Fuck Sexism

[Lord J Esq]

I think the only show I watched as a kid that actually had a female lead character...

That made me think of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noozles

I watched that on Nickelodeon when I was little. Off the top of my head, that's the only show I can think of that I routinely watched as a kid that had a female lead, although I'm sure there were others. Here are some near misses: Eureka's Castle had Eureka, but I didn't actually watch that show very often; it was a little too young for me. I don't think she was actually the main character (it was an ensemble show), although she's the only one I remember besides that dragon. The Elephant Show had Sharon and Lois, but I don't know if they'd count as leads. Nickelodeon GUTS had Moira Quirk as the referee; she wasn't the lead but she was the top authority.

However, Faust is right: There were damn few female leads in these kids shows. That ties into what I said earlier about so much of our media being of, by, and for males.

Addendum: Even worse, in my opinion, than the dearth of female leads was the overall imbalance of males to females in the cast. Muppet Babies had I dunno how many males, but just three females (including Nanny). Ninja Turtles had April.

Oh! Clarissa Explains it All. That show rocked. That was my favorite Snick show.

[FaustWolf]

I wonder if the female characters in kids' shows back in the day were "boring" because they were simply poorly written? I seem to remember Cheetara as especially bland; I can't recall being attracted to any kind of dynamism on her part while watching Thundercats. Lion-o and his nemesis Mum-ra always got the cool parts, while Cheetara felt like an almost-nonexistent sideshow in comparison. Even Snarf had way more character.

I seem to remember Scarlet having a few interesting scenes in the old G.I. Joe cartoon, though sometimes it seemed like she was there just so Duke could have a love interest. A spiteful conversation she had with Destro sticks out in my memory (probably after she was captured or something, ugh -- but at least she had some personality).

Not to mention the record of minority female characters was nonexistent during our childhoods, or at least I can't name a single minority female character in any of the shows I watched. So double whammy if you're a young black girl looking for some sense of direction in the media.

EDIT: Though, to be fair, I can't remember a single male minority character in the shows I watched either.

[Thought]

To be fair, it might actually be a good thing that there weren't female minority characters back then, as minority characters tended to be horrible things. Do we really need a female Apache Chief, El Dorado, or Samurai (as from The Superfriends)?

But it is rather impressive how difficult it is to think of even just good female characters. I think I remember a few good ones, however.

While not a lead character, I recall Princess Zelda from the old Captain N show was fairly admirable. They took the "rescue the princess" but from the first two games and turned her into an adventurer herself who generally seemed on equal footing with Link. Though she did fall into the stereotype of the responsible woman who is the love interest of the irresponsible man.

Gadget Hackwrench, from Chip N Dale's Rescue Rangers, though again not a lead character, was one of the first smart, mechanically savvy female characters I can remember. She was stereotyped, but a lot of guys have filled that same stereotype, I think.

Then there was Gosling from Darkwing Duck, who while not the title character, was usually more competent (and adventurous) than her father.

Gi and Linka from Captain Planet weren't that bad... though Wheeler sort of had a lead character role, I guess, since he was American, and Linka was thus the sort of default love interest (because you totally couldn't have him go after Gi, for whatever reason).

Demona, from Gargoyle, was evil but she may well have been the most awesome villain of my childhood memories. And even as a villain, a lot of her evilness resulted from her desire to protect her kind (as sort of good intentions gone astray situation). And Elisa Maza, though again not a main character, is actually still a rather impressive character. Sort of the Scully of the cartoon world.

She-Ra was a fairly strong lead character; I can't remember ever watching that show, but then I also can't remember watching He-man.

Annabelle, from Eek! the Cat, is one that I'll always remember, but I can't actually remember much about the character herself...

Oooo, Rainbow Brite! Or... should I be ashamed that I was a huge fan of her when I was young? Anywho, she was a fairly strong character, from what I remember, though perhaps the general setting of the franchise leaves something to be desired?

[Lord J Esq]

Gadget Hackwrench! That's a great example. How could I have forgotten ol' Gadget? I also thought Chip was female, when I was a kid, because his voice was so high. So, we'll count Chip too.

