Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist
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Not SyncedA trope is a common pattern in a story or a recognizable attribute in
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Not Synceda character that conveys information to the audience.
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Not SyncedA trope becomes a cliche when it's overused.
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Not SyncedSadly, some of these tropes often perpetuate offensive stereotypes.
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Not SyncedEvery now and then, in Hollywoodland a character that's identified as a feminist will magically make its way
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Not Syncedthrough the production process and appear on our television screens
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Not Syncedunfortunately this is almost never good.
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Not SyncedWhat the Hollywood machine churns out is a distorted and warped version of feminism
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Not Syncedwhich bares little resemblance to actual feminist movements. In a desperate quest to distance themselves, their plots and their characters
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Not Syncedfrom anything that could in anyway be mistakenly mistaken for feminism
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Not SyncedHollywood writers rely on one of the most deceptive and disgusting tropes ever to be forged in the fires of mount doom.
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Not SyncedThat trope is called The Straw Feminist. In television and movies The Straw Feminist works by deliberately creating an exaggerated caricature of a feminist
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Not SyncedWhich writers then fill with a bunch of oversimplifications, misrepresentations and stereotypes
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Not Syncedto try to make it easy to discredit or delegitimize feminism.
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Not SyncedThe 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.
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Not SyncedSadly, the Veronica Mars writing team turned the last season into a train wreak
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Not Syncedpartially by introducing a group of Straw Feminists as villains in the series.
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Not SyncedCharacters like these serve to undermine and discredit feminist movements
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Not Syncedbut they also serves to separate female leads which are smart, strong and witty,
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Not Syncedin 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.
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Not SyncedThe trope is a tool that's used to promote the fallacy that everyone is already equal.
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Not SyncedWhat’s exceptionally frustrating is that these characters often bring up legitimate feminist concerns
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Not Syncedabout women’s rights and women’s equality but those concerns are quickly undermined
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Not Syncedby 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. -
Not SyncedIn 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
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Not Syncedwho Wikipedia describes as “Quite the jock and women's-libber”
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Not Syncedand we can also recognize her as a straw feminist because of the giant woman's symbol on her sweater.
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Not SyncedMuch 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
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Not Syncedwho believes that the word “semester” is an evil conspiracy against women.
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Not Synced"Take the word semester 'k, it is the perfect example of this school's discriminatory preference
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Not Syncedof semen to ovaries, that's why I'm petitioning to have next term be referred to as
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Not Syncedthe winter ov-es-ter." Another problematic example comes from the Powerpuff Girls episode, “Equal Fights” in the third season.
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Not SyncedThe Girls encounter a female villain named Femme Fatale
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Not Syncedwho we can immediately see is a straw feminist because she has the
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Not Syncedoh-so-terrifying woman’s symbol on her mask, her clothes
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Not Syncedand even as her weapon. The episode begins with the traditional pan around Townsville showing us that gender inequality is not a problem.
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Not Synced"A city where everyone gets their fair turn"
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Not SyncedEven boys and girls on the playground get along.
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Not Synced"Your turn Jenny... think fast"
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Not Synced"Oops"
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Not Synced"Very funny Joey.
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Not Synced"You're gonna get it"
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Not SyncedBut 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
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Not Syncedabout the lack of female faces on American money,
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Not Syncedor the lack of female superheroes in pop culture.
"Surely, you've noticed, female superheroes aren't nearly as revered as male superheroes." -
Not Synced"Sure they are!"
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Not Synced"There's Supergirl, Batgirl"
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Not Synced"They're so lame"
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Not Synced"Merely extensions of their male counterparts."
The Girls are influenced by Femme Fatale’s malicious rhetoric to see benign, routine every day things -
Not Syncedas a conspiracy against women and against them personally.
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Not SyncedThe writers of the Powerpuff Girls have carefully created a fantasy world without gender oppression,
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Not Syncedso that they can have the Girls start seeing oppression where none exists.
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Not Synced"We saw what you did Joey Finklemeyer"
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Not Synced"Whhaaa'd I do?"
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Not Synced"Shut up!"
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Not Synced"Don't play dumb with us!"
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Not Synced"I've finally caught up on all the housework and all that's left is your room."
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Not Synced"If you could take care of that please."
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Not Synced"uh, I'll just do it later"
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Not Synced"Why don't you get some big strong man to save your precious city?"
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Not Synced"Or better yet why don't you stop making women do your dirty work and do it yourself!"
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Not SyncedThe problem is, all of these things that the Powerpuff Girls are complaining about are actually happening!
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Not SyncedGirls are getting bullied on school yards
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Not Syncedand women are overwhelmingly responsible for household duties.
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Not SyncedWomen are being institutionally oppressed all the time in nearly every facet of our lives.
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Not SyncedOnce again this trope is used to separate the Powerpuff Girls from any notion
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Not Syncedthat they could in anyway possibly be feminist characters.
