The Feminist Fangirl

Happy 30th Anniversary Return of the Jedi

Sat, 25 May 2013 16:04:27 -0400

Happy 30th Anniversary Return of the Jedi

nerdyninjanicole: Even though she grew up playing football,...

Sat, 25 May 2013 15:10:30 -0400

nerdyninjanicole:

Even though she grew up playing football, shooting hoops and running races against all the boys in her neighborhood, U.S. 800-meter champion Alysia Montano never wanted to be thought of as one of them.

As a result, she started wearing a flower behind her right ear to remind the boys they were getting beat by a girl.

“The flower to me means strength with femininity. I think that a lot of people say things like you run like a girl. That doesn’t mean you have to run soft or you have to run dainty. It means that you’re strong.”

mariavontraphouse: zhiingenjigeshki: clintisiceman: Gloria...

Sat, 25 May 2013 13:13:24 -0400

mariavontraphouse:

zhiingenjigeshki:

clintisiceman:

Gloria Richardson pushes a national guard bayonet out of her face during a 1963 civil rights protest in Maryland.

“boy bye”

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Fri, 24 May 2013 15:25:18 -0400

themarysue: scotchtrooper: jemmalep: horniess: New Photos...

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:48:38 -0400

themarysue:

scotchtrooper:

jemmalep:

horniess:

New Photos from my Witch Cosplay Aniba (Spirited Away)

Photos & Edit by FrauDoku

Woooooooooowww.

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Fri, 24 May 2013 14:38:53 -0400

"The other, larger reason why the clip is not equivalent, and Abrams is missing the point, is because..."

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:11:31 -0400

“The other, larger reason why the clip is not equivalent, and Abrams is missing the point, is because Cumberbatch’s character is not being ogled, against his specifically expressed will, by a third party who holds his career and freedom in their hands, as scientist stowaway Carol Marcus was. In fact, there isn’t even another character in the scene! Apparently Star Fleet prisoners, men awaiting trials for terrorism and murder, get their privacy. No matter how hilariously grumpy they look.”

- There Was a Deleted Cumberbatch Shower Scene; I’m Not Impressed (via themarysue)

I don’t have sob stories like all of you. That quote there is...

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:38:00 -0400

I don’t have sob stories like all of you.

That quote there is one reason why Azula is my favorite villain in anything ever.

Because especially when villains are female—they are always given some sort of tragic place of weakness from whence their villainy sprang. And that’s fine when it’s done well. But Azula is really just coming from a place of wanting power. There is no sob story to explain her motivation.

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Thu, 23 May 2013 12:13:45 -0400

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Thu, 23 May 2013 10:09:32 -0400

"I was really excited about the new Star Wars, and I was feeling confident in Abrams at the helm, but..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:26:00 -0400

“I was really excited about the new Star Wars, and I was feeling confident in Abrams at the helm, but now I’m really not sure. After the fiasco that is the most recent Star Trek—with its blatant whitewashing and gratuitous objectification and misuse of its female characters—I really don’t want Abrams anywhere near my most beloved franchise.”

- Maybe I can put all my faith in Michael Arndt? At least I know Damon Lindelof won’t be involved.

"I’m absolutely down for defending the first-class status of genre fiction that boldly goes where no..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:41:28 -0400

“I’m absolutely down for defending the first-class status of genre fiction that boldly goes where no or few stories have gone before. But if you think that working science fiction and fantasy relieves you of your obligations to coherent plotting and character behavior, or if it’s an engine to deliver free naked ladies, then you can stay in your mom’s basement, and off my bandwagon.”

- Alyssa Rosenberg, in Damon Lindelof’s Blithe Treatment Of ‘Star Trek’ Sexism And Why Genre Fiction Gets No Respect (via themarysue)

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Wed, 22 May 2013 13:54:56 -0400

Does Han Solo complain about the Friend Zone when he thinks a girl he likes doesn't like him back?

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:44:27 -0400

fuckyeahmelancholy:

NO.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 12:02:47 -0400

hills-are-mountains: (via Tina Bob’s Burgers button badge 15...

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:01:30 -0400

hills-are-mountains:

(via Tina Bob’s Burgers button badge 15 Inch by PKPaperKitty on Etsy)

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Tue, 21 May 2013 09:49:23 -0400

"A popular star willing to talk about gender inequity, as Beyoncé has, is depressingly rare. But..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:18:41 -0400

“

A popular star willing to talk about gender inequity, as Beyoncé has, is depressingly rare. But Freeman insists flashes of underboob and feminist critique don’t mix. Petersen concurs, calling the thigh-baring, lace-meets-leather outfit Beyoncé wore during her Super Bowl XLVII halftime show an “outfit that basically taught my lesson on the way that the male gaze objectifies and fetishizes the otherwise powerful female body.” A commenter on Jezebel summed up the charge: “That’s pretty much the Beyoncé contradiction right there. Lip service for female fans, fan service for the guys.”

These appraisals are perplexing amid a wave of feminist ideology rooted in the idea that women own their bodies. It is the feminism of SlutWalk, the anti-rape movement that proclaims a skimpy skirt does not equal a desire for male attention or sexual availability. Why, then, are cultural critics like Freeman and Petersen convinced that when Beyoncé pops a leather-clad pelvis on stage, it is solely for the benefit of men? Why do others think her acknowledgment of how patriarchy influences our understanding of what’s sexy is mere “lip service”?

Dr. Sarah Jackson, a race and media scholar at Boston’s Northeastern University, says, “The idea that Beyoncé being sexy is only her performing for male viewers assumes that embracing sexuality isn’t also for women.” Jackson adds that the criticism also ignores “the limited choices available to women in the entertainment industry and the limited ways Beyoncé is allowed to express her sexuality, because of her gender and her race.”

Her confounding mainstream persona, Jackson points out, is one key to the entertainer’s success as a black artist. “You don’t see black versions of Lady Gaga crossing over to the extent that Beyoncé has or reaching her levels of success. Black artists rarely have the same privilege of not conforming to dominant image expectations.”

Solange, Beyoncé’s sister, who has gone for a natural-haired, boho, less sexified approach to her music, remains a niche artist, as do Erykah Badu, Janelle Monáe, and Shingai Shoniwa of the Noisettes, like so many black female artists before them. Grace Jones, Joan Armatrading, Tracy Chapman, Meshell Ndegeocello—talented all, but quirky black girls, especially androgynous ones, don’t sell pop music, perform at the Super Bowl, or get starring roles in Hollywood films.

”

- Tamara Winfrey Harris, All Hail the Queen? (via sparkamovement)

"Something Hollywood doesn’t seem to get: If you cast actors of color in a big blockbuster, you..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:50:25 -0400

“Something Hollywood doesn’t seem to get: If you cast actors of color in a big blockbuster, you won’t lose money. People are buying tickets for the new Star Trek movie, not for white actors. The only thing that could happen is you might actually broaden your audience, whether in an international market or just among people who are happy to see people of color get some representation.”

- I’m not going to stop being mad about this

ikenbot: Star Trek: Into Whiteness If there’s one thing that...

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:46:00 -0400

ikenbot:

Star Trek: Into Whiteness

If there’s one thing that most fans of Star Trek will agree on, it’s the fact that Gene Roddenberry’s vision for the show — and, more optimistically, for human society — was predicated on the idea that all life is valuable, and that the worth of a person should not be judged by their appearance. Much of this was done through the old sci-fi trope of using aliens to stand in for oppressed groups, but Star Trek didn’t rely on the metaphor; it had characters who were part of the ensemble, important and beloved members of the Enterprise crew, who were people of colour. It had background characters who were people of colour. And, here and there, it had anti-heroes and villains who were people of colour … one of whom, Khan Noonian Singh, became well-nigh iconic.

Image 1: “Who is your favorite villain?” ; Actor John Cho (Lt Sulu) answers.

Image 2: TOS Khan looking at a watercolor of himself. Yes, he’s wearing a dastar (Sikh turban)

Image 3: Cumberbatch and Montalbán (as Khan)

And who is now being played by white actor Benedict Cumberbatch in the new JJ Abrams reboot movie, Star Trek: Into Darkness.

