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By Amelia • 13 years ago

Acceptable? Sexism on TV – How I Met Your Mother

A lot of people don’t find How I Met Your Mother problematic because they say that Barney’s blatant sexism is over-the-top and therefore won’t be taken seriously by viewers.

I disagree – I find the show, and Neil Patrick Harris’ character in particular quite upsetting. To me, that this kind of TV show, and that this character is so popular is a wonderful example of rape culture.

This clip contains a number of examples of problematic sexism to the extent of misogyny that is a theme in this show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUyXVh7YzvE

- “Bros before hos”. You know… because guys (bros) are awesome and women are all prostitutes (hos), and prostitutes are not really human.

- It is a good idea to manipulate and lie to women in order to convince them to have sex with you.

- You can tell if a woman is available for sex based on what she is wearing. Leopard print is basically automatic consent.

- It is unacceptable to have sex with someone’s mother.

- Get women drunk so they will have sex with you.

- Girl fights are sexy – in other words, girls are sex objects without feelings – take pictures!

- College girls who dress a certain way are easy… umm… easily one dimensional and exist purely for the male gaze ...
By Amelia • 13 years ago

Hen’s Night Dilemma

Wondering if any of you fantastic feminists might have some ideas or support. It’s my bridesmaid (bride’s person?) duty to organise the dreaded hen’s night. It’s highly likely that the buck’s party will involve (female) strippers (ick, on a number of levels). Part of me thinks we should get male strippers because if we can’t be equal at least we can be even? But then I realise that’s sort of petty and pointless, though it could be a laugh.

It’s just such a shame that a time when we should be celebrating two people in love and committed to each other has to be degraded like that – at the buck’s OR the ...

Wondering if any of you fantastic feminists might have some ideas or support. It’s my bridesmaid (bride’s person?) duty to organise the dreaded hen’s night. It’s highly likely that the buck’s party will involve ...
By Amelia • 13 years ago

On Beauty: What is It, and Do We Want It?

I’ve been reading Kat Banyard’s “The Equality Illusion”. The first chapter discusses body image and the emphasis that is put on the connection between beauty and a woman or girl’s worth and the damage that this can cause. And, being fairly new to the feminism thing (or rather, only recently having staked a claim in being part of it), I’ve been doing some fairly intense googling on the topics that are of concern to a budding feminist – How will I fit in, what will I have to change? The beauty issue seemed a big one to me. It also seems to be a thing that divides feminist – there are feminists who reject the ...

I’ve been reading Kat Banyard’s “The Equality Illusion”. The first chapter discusses body image and the emphasis that is put on the connection between beauty and a woman or girl’s worth and ...