1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A trope is a common pattern in a story or a recognizable attribute in 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 a character that conveys information to the audience. 3 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A trope becomes a cliche when it's overused. 4 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Sadly, some of these tropes often perpetuate offensive stereotypes. 5 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Every now and then, in Hollywoodland a character that's identified as a feminist will magically make its way 6 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 through the production process and appear on our television screens 7 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 unfortunately this is almost never good. 8 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What the Hollywood machine churns out is a distorted and warped version of feminism 9 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which bares little resemblance to actual feminist movements.

In a desperate quest to distance themselves, their plots and their characters 10 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 from anything that could in anyway be mistakenly mistaken for feminism 11 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Hollywood writers rely on one of the most deceptive and disgusting tropes ever to be forged in the fires of mount doom. 12 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That trope is called The Straw Feminist.

In television and movies The Straw Feminist works by deliberately creating an exaggerated caricature of a feminist 13 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Which writers then fill with a bunch of oversimplifications, misrepresentations and stereotypes 14 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to try to make it easy to discredit or delegitimize feminism. 15 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The goal is to make feminists and our movements look completely ridiculous, over the top and unnecessary.

In terms of media representation, one of the most disturbing example of the Straw Feminist can be found in the 3rd season of Veronica Mars. 16 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Sadly, the Veronica Mars writing team turned the last season into a train wreak 17 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 partially by introducing a group of Straw Feminists as villains in the series. 18 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Characters like these serve to undermine and discredit feminist movements 19 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but they also serves to separate female leads which are smart, strong and witty, 20 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in this case, Veronica, from any association with feminism. 

The Straw Feminist character is part of a fictional post-feminist world that only exists in Hollywood. 21 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The trope is a tool that's used to promote the fallacy that everyone is already equal. 22 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What’s exceptionally frustrating is that these characters often bring up legitimate feminist concerns 23 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 about women’s rights and women’s equality but those concerns are quickly undermined 24 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 by the writers making the characters seem over the top, crazy, and extremist. For example the Straw Feminist appears in Married with Children as Marcy D’Arcy, the irritating and pompous neighbour. 25 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In this case, the Straw Feminist is coded as the castrating wife who emasculates and dominates her docile, stupid husband.

We see the trope repeated in Rugrats with Phil and Lil's mother 26 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who Wikipedia describes as “Quite the jock and women's-libber” 27 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we can also recognize her as a straw feminist because of the giant woman's symbol on her sweater. 28 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Much like Marcy she's framed as the castrating wife who barks orders to her submissive husband. 

In 2001's Legally Blonde the writers threw in a Straw Feminist for cheap laughs 29 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who believes that the word “semester” is an evil conspiracy against women. 30 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Take the word semester 'k, it is the perfect example of this school's discriminatory preference 31 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of semen to ovaries, that's why I'm petitioning to have next term be referred to as 32 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the winter ov-es-ter."

Another problematic example comes from the Powerpuff Girls episode, “Equal Fights” in the third season. 33 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The Girls encounter a female villain named Femme Fatale 34 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who we can immediately see is a straw feminist because she has the 35 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 oh-so-terrifying woman’s symbol on her mask, her clothes 36 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and even as her weapon. 

The episode begins with the traditional pan around Townsville showing us that gender inequality is not a problem. 37 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "A city where everyone gets their fair turn" 38 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Even boys and girls on the playground get along. 39 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Your turn Jenny... think fast" 40 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Oops" 41 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Very funny Joey. 42 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "You're gonna get it" 43 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But this harmonious balance is deviously disrupted by Femme Fatale and her conniving, deceptive women's rights rhetoric.

