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Yesterday was International Women's Day, which I didn't celebrate at all. The Governor General did, however, continue to make me happy by her very existence - trotting off to Afghanistan to meet with Afghan women who are clients of a Canadian development agency and then hang out with female Canadian soldiers at Canada House in Khandahar.
The GG just makes me happy. And proud - really, really proud - to be a Canadian.
Between the Bad Thing* Battlestar Galactica did on Sunday night and Veronica Mars getting walloped by The Search for America's Next Pussycat Doll and, basically, reading comic book, I've been feeling somewhat down on pop culture portayals of women. Or as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thassalia said in her post, flat out wondering why pop culture hates women?
There's no point in telling me that the question itself is an unfair generalization and there are lots of thrilling, positive images of women and girls in pop culture — yeah, yeah, whatever. *handwave*
But can anyone make a serious, factual argument that positive images of women in media are not the exception rather than the rule?
As Thea points out - that I have the time and the emotional energy to worry about how women are portrayed in media, in itself, signifies my privilege and status. That said, things could be better. I want things to be better. I want my niece to grow up with strong female rolemodels that she can identify with that represent a plurality of careers and styles and interests. I don't want to her to grow up feeling like boys are cooler than girls the way I did. I want her to know that she can be strong and capable and intelligent and adventurous and a girl and that none of these things are mutually exclusive or forbidden to her because of her sex. And then I look at the Pussycat Dolls or the fact that "tough" and "emotional cripple" are still virtually synonymous character beats for women in scifi and fantasy and it feels like I'm still standing on the outside looking in on the cool guys.
*For the record, it was the way you-know-what was handled that I find bad, not the thing in itself.
The GG just makes me happy. And proud - really, really proud - to be a Canadian.
Between the Bad Thing* Battlestar Galactica did on Sunday night and Veronica Mars getting walloped by The Search for America's Next Pussycat Doll and, basically, reading comic book, I've been feeling somewhat down on pop culture portayals of women. Or as
thassalia said in her post, flat out wondering why pop culture hates women? There's no point in telling me that the question itself is an unfair generalization and there are lots of thrilling, positive images of women and girls in pop culture — yeah, yeah, whatever. *handwave*
But can anyone make a serious, factual argument that positive images of women in media are not the exception rather than the rule?
As Thea points out - that I have the time and the emotional energy to worry about how women are portrayed in media, in itself, signifies my privilege and status. That said, things could be better. I want things to be better. I want my niece to grow up with strong female rolemodels that she can identify with that represent a plurality of careers and styles and interests. I don't want to her to grow up feeling like boys are cooler than girls the way I did. I want her to know that she can be strong and capable and intelligent and adventurous and a girl and that none of these things are mutually exclusive or forbidden to her because of her sex. And then I look at the Pussycat Dolls or the fact that "tough" and "emotional cripple" are still virtually synonymous character beats for women in scifi and fantasy and it feels like I'm still standing on the outside looking in on the cool guys.
*For the record, it was the way you-know-what was handled that I find bad, not the thing in itself.