[Sajainta]

I found this poem yesterday.  It is incredibly powerful and it made me cry.  I felt I had to share it.

blue blanket
Andrea Gibson

still
there are days
when there is no way
not even a chance
that i'd dare for even a second
glance at the reflection of my body in the mirror
and she knows why
like i know why
she
only cries
when she feels like she's about to lose control
she knows how much control is worth
knows what a woman can lose
when her power to move
is taken away
by a grip so thick with hate
it could clip the wings of god
leave the next eight generations of your blood shaking
and tonight something inside me is breaking
my heart beating so deep beneath the sheets of her pain
i could give every tear she's crying
a year---a name
and a face i'd forever erase from her mind if i could
just like she would
for me
or you
but how much closer to free would any of us be
if even a few of us forgot
what too many women in this world cannot
and i'm thinking
what the hell would you tell your daughter
your someday daughter
when you'd have to hold her beautiful face
to the beat up face of this place
that hasn't learned the meaning of
stop
what would you tell your daughter
of the womb raped empty
the eyes swollen shut
the gut too frightened to hold food
the thousands upon thousands of bodies used and abused
it was seven minutes of the worst kind of hell
seven
and she stopped believing in heaven
distrust became her law
fear her bible
the only chance of survival
don't trust any of them
bolt the doors to your home
iron gate your windows
walking to your car alone
get the keys in the lock
please please please please open
like already you can feel
that five fingered noose around your neck
two hundred pounds of hatred
digging graves into the sacred soil of your flesh
please please please please open
already you're choking for your breath
listening for the broken record of the defense
answer the question
answer the question
answer the question miss
why am i on trial for this
would you talk to your daughter
your sister your mother like this
i am generations of daughters sisters mothers
our bodies battlefields
war grounds
beneath the weapons of your brother's hands
do you know they've found land mines
in broken women's souls
black holes in the parts of their hearts
that once sang symphonies of creation
bright as the light on infinity's halo
she says
i remember the way love
used to glow like glitter on my skin
before he made his way in
now every touch feels like a sin
that could crucify medusa kali oshun mary
bury me in a blue blanket
so their god doesn't know i'm a girl
cut off my curls
i want peace when i'm dead
her friend knocks at the door
it's been three weeks
don't you think it's time you got out of bed
no
the ceiling fan still feels like his breath
i think i need just a couple more days of rest
please
bruises on her knees from praying to forget
she's heard stories of vietnam vets
who can still feel the tingling of their amputated limbs
she's wondering how many women are walking around this world
feeling the tingling of their amputated wings
remembering what it was to fly to sing
tonight she's not wondering
what she would tell her daughter
she knows what she would tell her daughter
she'd ask her
what gods do you believe in
i'll build you a temple of mirrors so you can see them!
pick the brightest star you've ever wished on
i'll show you the light in you
that made that wish come true!
tonight she's not asking
you what you would tell your daughter
she's life deep in the hell---the slaughter
has already died a thousand deaths with every unsteady breath
a thousand graves in every pore of her flesh
and she knows the war's not over
knows there's bleeding to come
knows she's far from the only woman or girl
trusting this world no more than the hands
trust rusted barbed wire
she was whole before that night
believed in heaven before that night
and she's not the only one
she knows she won't be the only one
she's not asking what you're gonna tell your daughter
she asking what you're gonna teach
your son

[ZeaLitY]

Let's aggregate news sites. It's hard to get things rolling freshly at the feminisms subreddit when news is piecemeal. We can start self.reddit discussions, of course, but they should be spice on top of a full meal of news.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/
http://www.unifem.org/
http://www.hrw.org/en/category/topic/women
http://www.unfpa.org/public/
http://www.wfsnews.org/
http://www.feministing.com/
http://borderhouseblog.com/
http://contexts.org/socimages/
http://www.vivalafeminista.com/
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/w/women/index.html

We need more, and especially more like that last one. There have to be other news aggregators and websites that have a "women" tag on their articles.

[ZeaLitY]

I have completed a second round of finding links. I now have a badass set of news and blogs sites. It's been my custom for the last two days to open all in the morning for reddit submissions, then open all again in the afternoon to pick up on any newer developments. It's easy to identify timestamped new articles, so it's not very time-consuming to review.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/
http://www.unifem.org/
http://www.hrw.org/en/category/topic/women
http://www.unfpa.org/public/
http://www.wfsnews.org/
http://www.feministing.com/
http://borderhouseblog.com/
http://contexts.org/socimages/
http://www.vivalafeminista.com/
http://www.now.org/
http://www.conversationsforabetterworld.com/
http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/blog/
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2004/10/feminism-101.html
http://www.kickaction.ca/
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/blogs.htm
http://disabledfeminists.com/
http://www.feminist.com/news/
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswire.asp
http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/cms/

MSM (we need more of these)

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/w/women/index.html
http://bbcnews.co.uk (one has to manually search articles by region/topic)

I'm sure there's news to be had at CNN and others, but it'd be nice to find more sites where articles about women can be grouped as cleanly as they are with the New York Times. More news and blog sites about women are welcome, especially from third-world sources. This week, I've observed consistently 5-6 news articles appropriate for the feminisms subreddit on the BBC each day. FafniR and I have been fighting the power well; as you can see from yesterday/today's submissions: http://www.reddit.com/r/feminisms/new/ Other contributors have been coming out in greater numbers as well. Do the impossible; see the invisible; row row, fight the power. If anything, participating in this is a fantastic way to keep up on news relevant to fighting sexism, no matter what the arena.



