21st Century Media: A Feminist's Perspective. - Comments

In modern media and literature some infamous examples I can shoot out at the top of my head would be twilight.. uh.. that's not a good example but I'm digressing... I feel like their is a lack of female heroism. I'm seeing a lot of main characters that sorta cause drama for each other but where is that hero aspect that I haven't seen in the last couple years.

I feel that as a whole, I probably fit more into the "liberal feminist" category than anything, but I honestly try not to see my feminism in that kind of light.

For instance, I volunteer on Saturdays at a foodshare garden where I grow organic produce for low income families. Since starting I have become very interested in the politics around food and the politics around the environment. These interests have impacted my feminism in certain ways because due to my own philosophies I feel that anything involving families is intrinsically a feminist issue. But I don't feel it is worth the time to call myself a "green" feminist.

Also, I feel like separating the strands as you call them is really more detrimental than anything. A person who believes all people are equal is a feminist in my opinion--whether they came to that conclusion through environmental studies, punk music, poetry, etc. I think all philosophies are connected and I think as a "third wave" on a whole the movement has a lot more things to address now than ever before.

I feel bad for you. I had even better shows than that growing up as a kid. ^_^

I hope you don't mind me asking; but what strand of feminism do you most identify yourself with?

v; Hmm, I will give you that, you got me there.

I think netflix/online media combined with negligent parents has really reshaped the whole parenting dynamic when it comes to limiting a child's consumption of media. When I was a kid, if my parents didn't want me to watch something, they sent me to my room. The only thing I had there was my cassette playing boombox. We only had one television and it was in the front room. Now, there are some pretty little kids running around with laptops, tablets, hell even cellphones that are capable of streaming things as bad as online porn. Do I think ALL third graders are able to watch adult television/pornography? No. But I think a huge percentage have a new found access to such material that I never did. I think that the truth is pretty ugly when it comes down to it.

As far as older "kids" who would see it, I typically would see a ten to thirteen year old having interest in something like Game of Thrones. The morality of that isn't my concern as much as the admittance that it happens a lot more than people think.

v; Oh please don't feel like that! Lol I just think it'd be easy for some readers to understand, like myself xP Lol.

I think it depends on the age we're discussing though. For example, I don't see a third grader watching something like Game of Thrones, or Supernatural. Not ALL third graders, but most. Then again, someone older, but still not in the range of most viewers, might.

I'll edit it shortly. I didn't even think that would be an issue, but looking at it now I feel like a dunce -_-
And I think you are wrong in your opinion about what parents allow their kids to watch. I won't say all, or even a majority--but I think it's a very large number. Even in cases where they may not normalize such a show in their children's lives, I think even more wouldn't expressly forbid it. I am not sure if there are statistics on it or not, but I might look it up and make a blog post about it later.

v; I think you should include that in your post then, that you're more assuming kids watch these shows than not.

I don't see anything wrong with someone in elementary school watching Daria, I don't recall it having too many adult themes, but shows like Game of Thrones? I don't think parents really allow their kids to watch shows like that. I'm not saying some don't, but as a majority I don't believe it's happening. I could be wrong though.

I know you said you didn't want to get into a discussion about it, so you can disregard this part of my comment, but I think men and women can relate to the experiences of one another. Not certain things no; topics such as child birth, periods, etc from women, and other things for men (can't name much because I'm a female XD) but still, you get my point.

You have a point, I mixed kid and adult shows--but that's mostly because in american society children see both. Whether they should or should not is not the point of this post, it's just assumed as fact--regard it as my bias. I watched Daria while I was still in elementary school.

Also, I'm not saying people can't find a role model in men. An unasked question in this post is why can't people (especially men) find role models in women.

**as an extra note, "role model" is a term I felt was more descriptive than "relate-able character" due to the fact I did not want to get into discussions about why men and women could/can not relate to each other's experiences. Thank you for the comment and opinion.

If a cast is full of only females, I think it's going to turn out absolutely boring. Either way though, there are ways to find shows full of females, so I don't think anyone's "limiting [women's] representation". You also have to think of the show itself. Some are supposed to be geared more towards men than women. Why would they want to throw in a bunch of girls when that's not what their viewers want? And that also ties in with them being used to forward male story lines; if they aren't supposed to be major characters, there's no sense of them being present in the show.

I know Wild Thornberries was a kid show, but shows like Buffy and Daria were not. I can't say much for Xena, because I've never watched it before.

PLL and Game of Thrones are not meant for children either. I can't say that about Mad Men, never seen it.

I mention this because you say: "what role models are we giving to the little girls of today?" when in fact the shows you annalyzed are not meant for children at all. Neither is Archer, Walking Dead, or Supernatural.

Besides that, I don't believe all little girls need female role models. A lot of my role models are in fact men.

I don't think the viewers of the shows you mention are typically looking to find a new role model. They already have the ones they like, or feel they are too old for them, although I can't speak for everyone, this is what I believe.