This Makes No Sense

An interesting thing I've seen is how many feminists who talk about how women don't have to be feminine to be women, etc. are very feminine. They make the argument that femininity =/= badness, which I agree wholeheartedly about.

But then they make a weird argument. They say that there aren't enough feminine, positive characters in media. Which is true, but they say it's the fault of the masculine female characters, and, uh, I don't see any of those! When they do, they are bitter and cruel, and secretly long to be feminine.

There's also the problem of the Exceptional Girl, or whatever the term is. The problem that occurs when a show creates one female character who is wow! amazing!, but she is the only female character, AND she has no development other than being perfect (usually).

And then there's the whole matter of girl characters "proving" themselves to be as good as the guys. If girls aren't inherently considered less-than, why would we have these episodes??? And THEN, at the end of the episode, the male characters all laugh at the man she beat because "he got beat by a GIRL. its funny because she has slightly different anatomy than me". Either that or they grudgingly accept that this girl is AS GOOD AS THEM.

WE ARE SHOWING THIS TO OUR KIDS AND I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF THIS SHIT

I can't stand TV. Kids' shows need to be better quality. It's not perfect, but a good example is Adventure Time. Finn has a crush on Princess Bubblegum because she's a brilliant scientist and mathematician. Sure, it's a show about saving princesses, but all of the princesses are unique, and, GASP!, they're actually people!!! I think it says a lot that Adventure Time is hundreds of times more feminist than any other kids' show I've seen while being a show about SAVING PRINCESSES.

Another show that gets close is, I guess, Teen Titans. A 3-2 boy-girl division (if it's mostly girls it's a girls' show, of course!) and female characters with character. Sure, the outfits were weird, but at least they were better than most clothing in the superhero genre.

You know what? I think I'm going to make Chris in my story a girl and have a 7-5 girl-boy ratio. Because it isn't a book for girls, it's a book for everyone, and fuck anyone who says it can't be a book for everyone when the majority of the main characters are girls.

I'm feeling especially angry today. Can you tell?