Tags
an observation, blogging, comments, geek culture, sarcasm, sexism
On a post discussing, in part, what exactly makes a good female role model, and a particular subculture’s failure to account for its skeletons in the closet when it comes to sexism and unequal treatment, the overwhelming majority of the comments are from women, and are supportive and enthusiastic. The only negative/critical comments, which range from banal nit-picking and derailing to outright slut-shaming and misogyny, come from men.
So, who should be the ones deciding who constitutes a good female role model, or just a good female fictional character, again?
* There’s no way of course, for me to really ascertain the gender identity of the commenters. But, basing their probably gender on their self-chosen monikers, I’m going to take them in good faith.
Why, considering my status as a Man™ I believe it is my patriarchal privilege, nay, *right* to establish a reductive yet for my own unseemly purposes conveniently interchangeable standard of female legitimisation; be it in terms of some abstract notion of propriety or characterisation.
Or to put it in laydude’s terms: “where the titties at?”
Oh SNAP!
I think I might attempt to navigate the minefield of being male AND having something other than purely congratulatory words for your posts.
First off, well done with the initial analysis and skewering of self-deluded “geek pride.” I often find that groups who have struggled for acceptance in the past tend to swing too far in terms embracing their own “virtues.”
I DO, however, feel that there were some salient points made by the original image. While Geek culture certainly doesn’t get a pass, I think a point was being made that in said culture there are female characters who are famous or popular for things other than their ability to be “sexy.” Yes, all of the characters were women embracing masculine roles and you were dead on in skewering that. My point though is that while there could have been better real world examples for the female icons in the Geek field, I cannot think of similar “improved” women for the pop culture segment. In other words, yes there are some females in geek culture lauded for their “sexiness” but can we find some females in pop culture who AREN’T lauded for theirs? I know it runs the risk of slut-shaming to denigrate the scantily clad women in the top row, but I feel the motive has more to do with their character and who they present themselves to be, not how they dress or how open they are about their sexuality. The point, I think, was that many of those women strive to exhibit themselves as sexual OBJECTS and that is harmful to us all. Are there female figures in popular culture who are lauded for something other than their looks? Are their female figures in geek culture who are similarly lauded for something other than their looks? You must cast your net much further and wider in the realm of popular culture to find such figures than you do in geek culture, and I DO think that is something to be proud of.
And, just so we’re clear, I LOVED your piece and analysis. I think it was wonderful. I just think there were more things to be said that weren’t entirely critical of the idea behind the image.
In the original comments section of the image, one of the female commenters pointed out that you could, in fact, point out examples of female characters from mainstream television who are strong and savvy and capable. Olivia Benson, from Law & Order: SVU, Dr. Bones from “Bones”, various female characters from Criminal Minds, Cuddy and 13 from House, M.D, the list goes on. The problem with the image in the previous post was that it tried to trumpet geek culture as being overall superior to mainstream culture, when A.) it isn’t, and B.) the lines between the two are becoming so fuzzy that it’s almost ridiculous to try to exalt it as an alternative to the mainstream.
Thank you for your thoughts though, I appreciate that you went outside the box for your criticism.
You caught me, I didn’t read all 70+ comments from your original post. I should have probably expected that the angle I observed was not a “new” point in the conversation. With that said though, I don’t know that I consider those tv shows to necessarily be lauded by pop culture. I mean Bones has a fairly strong “geek cred” angle going for it. I guess I associate popular culture more with the people who appear on magazine covers in supermarket checkout aisles. Though, now that I say that, I realize that there is an incredibly strong, substantive, female figure in popular culture: Oprah. I suppose I mistook MY ability to more quickly identify strong, female Geek figures than their popular counterparts to mean that there were absolutely and objectively more. It’s an unfortunately all too common logical flaw in any discussion, the inability to remove oneself from one’s own perspective.
Oprah’s a pretty great example of a self-made woman who worked hard and persevered to get where she’s at. I don’t always agree with her and who she enables (Her minions Dr Oz and Dr Phil come to mind) but she is to be lauded for her rise up to the top.
I feel like your negativity toward men here isn’t entirely fair. I didn’t read all of the comments on the OP, but when I read your article about the macro initially, It was shared from a guy. When I re-shared it on facebook, of the 3 people who hit “like”, 2 of them were men.
It’s not negativity towards men. It’s negativity towards mansplaining. There are good men who read and responded positively to my article, but 100% of the negative feedback has been from men. That doesn’t tell me that men are bad people, it tells me that some of them are having a harder time than women understanding why this image is problematic because they aren’t the ones targeted by it, and then refuse to back down when they’ve been proven wrong.
Maybe it would be helpful if you did a post on the image circulating that did target men? https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/250837_444914522193281_1558737809_n.jpg
Haha, I had no idea that existed. I don’t know if there’s anything I can say about that one that I didn’t already point out in the image targeting women: It’s cherry-picking, equates “role model” with “gun toting badass”, and is femmephobic and hypermasculine. It’s basically the original image without the slut-shaming.
They do have MacGyver though. He was lauded for his quick-thinking abilities and ingenuity more than his hetero-normative alpha masculinity.
Can you tell I like playing Devil’s Advocate?
Personally I would have put Neil Patrick Harris on there because he’s just wonderful…and I now realize that my icon probably makes me seem a little one note *head desk*