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Not SyncedBecause you know you awesome, funny, world saving, independent young women
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Not Syncedbut you know, not feminist...
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Not SyncedThe straw feminist trope is taken to a whole new level in adult animation shows
such as South Park or Family Guy. -
Not SyncedIn the episode "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar" the Family Guy writers took a stab at feminist attorney Gloria Allred.
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Not SyncedAllred is known for taking on high-profile cases defending women who have been assaulted or harassed.
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Not SyncedIn this attack, the Family Guy writers created a character coincidentally named Gloria Ironbox
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Not Syncedwho brainwashes Peter into thinking he is a woman, after he is accused of sexual assault.
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Not SyncedThe emasculation and feminization of Peter and his sudden transformation into a feminist is played for laughs.
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Not Synced"I can't respect men, men are the reason our world is in such lousy shape."
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Not Synced"If men were as caring as women we wouldn't have crime or violence."
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Not SyncedBecause you know, nothing is worse in a patriarchal society then being a woman,
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Not Syncedexcept maybe being a feminist...
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Not SyncedIn these fictional narratives institutional oppression and wide scale sexism just doesn’t exist.
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Not SyncedIt’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. -
Not SyncedWhen all the men on earth die except for one,
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Not Syncedthere is a extremist homicidal group called the Daughters of the Amazons.
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Not SyncedThe violent, vigilante group is founded on the disdain and hatred of men
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Not Syncedand anyone who mourns the death of men
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Not Syncedeven though there aren’t anymore men.
Let's get back to Veronica Mars, -
Not Syncedthere is a 9 episode story arc in the 3rd season about a series of rapes that occur on the University Campus.
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Not SyncedA group of straw feminists on campus hold demonstrations,
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Not Syncedvolunteer with the Ride Home Safe campus program to escort young women home,
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Not Syncedand demand that the university institute an official sexual code of conduct.
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Not SyncedAll of these are logical, rational and important steps to creating safer college campuses.
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Not SyncedHowever, the writer quickly dismisses these characters as irrational, stubborn, pigheaded man-haters,
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Not Syncedand it serves to fulfill the tired old stereotypes about angry and militant women of colour.
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Not Synced
"Pig" -
Not Synced"Rapist"
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Not SyncedThe writers of Veronica Mars takes the Straw Feminist to an obscene level
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Not Syncedby actually having them "fake a rape" in order to blame the fraternity.
Women lying about sexual assault is a grossly overused myth. -
Not SyncedWomen generally don’t put themselves through the social shame of admitting assault for petty personal revenge.
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Not SyncedIn just a handful of episodes the creators of Veronica Mars undermine the work that
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Not Syncedthousands 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, -
Not Syncedit’s also unfortunately deployed on a regular basis by American talk shows and news pundits.
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Not SyncedMainstream religious and conservative news media often attack women with
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Not Synceddeliberate misrepresentations and extreme exaggerations of what feminism is.
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Not SyncedThis false impression has been infused into the mainstream by popular talk show hosts
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Not Syncedsuch as Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly.
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Not SyncedYou may have heard the slur "Feminazi" popularized by Rush Limbaugh.
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Not SyncedA term used to discredit and demonize any woman fighting for social equality.
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Not Synced"The feminists, the feminazis have been working for years to this end,"
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Not Synced"advance women by diminishing men."
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Not SyncedYa... The Straw Feminist is set up to perpetuate and advance the myth that feminism is no longer needed,
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Not Syncedthat we have arrived at gender equality
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Not Syncedand anyone who disagrees is quickly demeaned and portrayed as an extremist.
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Not SyncedThis trope represents a backlash against feminism and groups supporting women’s rights.
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Not SyncedAs we make more gains towards equality, the backlash gets stronger.
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Not SyncedIt’s an old yet effective tactic but clearly it's working because I often hear young women saying,
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Not Synced"I believe in the equal rights of women but I'm not a feminist."
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Not SyncedThis sentiment is a direct result of the straw feminist trope.
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Not SyncedBecause women want to distance themselves from the extreme and false representations they are seeing on tv, movies and talk shows.
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Not SyncedWe need to proudly claim the title and fight back against these distorted and demeaning representations in the media and in real life,
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Not Syncedand 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
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Not Syncedand 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.
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Not Synced"Look just because it matters to mom doesn't mean it matters to me. I mean, I'm no feminist."
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Not Synced"So you don't believe that women should have rights equal to those of men"
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Not Synced"w..well of course I do... it's just-"
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Not Synced"Might I suggest my dear, that you look up the definition of feminist."
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Not Synced
"Feminists don't have a sense of humor." -
Not Synced"Feminists just want to be alone. Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo"
- Title:
- Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist
- Description:
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The Straw Feminist trope is a deliberately created, exaggerated caricature of a feminist that is used to undermine and ridicule feminist movements.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
Feminist Frequency
- Duration:
- 10:20
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femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist | |
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femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist | |
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femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist | |
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femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist |