F.E.M.M.E

I need feminism because I should be able to dress like a 60’s bombshell (with the help of my huge ass) without a single comment relating to a kitchen.

Summer Radio Show EXTRAVAGANZA!!!!

Hey y’all! We have great news! We will be extending our radio show residency at KDVS through September 21st!

We are going to shift our focus to current events affecting the LGBTQ community - this week we will discuss the REALLY BIG GAYNESS of Anderson Cooper, Frank Ocean and Megan Rapinoe.

“The aboriginal rights movement in Australia parallels the American Indian movement in this country, with similar goals: land rights, self determination, cultural acceptance. There is also day-to-day discrimination. Morris says last year she performed at the Sydney Opera House, a crowning achievement for an Australian artist. She invited nine indigenous women from her community to attend. When it was over, they went outside, stood on the sidewalk and tried to hail a cab.

Posted on  June 15th, 2012

by Adriana Lucci

In a recent teen TED talk 16-year-old Tavi Gevinson, editor-in-chief and founder of Rookie magazine and fashion blogger behind The Style Rookie, demonstrated introspection wise beyond her years. A self-described “pop culture nerd,” she began her lecture by criticizing the portrayal of “strong” female characters. In her opinion, the problem with “strong women” in pop culture is that they are not simply strong characters; they are strong female characters. Their sexuality is often emphasized as a source of power, and the characters are flat—“basically cardboard cutouts.” As a result, “people expect women to be easy to understand and women are mad at themselves for not being that simple.” She emphasized that women are complicated, “not because women are crazy, but because people are crazy and women happen to be people.”

As opposed to characters like Catwoman, Gevinson stated it is imperative that strong female characters must have “weaknesses” and “flaws.” She praised the movie Bridesmaids and TV shows Mad Men and 30 Rock for their portrayal of strong, flawed women. She also made an MS Paint illustration that aptly captures her brain between the end of middle school and freshman year of high school:

Like many other teenage girls, she was torn between culturally created and emphasized polarities present in our society: “You can’t be smart and pretty. You can’t be a feminist who’s also interested in fashion.” Gevinson observed that while some teenage girls turn to feminism as a haven, others are alienated because many girls are under the impression that in order to be a feminist they must have all the answers. But feminists do not lack insecurity and doubt, nor do individuals harbor consistent beliefs. Through reconciling polarities, being simultaneously smart and pretty, feminist and fashionable, Gevinson found that “feminism was not a rule book, but a discussion, a conversation, a process.”

Sansa Stark must be one of the most hated characters in A Song of Ice and Fire. The vitriol levelled against her is often frightening in its intensity, surpassing that for actually horrific characters like Joffrey and Ramsey Bolton. Her crime? The unforgivable fact that she is a pre-teen girl.

As a massive fan of Sansa, even I must admit that she is difficult to like at first. She’s spoilt and a bit bratty. She fights with her fan-favorite sister and trusts characters who the reader knows are completely untrustworthy. She is hopelessly naive and lost in dreams of pretty princes and dashing knights. She acts, for all intents and purposes, like the eleven year old girl that she is. Most of us were pretty darn unbearable to older people at that age (and that’s fine, because they were also pretty unbearable to us). Robb and Jon, although older than Sansa, are similarly misguided and bratty, with Jon’s constant “poor me, I deserve so much more” attitude at the Wall, and Robb’s clumsy attempts at being the Lord of Winterfell. But these mistakes are only reprehensible to readers when they come from a girl, interested in girly things and making girly mistakes. Because viewers have been taught that “girly“ is automatically bad.

I love bad-ass, sword-wielding heroines as much as the next person (Arya and Brienne are two of my other favorite characters in anything ever), but the focus on this sort of female character — the oft-cited “strong female character” — seems to suggest that femininity is still bad, and that women can only be strong by adopting stereotypically male roles and attitudes. There’s nothing wrong with Arya declaring that being a Lady does not suit her and forging her own path, but saying that all female characters must take this attitude is as sexist and dismissive as saying that all female characters must be weak and take a backseat in events. Femininity is not bad, just as masculinity is not necessarily good.

Sansa plays an important role in the narrative, because she shows how societal expectations of women completely screw them over. She believes in everything that her parents and her septa have taught her. She believes in stories, and she believes that the greatest thing she can do is marry the prince (who will, of course, be chivalrous and honorable and handsome and kind) and have his children. She has spent her life in the cold castle of the North, dreaming of stories of tournaments and beauty in the south. Because people want her to be that way. That is how they think the ideal young woman should be. And it almost destroys her. Worse, it brings the reader’s hatred down on her, because even though women are told they are only “good” if they fit into this role, the role itself is seen as weak, manipulative, stupid and generally inferior. It is the Catch 22 of being a woman, both in Westeros and in our own world: no matter what you do, you are criticized, especially if you don’t act like Arya Stark and fight to become “one of the boys.” And so some “fans” of the series declare that they wish Sansa would get raped, a woman’s punishment for daring to act how she has been taught. For daring to act feminine, and making mistakes while doing so.

And all this hatred misses the fact that Sansa is one of the strongest individuals in the entire series. In a world where people drop like flies, in an abusive situation that would break so many people, Sansa survives. Sansa endures. She stays strong, and she never gives up.  As Brienne says to Catelyn, she has a “woman’s courage.” She learns how to play the game. She wears her courtesy for her armor, and she listens, and she adapts, and she keeps her cards close to her chest. She learns how to smile and curtsey and use her words to keep going long after other, older, more experienced players, including her father, are destroyed. But she will not kneel. She will not weaken. She remains strong, and she remains determined, because the North remembers, and her day will come. Her “woman’s courage” keeps her alive and in the game where characters like Arya would not last five minutes.

Most impressive of all, Sansa maintains one key part of her personality that others might dismiss as “weak” or “feminine”: her kindness. She manages to be brave and gentle and caring, despite the trauma she goes through. She shows love and affection to little Robert and to Tommen. She puts herself at risk to save Ser Dontos, using her words and her courtesy to trick Joffrey into doing as she desires. She cares for and calms the people of King’s Landing during the Battle of the Blackwater, despite the fact that she is so young and so inexperienced and few of them have ever done anything to help her. She knows that if she were Queen, she would make the people love her, because she cares about other people, even when her own life is torn apart.

I identify as a feminist too. I don’t believe feminists hate men. I define feminism as a demand for equality.