At the wrap of my feminisms class (which was a wonderful, educational experience), I let my professor know about this subreddit initiative. Part of the conversation strayed to my completion of Moby-Dick, and she joked that these days, it seems as if it would take a spirit of incinerating determination no less than that of Captain Ahab to successfully eradicate sexism and male privilege. Well, we don't have any goddamned shortage of that around here, do we? 

[ZeaLitY]

Awful lot of things coming down the pipe today. Upvotes are needed. A couple people are already trying to bury the article about Japanese train authorities installing cameras to catch and shame male gropers.

http://www.reddit.com/r/feminisms/new/

[Truthordeal]

Forgive me, but I'm pretty unaware of reddit and digg's rating systems and what they mean, but, I think I'm lacking some perspective here...

Is that to say that installing cameras to catch and shame these pervs is bad?

[FaustWolf]

Some jerks are going around and just downvoting everything that pops up in the feminisms subreddit for the heck of it, it's like a strategic Reddit War. Though...it does look kind of bad to downvote an article like that one. They think feminism is getting too much attention or something, I guess. But it has a deleterious effect in denying people information -- people's reddit accounts are set up to show "What's Hot" by default, and something downvoted all the way to a zero rating won't appear on that tab at all and might pass under people's radars. Whether the "What's Hot" tab is always the first to be shown may depend on account setup though, I'm not entirely sure.

ZeaLitY, if you want to organize who's assigned to which sites I'll take Borderhouse, Hathor Legacy, Images, and other media-consumption-focused ones, since the subjects they cover interest me so. I'll be willing to share of course.    I'll see if I can't do some kind of weekly commentary on a specific film, videogame, or other artifact. I just remembered I need to post a link to a really insightful discussion of the painting Madam X and the weird Victorian-era controversy surrounding it I encountered online somewhere a couple weeks back.

[ZeaLitY]

It also punishes contributors. Normally, when you contribute something of value to Reddit, you accumulate upvotes with karma for your articles and comments. People who downvote everything keep redditors at 0. There are enough of them to put some feminism articles consistently at 0, which makes the subreddit look bad (imagine seeing a main page full of 0-rated submissions). The 0-rated submissions are also subjugated under anything with a higher vote count on the main page (called "What's Hot"). In the past, this has been used to keep male apologist articles above actual feminism articles. There are also trolls who come by to post misogynistic statements, and these idiots keep each other upvoted so that these sexist comments are at the top of the heap. The only upside of mass-downvoting is that it increases the subreddit's calculated activity, which can put it higher in the subreddit ranking. This is moot for now, though; the disruptive effects outweigh the benefits.

That sounds perfect, FW. I forgot about self reddit posts; perhaps we can get some kind of interesting discussion going. It's difficult, though, with all the "I AM OFFENDED AND OUTRAGED BY THIS MAN-BASHING" trolling going on.

[GenesisOne]

I recently saw Peter Pan.  Lo and behold:

- All the Indians were women
- Some of the Lost Boys were Lost Girls
- A couple of the Pirates were women

And it was a play put on a community group with such high production design.  Wonder of wonders.

It's nice to know that the stage is opening itself up to expanded feminism in naturally-occurring male roles.

[ZombieBucky]

i hear about that a lot from mia. shes a senior and aside from being in the schools orchestra with her double bass (that thing is pretty awesome btw), she works the light and sound booth for stage productions. she told me that they scramble to find any guy interested in theater. we had planned a production of hamlet, but because there werent enough guys, the director changed it to hamlette. i asked her about it because if i had better reading skills (im not good at reading sometimes) i would love to do theater and she said that they have to scramble to find any guys interested because...
... they feel it makes them gay.
wow.
history seems to come full circle in a sense. from theater being a male only production (because of course girls suck at reading) to theater (at least in high school) being a predominately female production, not because girls keep the guys out but because the guys say that its gay. they see that girls are more interested in it and say 'oh thats a girly thing to do. imma go wrestle with this hot sweaty guy instead. thats not a girly, gay thing to do! thats manly!'
sickening.

[FaustWolf]

Fascinating insight about history coming full circle in theatre, Zombie. It's crazy to imagine that men used to dress up as women on stage, and now (in some local subcultures, perhaps, but certainly not all) some are afraid to even be men onstage. I suspect these phenomena are two sides of the same coin.

They've never been in a Lysander vs. Demetrius swordfight, obviously. Or should I say...a Lysandra vs. Demetriette swordfight?

[Lord J Esq]

Just for the record, the (double) bass is indeed muy awesome. I love those deep, rich tones.