’ll understand why Feminist Friday is happening on a Thursday. But first, look, […]
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Captain America Was a Nazi for a While, or, A Lament in Free Verse | Vol. 4 / No. 13.5
This week's #FeministFriday is a little more poetic than usual. You're welcome.
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The “Equality” State, Backwards Behavior, and Increasing Panic | Vol. 4 / No. 14.5
I can count on one hand the times I’ve actually been proud of my state. Our moniker of the Equality State is basically the biggest irony in the “state nickname” game. We have the worst gender wage gap in the country, 93% of the state is white, and when a piece of art on the campus of our only four-year higher education institution dared to criticize the oil and gas industry, said industries forced the removal of said art lest the university lose funding.
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When Rage Leads to Hilarity | Vol. 4 / No. 15.5
This week, Elle's #FeministFriday post is a deep-dive into the story of Elizabeth Warren being silenced by the Republican majority in the Senate for reading a letter by Coretta Scott King, further proving that you don't actually need to "impugn" a fellow senator because they'll do it to themselves if you give them half a chance.
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Taking Things Into Your Own Hands | Vol. 4 / No. 16.5
This week, Elle has a suggestion for a new bill, in light of the ongoing attacks on women's bodily autonomy in America. Because turnabout is still fair play, right?
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Putting Glue on My *What* Now? | Vol. 4 / No. 17.5
Sometimes, I use Feminist Friday to talk about hard-hitting issues, large political quagmires, and major problems in gender representation. Sometimes I use Feminist Friday to laugh hysterically about things, like a chiropractor who wants to sell a glue/lipstick to seal in menstrual blood. Guess which one this week is going to be?
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Have You Stepped Up for Transgender Rights Today? | Vol. 4 / No. 18.5
So a friend posted an article from Bustle that made me realize that, at least as far as the blog goes, I’m not doing my due diligence in terms of intersectional feminism. (This sentence makes me sad on multiple levels; first, because it means I’m not doing my best at being an intersectional feminist, but also because the founder of Bustle is a misogynist ass, so if his site can make me feel bad something is seriously wrong.) The article, quite bluntly, stated that if you went to the Women’s March, if you consider yourself a feminist, you have to stand up for trans rights as well. And the article is absolutely correct.
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Looking Back On A Day Without Women | Vol. 4 / No. 19.5
Elle takes a brief look back at the major protest this week.
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