We’re all cynical and jaded enough to know the standard dismissal when it comes to matters of media representation: Paramount Pictures and most film studios are not interested in diversity or visibility, they only care about the bottom dollar. Star Trek as a franchise is too much of a juggernaut to affect with boycotts. There are too many people who love it, who love those characters and that world, and will go to see the movie. And for some of these people, this devotion to the idea of a future where even South and East Asian men get to pilot a starship and love swashbuckling, where Black women make Lieutenant on the Enterprise and actually get the boy, will be trivialized and eroded and whitewashed when the most formidable and complex Star Trek baddie becomes a white man named Khan.

It wasn’t perfect in the 60s when Ricardo Montalbán was cast to play Khan (a character explicitly described in the episode script of Space Seed as being Sikh, from the Northern regions of India). But considering all of the barriers to representation that Roddenberry faced from the television networks, having a brown-skinned man play a brown character was a hard-won victory. It’s disappointing and demoralizing that with the commercial power of Star Trek in his hands, JJ Abrams chose not to honour the original spirit of the show, or the symbolic heft of the Khan character, but to wield the whitewash brush for … what? The hopes that casting Benedict Cumberbatch would draw in a few more box office returns? It’s doubly disappointing when you consider that Abrams was a creator of the television show Lost, which had so many well-rounded and beloved characters of colour in it.

Add to this the secrecy prior to release around Cumberbatch’s role in the film, and what seems like a casting move that would typically be defended by cries of “best actor for the job, not racism” becomes something more cunning, more malicious. Yes, the obfuscation creates intrigue around and interest in the role, but it also prevents advocacy groups like Racebending.com from building campaigns to protest the whitewashing. This happened with the character of the Mandarin in Iron Man 3, as well as ‘Miranda Tate’ in The Dark Knight Rises, who ended up being Talia al Ghul but played by French actress Marion Cotillard. This practice is well in effect in Hollywood; and after the negative press that was generated by angry anti-oppression activists and fans when Paramount had The Last Airbender in the works, studios are wising up. They don’t want their racist practices to be called out, pointed at, and exposed before their movies are released — Airbender proved that these protests create enough bad feeling to affect their bottom line.

So the studio has now found a way to keep it secret and underhanded. Racebending.com was there for most of the production of The Last Airbender, and were even able to correspond with Paramount Pictures about it. This time, for Star Trek: Into Darkness, their hiding and opaque practices has managed to silence media watchdogs until the movie’s premiere.

As I said, this racist whitewashing of the character of Khan won’t affect how much money this Trek movie makes. And I’m happy that the franchise is popular, still popular enough to warrant not only a big-budget reboot with fantastic actors but also a sequel with that cast. I’m happy that actors I enjoy like Zoë Saldaña and John Cho are playing characters who mean so much to me, and that they, in respect for the groundbreaking contributions by Nichelle Nichols and George Takei in these roles, have paid homage to that past.

But all of that will be marred by having my own skin edited out, rendered worthless and silent and invisible when a South Asian man is portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch up on that screen. In the original Trek, Khan, with his brown skin, was an Übermensch, intellectually and physically perfect, possessed of such charisma and drive that despite his efforts to gain control of the Enterprise, Captain Kirk (and many of the other officers) felt admiration for him.

And that’s why the role has been taken away from actors of colour and given to a white man. Racebending.com has always pointed out that villains are generally played by people with darker skin, and that’s true … unless the villain is one with intelligence, depth, complexity. One who garners sympathy from the audience, or if not sympathy, then — as from Kirk — grudging admiration. What this new Trek movie tells us, what JJ Abrams is telling us, is that no brown-skinned man can accomplish all that. That only by having Khan played by a white actor can the audience engage with and feel for him, believe that he’s smart and capable and a match for our Enterprise crew.

What an enormous and horribly ironic step backwards. For Star Trek, for media representation, and for the vision of a future where we have transcended systemic, racist erasure.

(via RaceBending)