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Let's Watch A Girl Get Beaten To Death: Joss Whedon posts on the place of women in the modern world.
I don't know how many of you know this, but I take Gender Studies at university, and I think part of the reason I'm the feminist that I am today is because of Joss Whedon. Feminism is treated as a dirty word in today's society, and I do know a few Lilith House-type girls who have earned the title of militant feminist, but the fact is that the world is not nearly feminist enough. Feminism isn't saying that, Animal Farm-style, women should be more equal than men - it's saying that we should all be treated the same way. I started watching Buffy at the ripe old age of 13, and it totally shaped my adolescence, in ways I didn't even know about until I reached university. The fact is that the way Joss writes, his stories and characters, are a huge part of my psychological makeup. I developed critical thinking skills, learnt about the world and discovered what it really meant to be a woman living in it all while watching Joss on TV. Misogynistic thinking is more ingrained in every one of us than we think; it's a subconscious part of the culture we live in, no matter what country you're from. Joss is one of the people changing that, opening our eyes to the problems with it and affecting an entire generation of (geeky, I grant you) girls and women, and he's a man. How exactly does that work? Where are the strong, intelligent women in popular culture who can be role models and heroes? Women still aren't taken seriously, are seen as inferior and weak and not as capable or intelligent as men, despite concrete evidence to the contrary, and it can be seen not only in the examples Joss mentioned but insidiously in everyday life. Every single television commercial I see is either sexist or amusing or arresting for inverting gender norms. Women sell home products, food, fashion and children's products while men sell beer, cars and tools - unless, of course, they need a sex object to help sell the car. Every single woman seen holding a baby in an ad wears a wedding ring. Have you noticed this? Do you care? It's in every little image, every trope, every marker our culture has, in spite of the way we think of ourselves as culturally evolved.
Man, now I REALLY wish I could go to Can't Stop the Serenity for Equality Now in Sydney. If you want to go and help stop the inequality, ask me how.
Green Queen
I don't know how many of you know this, but I take Gender Studies at university, and I think part of the reason I'm the feminist that I am today is because of Joss Whedon. Feminism is treated as a dirty word in today's society, and I do know a few Lilith House-type girls who have earned the title of militant feminist, but the fact is that the world is not nearly feminist enough. Feminism isn't saying that, Animal Farm-style, women should be more equal than men - it's saying that we should all be treated the same way. I started watching Buffy at the ripe old age of 13, and it totally shaped my adolescence, in ways I didn't even know about until I reached university. The fact is that the way Joss writes, his stories and characters, are a huge part of my psychological makeup. I developed critical thinking skills, learnt about the world and discovered what it really meant to be a woman living in it all while watching Joss on TV. Misogynistic thinking is more ingrained in every one of us than we think; it's a subconscious part of the culture we live in, no matter what country you're from. Joss is one of the people changing that, opening our eyes to the problems with it and affecting an entire generation of (geeky, I grant you) girls and women, and he's a man. How exactly does that work? Where are the strong, intelligent women in popular culture who can be role models and heroes? Women still aren't taken seriously, are seen as inferior and weak and not as capable or intelligent as men, despite concrete evidence to the contrary, and it can be seen not only in the examples Joss mentioned but insidiously in everyday life. Every single television commercial I see is either sexist or amusing or arresting for inverting gender norms. Women sell home products, food, fashion and children's products while men sell beer, cars and tools - unless, of course, they need a sex object to help sell the car. Every single woman seen holding a baby in an ad wears a wedding ring. Have you noticed this? Do you care? It's in every little image, every trope, every marker our culture has, in spite of the way we think of ourselves as culturally evolved.
Man, now I REALLY wish I could go to Can't Stop the Serenity for Equality Now in Sydney. If you want to go and help stop the inequality, ask me how.
Green Queen
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