Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist
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0:09 - 0:13A trope is a common pattern in a story or a recognizable attribute in
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0:13 - 0:16a character that conveys information to the audience.
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0:16 - 0:19A trope becomes a cliche when it's overused.
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0:19 - 0:23Sadly, some of these tropes often perpetuate offensive stereotypes.
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0:27 - 0:32Every now and then, in Hollywoodland a character that's identified as a feminist will magically make its way
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0:32 - 0:35through the production process and appear on our television screens
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0:35 - 0:38unfortunately this is almost never good.
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0:38 - 0:42What the Hollywood machine churns out is a distorted and warped version of feminism
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0:42 - 0:45which bares little resemblance to actual feminist movements.
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0:45 - 0:48In a desperate quest to distance themselves, their plots and their characters
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0:48 - 0:53from anything that could in anyway be mistakenly mistaken for feminism
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0:53 - 1:00Hollywood 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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1:00 - 1:02That trope is called The Straw Feminist.
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1:02 - 1:08In television and movies The Straw Feminist works by deliberately creating an exaggerated caricature of a feminist
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1:08 - 1:13Which writers then fill with a bunch of oversimplifications, misrepresentations and stereotypes
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1:13 - 1:17to try to make it easy to discredit or delegitimize feminism.
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1:17 - 1:22The goal is to make feminists and our movements look completely ridiculous, over the top and unnecessary.
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1:22 - 1:29In 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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1:29 - 1:33Sadly, the Veronica Mars writing team turned the last season into a train wreak
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1:33 - 1:38partially by introducing a group of Straw Feminists as villains in the series.
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1:38 - 1:41Characters like these serve to undermine and discredit feminist movements
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1:41 - 1:47but they also serves to separate female leads who are smart, strong and witty,
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1:47 - 1:50in this case, Veronica, from any association with feminism.
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1:50 - 1:55The Straw Feminist character is part of a fictional post-feminist world that only exists in Hollywood.
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1:55 - 2:00The trope is a tool that's used to promote the fallacy that everyone is already equal.
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2:00 - 2:04What’s exceptionally frustrating is that these characters often bring up legitimate feminist concerns
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2:04 - 2:09about women’s rights and women’s equality but those concerns are quickly undermined
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2:09 - 2:14by the writers making the characters seem over the top, crazy, and extremist.
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2:14 - 2:20For example the Straw Feminist appears in Married with Children as Marcy D’Arcy, the irritating and pompous neighbour.
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2:20 - 2:27In this case, the Straw Feminist is coded as the castrating wife who emasculates and dominates her docile, stupid husband.
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2:27 - 2:30We see the trope repeated in Rugrats with Phil and Lil's mother
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2:30 - 2:34who Wikipedia describes as “Quite the jock and women's-libber”
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2:34 - 2:39and we can also recognize her as a straw feminist because of the giant woman's symbol on her sweater.
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2:39 - 2:45Much like Marcy she's framed as the castrating wife who barks orders at her submissive husband.
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2:45 - 2:49In 2001's Legally Blonde the writers threw in a Straw Feminist for cheap laughs
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2:49 - 2:52who believes that the word “semester” is an evil conspiracy against women.
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2:52 - 2:57"Take the word semester okay? It is the perfect example of this school's discriminatory preference
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2:57 - 3:01of semen to ovaries, that's why I'm petitioning to have next term be referred to as
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3:01 - 3:02the winter ov-es-ter."
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3:04 - 3:09Another problematic example comes from the Powerpuff Girls episode, “Equal Fights” in the third season.
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3:09 - 3:12The Girls encounter a female villain named Femme Fatale
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3:12 - 3:16who we can immediately see is a Straw Feminist because she has the
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3:16 - 3:20oh-so-terrifying woman’s symbol on her mask, her clothes
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3:20 - 3:22and even as her weapon.
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3:22 - 3:28The episode begins with the traditional pan around Townsville showing us that gender inequality is not a problem.
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3:28 - 3:30"A city where everyone gets their fair turn"
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3:30 - 3:32Even boys and girls on the playground get along.
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3:32 - 3:36"Your turn Jenny... think fast"
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3:36 - 3:37"Oops"
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3:37 - 3:38"Very funny Joey.
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3:38 - 3:40"You're gonna get it"
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3:40 - 3:47But this harmonious balance is deviously disrupted by Femme Fatale and her conniving, deceptive women's rights rhetoric.
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3:47 - 3:50Curiously though, Femme Fatale brings up some pretty valid points
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3:50 - 3:53about the lack of female faces on American money,
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3:53 - 3:55or the lack of female superheroes in pop culture.
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3:55 - 4:01"Surely, you've noticed, female superheroes aren't nearly as revered as male superheroes."
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4:01 - 4:02"Sure they are!"
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4:02 - 4:04"There's Supergirl, Batgirl"
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4:04 - 4:06"They're so lame"
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4:06 - 4:08"Merely extensions of their male counterparts."
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4:08 - 4:14The Girls are influenced by Femme Fatale’s malicious rhetoric to see benign, routine every day things
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4:14 - 4:17as a conspiracy against women and against them personally.
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4:17 - 4:23The writers of the Powerpuff Girls have carefully created a fantasy world without gender oppression,
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4:23 - 4:26so that they can have the Girls start seeing oppression where none exists.
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4:33 - 4:37"We saw what you did Joey Finklemeyer"
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4:37 - 4:38"Whhaaa'd I do?"
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4:38 - 4:39"Shut up!"
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4:39 - 4:42"Don't play dumb with us!"
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4:42 - 4:45"I've finally caught up on all the housework and all that's left is your room."
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4:45 - 4:47"If you could take care of that please."
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4:48 - 4:51"uh, I'll just do it later"
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4:51 - 4:54"Why don't you get some big strong man to save your precious city?"
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4:54 - 4:59"Or better yet why don't you stop making women do your dirty work and do it yourself!"
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4:59 - 5:05The problem is, all of these things that the Powerpuff Girls are complaining about are actually happening!
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5:05 - 5:07Girls are getting bullied on school yards
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5:07 - 5:11and women are overwhelmingly responsible for household duties.
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5:11 - 5:15Women are being institutionally oppressed all the time in nearly every facet of our lives.
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5:15 - 5:19Once again this trope is used to separate the Powerpuff Girls from any notion
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5:19 - 5:22that they could in anyway possibly be feminist characters.
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5:22 - 5:27Because you know you awesome, funny, world saving, independent young women
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5:27 - 5:29but you know, not feminist...
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5:29 - 5:33The straw feminist trope is taken to a whole new level in adult animation shows
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5:33 - 5:36such as South Park or Family Guy.
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5:36 - 5:42In the episode "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar" the Family Guy writers took a stab at feminist attorney Gloria Allred.
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5:42 - 5:47Allred is known for taking on high-profile cases defending women who have been assaulted or harassed.
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5:47 - 5:52In this attack, the Family Guy writers created a character coincidentally named Gloria Ironbox
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5:52 - 5:58who brainwashes Peter into thinking he is a woman, after he is accused of sexual harassment.
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5:58 - 6:04The emasculation and feminization of Peter and his sudden transformation into a feminist is played for laughs.
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6:04 - 6:08"I can't respect men, men are the reason our world is in such lousy shape."
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6:08 - 6:11"If men were as caring as women we wouldn't have crime or violence."
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6:11 - 6:15Because you know, nothing is worse in a patriarchal society then being a woman,
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6:15 - 6:18except maybe being a feminist...
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6:18 - 6:24In these fictional narratives institutional oppression and wide scale sexism just doesn’t exist.
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6:24 - 6:27It’s a carefully constructed world where feminism is no longer needed.
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6:27 - 6:31Even the comic book world delves into this trope, with Y the Last Man.
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6:31 - 6:34When all the men on earth die except for one,
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6:34 - 6:38there is a extremist homicidal group called the Daughters of the Amazons.
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6:38 - 6:42The violent, vigilante group is founded on the disdain and hatred of men
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6:42 - 6:45and anyone who mourns the death of men
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6:45 - 6:48even though there aren’t anymore men.
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6:48 - 6:49Let's get back to Veronica Mars,
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6:49 - 6:55there 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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6:55 - 6:58A group of straw feminists on campus hold demonstrations,
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6:58 - 7:02volunteer with the Ride Home Safe campus program to escort young women home,
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7:02 - 7:06and demand that the university institute an official sexual code of conduct.
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7:06 - 7:12All of these are logical, rational and important steps to creating safer college campuses.
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7:12 - 7:17However, the writer quickly dismisses these characters as irrational, stubborn, pigheaded man-haters,
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7:17 - 7:23and it serves to fulfill the tired old stereotypes about angry and militant women of colour.
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7:24 - 7:25"Pig"
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7:25 - 7:26"Rapist"
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7:26 - 7:27"Pig"
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7:30 - 7:33The writers of Veronica Mars takes the Straw Feminist to an obscene level
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7:33 - 7:38by actually having them "fake a rape" in order to blame the fraternity.
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7:38 - 7:41Women lying about sexual assault is a grossly overused myth.
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7:41 - 7:47Women generally don’t put themselves through the social shame of admitting assault for petty personal revenge.
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7:47 - 7:51In just a handful of episodes the creators of Veronica Mars undermine the work that
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7:51 - 7:56thousands of students are doing globally on there campuses to end violence against women.
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7:56 - 7:59While we see the Straw Feminist over and over again in television and movies,
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7:59 - 8:05it’s also unfortunately deployed on a regular basis by American talk shows and news pundits.
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8:05 - 8:08Mainstream religious and conservative news media often attack women with
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8:08 - 8:13deliberate misrepresentations and extreme exaggerations of what feminism is.
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8:13 - 8:17This false impression has been infused into the mainstream by popular talk show hosts
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8:17 - 8:21such as Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly.
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8:21 - 8:25You may have heard the slur "Feminazi" popularized by Rush Limbaugh.
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8:25 - 8:29A term used to discredit and demonize any woman fighting for social equality.
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8:29 - 8:34"The feminists, the feminazis have been working for years to this end,"
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8:34 - 8:38"advance women by diminishing men."
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8:38 - 8:39Ya...
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8:39 - 8:44The Straw Feminist is set up to perpetuate and advance the myth that feminism is no longer needed,
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8:44 - 8:46that we have arrived at gender equality
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8:46 - 8:51and anyone who disagrees is quickly demeaned and portrayed as an extremist.
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8:51 - 8:56This trope represents a backlash against feminism and groups supporting women’s rights.
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8:56 - 8:59As we make more gains towards equality, the backlash gets stronger.
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8:59 - 9:04It’s an old yet effective tactic but clearly it's working because I often hear young women saying,
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9:04 - 9:08"I believe in the equal rights of women but I'm not a feminist."
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9:08 - 9:10This sentiment is a direct result of the straw feminist trope.
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9:10 - 9:17Because women want to distance themselves from the extreme and false representations they are seeing on tv, movies and talk shows.
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9:17 - 9:24We 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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9:24 - 9:30and 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.
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9:30 - 9:34And Hollywood, get over your fear of strong, smart and talented women
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9:34 - 9:39and stop contributing to the backlash by writing absurd and ridiculous Straw Feminist characters.
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9:39 - 9:43Now I will leave you with Polly Bergen saying something pretty awesome
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9:43 - 9:46on the otherwise unremarkable show Commander in Chief.
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9:46 - 9:50"Look just because it matters to mom doesn't mean it matters to me."
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9:50 - 9:51"I mean, I'm no feminist."
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9:51 - 9:57"So you don't believe that women should have rights equal to those of men"
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9:57 - 9:58"w..well of course I do... it's just-"
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9:58 - 10:01"Might I suggest my dear"
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10:01 - 10:05"that you look up the definition of feminist."
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10:05 - 10:12♪ Feminists don't have a sense of humor ♪
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10:12 - 10:16♪ Feminists just want to be alone ♪
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10:16 - 10:19♪ 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
femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist |