Might you be a feminist?

The other day, my friend and I slipped into one of our recurring conversations about feminism. Prompted by a couple of recent incidents (oh hey I forgot this one), we got talking about the label, and whether it's positive or negative, and what the implications are.

It's one of the subjects I get passionate about. After getting into the swing of my argument for a minute or two, I had to rein myself in, and I think I ended our conversation with "er but if you don't identify as a feminist I should probably stop telling you that you are one."

My friend is very aware of the way the world is. He knows that sexism exists, that women experience the world differently than men, that some aspects of the systems we live within are unfair and / or oppressive. However he rejects the word "feminist" because, in his mind, it reads as "man-hating female supremacist." (He's had some bad experiences with feminists in the past; what can I say.)

My good friend Paul has just written a blog post about this subject. He didn't formerly identify as a feminist, but now he does. It's an interesting read, and highlights a very important point: that's it's ok, even good, to let your views evolve. To change your mind about what you are, and what words mean. Labelling oneself is a flawed system, no doubt, but it's how the world knows what you stand for. I stand alongside those who believe in equality. I am a feminist. And I think perhaps it's even possible to be a feminist and not know it.

These pictures are via the spectacular ohdeargodwhy.

Got mad?

The California milk board recently launched an advertising campaign saying that milk can help relieve the symptoms of PMS. However, rather than targeting this campaign at women, they've taken the indirect approach by roping in our boyfriends to help tame us crazy bitches.

Other taglines include:
"I'm sorry for the thing or things I did or didn't do."
"I'm sorry I listened to what you said and not what you meant."
"Let's agree to disagree with me." and
"We can both blame myself."

Now, this is interesting, because my first response is "Well, this is sexist, offensive, and demeaning to women." It may sound like a feminist kneejerk response, but you only have to have your opinion dismissed with the words "it's her time of the month" a couple of times before you want to remind the world that our opinions don't magically become irrelevant just because we have uteri. The whole wandering womb syndrome (the ancient Greeks' explanation for female hysteria) was disproven some time ago, you know.

Luckily Steve James, executive director of the milk board, has foreseen my response. The following quotes are taken from the New York Times article on the subject:

That the campaign is intended to be “funny, good-natured” ought to defuse criticism, Mr. James says, and “the humor will allow people to laugh at themselves.”

“If you do a microsite about how cute puppies are,” Mr. James says, “you’ll get feedback that says, ‘You’re exploiting puppies.’”

Mr. Goodby [co-chairman at the ad company responsible for this campaign] was reminded of some criticism six years ago of the “Milk to the Rescue” commercial as sexist.
“I wish I could say everybody’s got a sense of humor since then,” he says.

Great. Not only am I irrational, terrifying, and in need of careful placation, I am also minus one sense of humour. They're passed it off as an attempt to "start discussion," but unlike the product they're trying to promote, this leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Page 3 girls and Goldfish

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I don't believe that the moon landings were faked, or that 9/11 was an inside job, or that Elvis is alive, or that the Royal Family are lizards.

However, I do believe that page 3 models in the Sun, in addition to degrading themselves by allying themselves with that publication, are being used to espouse views that reinforce those of the paper, of Murdoch, and of the government.

Sounds weird, right? How can a naked chick be a tool of political propaganda?

Well, this very funny video says it better than I could. There's more information at this Bloggerheads post, should you be interested.

I do feel guilty about dropping out of the sky to talk about serious business, so here's an amazingly geek-laden video that made me exceedingly happy:

Where are the women?

Is it so hard to have interesting, complicated female characters? Women who think for themselves? Is it so implausible that we might discuss something other than men in our free time? Ugh.

I've recently discovered something called The Bechdel Test. To pass, a movie has to fulfill these three requirements:
1) It must have at least two women in it,
2) Who talk to each other,
3) About something other than men.

Humble aspirations, you'd think. Half the world are women, surely most movies pass this test without even thinking?

Well, this video contains a list of movies that fail, I think you'll be surprised.



Yeah. They're not all pure testosterone movies. Ghostbusters? Wall-E? Toy Story, the Princess Bride, the Wedding Singer for goodness' sake! Are we that uninteresting?

Interestingly, one of the movies that passes this test is Legally Blonde. If you haven't seen it, it's about a beauty- and shopping-obsessed sorority girl who adores the colour pink. So far so blah, right? Especially given my feelings about pink. But this movie is possibly one of the most feminist mainstream movies I've ever seen. If you haven't seen it yet, UK types can watch it on iPlayer until Sunday. If you can overlook the fact that the main character has every advantage in the world (being insanely popular, pretty, and rich), it's actually pretty empowering (yes I just used that word) to see her surpass everyone's expectations and defy stereotypes. The sequel is more fluffy, but still passes the Bechdel test with flying colours.

Anyway, enough ranting from me. Todays interesting thing, although I give no guarantee that you will find it so, is the latest Nexus - an online magazine for creative writing. I've got one story and one poem in there, and I'm very pleased with it!