Curiously though, Femme Fatale brings up some pretty valid points 44 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 about the lack of female faces on American money, 45 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or the lack of female superheroes in pop culture. "Surely, you've noticed, female superheroes aren't nearly as revered as male superheroes." 46 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Sure they are!" 47 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "There's Supergirl, Batgirl" 48 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "They're so lame" 49 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Merely extensions of their male counterparts." The Girls are influenced by Femme Fatale’s malicious rhetoric to see benign, routine every day things 50 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as a conspiracy against women and against them personally. 51 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The writers of the Powerpuff Girls have carefully created a fantasy world without gender oppression, 52 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so that they can have the Girls start seeing oppression where none exists. 53 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "We saw what you did Joey Finklemeyer" 54 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Whhaaa'd I do?" 55 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Shut up!" 56 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Don't play dumb with us!" 57 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "I've finally caught up on all the housework and all that's left is your room." 58 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "If you could take care of that please." 59 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "uh, I'll just do it later" 60 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Why don't you get some big strong man to save your precious city?" 61 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Or better yet why don't you stop making women do your dirty work and do it yourself!" 62 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The problem is, all of these things that the Powerpuff Girls are complaining about are actually happening! 63 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Girls are getting bullied on school yards 64 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and women are overwhelmingly responsible for household duties. 65 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Women are being institutionally oppressed all the time in nearly every facet of our lives. 66 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Once again this trope is used to separate the Powerpuff Girls from any notion 67 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that they could in anyway possibly be feminist characters. 68 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Because you know you awesome, funny, world saving, independent young women 69 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but you know, not feminist... 70 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The straw feminist trope is taken to a whole new level in adult animation shows such as South Park or Family Guy. 71 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In the episode "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar" the Family Guy writers took a stab at feminist attorney Gloria Allred. 72 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Allred is known for taking on high-profile cases defending women who have been assaulted or harassed. 73 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In this attack, the Family Guy writers created a character coincidentally named Gloria Ironbox 74 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who brainwashes Peter into thinking he is a woman, after he is accused of sexual assault. 75 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The emasculation and feminization of Peter and his sudden transformation into a feminist is played for laughs. 76 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "I can't respect men, men are the reason our world is in such lousy shape." 77 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "If men were as caring as women we wouldn't have crime or violence." 78 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Because you know, nothing is worse in a patriarchal society then being a woman, 79 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 except maybe being a feminist... 80 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In these fictional narratives institutional oppression and wide scale sexism just doesn’t exist. 81 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It’s a carefully constructed world where feminism is no longer needed. Even the comic book world delves into this trope, with Y the Last Man. 82 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When all the men on earth die except for one, 83 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 there is a extremist homicidal group called the Daughters of the Amazons. 84 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The violent, vigilante group is founded on the disdain and hatred of men 85 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and anyone who mourns the death of men 86 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 even though there aren’t anymore men. Let's get back to Veronica Mars, 87 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 there is a 9 episode story arc in the 3rd season about a series of rapes that occur on the University Campus. 88 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A group of straw feminists on campus hold demonstrations, 89 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 volunteer with the Ride Home Safe campus program to escort young women home, 90 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and demand that the university institute an official sexual code of conduct. 91 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 All of these are logical, rational and important steps to creating safer college campuses. 92 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 However, the writer quickly dismisses these characters as irrational, stubborn, pigheaded man-haters, 93 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it serves to fulfill the tired old stereotypes about angry and militant women of colour. 94 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Pig" 95 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Rapist" 96 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The writers of Veronica Mars takes the Straw Feminist to an obscene level 97 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 by actually having them "fake a rape" in order to blame the fraternity.   Women lying about sexual assault is a grossly overused myth. 98 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Women generally don’t put themselves through the social shame of admitting assault for petty personal revenge. 99 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In just a handful of episodes the creators of Veronica Mars undermine the work that 100 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 thousands of students are doing globally on there campuses to end violence against women. While we see the Straw Feminist over and over again in television and movies, 101 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it’s also unfortunately deployed on a regular basis by American talk shows and news pundits. 102 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Mainstream religious and conservative news media often attack women with 103 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 deliberate misrepresentations and extreme exaggerations of what feminism is. 104 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This false impression has been infused into the mainstream by popular talk show hosts 105 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 such as Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly. 106 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You may have heard the slur "Feminazi" popularized by Rush Limbaugh. 107 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A term used to discredit and demonize any woman fighting for social equality. 108 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "The feminists, the feminazis have been working for years to this end," 109 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "advance women by diminishing men." 110 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Ya...

The Straw Feminist is set up to perpetuate and advance the myth that feminism is no longer needed, 111 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that we have arrived at gender equality 112 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and anyone who disagrees is quickly demeaned and portrayed as an extremist. 113 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This trope represents a backlash against feminism and groups supporting women’s rights. 114 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As we make more gains towards equality, the backlash gets stronger. 115 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It’s an old yet effective tactic but clearly it's working because I often hear young women saying, 116 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "I believe in the equal rights of women but I'm not a feminist." 117 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This sentiment is a direct result of the straw feminist trope. 118 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Because women want to distance themselves from the extreme and false representations they are seeing on tv, movies and talk shows. 119 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We need to proudly claim the title and fight back against these distorted and demeaning representations in the media and in real life, 120 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and if y’all really do believe in the equality of women then we need to continue this long legacy of feminism and fight for it.

And Hollywood, get over your fear of strong, smart and talented women 121 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and stop contributing to the backlash by writing absurd and ridiculous Straw Feminist characters.

Now I will leave you with Polly Bergen saying something pretty awesome on the otherwise unremarkable show Commander in Chief. 122 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Look just because it matters to mom doesn't mean it matters to me. I mean, I'm no feminist." 123 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "So you don't believe that women should have rights equal to those of men" 124 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "w..well of course I do... it's just-" 125 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Might I suggest my dear, that you look up the definition of feminist." 126 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Feminists don't have a sense of humor." 127 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Feminists just want to be alone. Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo"