You’ve raised an important issue — but it boils down to this. Nobody really knows what sort of feminism they want. You can find feminism wherever you look and you can rubbish faux-feminism wherever you find it. But your faux-feminism is someone else’s real feminism.
I remember being absolutely lambasted by a female friend for saying that ‘Wonder Woman’ wasn’t a feminist movie, it was a movie written to appeal to feminists. The fairly heated response centred around the fact that it was a woman in a lead role, a super-heroine that girls needed to see. My counter arguments were that she was a) heavily sexualised and b) was fairly passive in the plot. The truth is that both of us were correct. And both of us were wrong, it depends on how you like your feminism served.
It’s become the done thing recently to bash Whedon, as you’ve done here — but the man was writing and show-running complex female characters, complex female friendships and meaningful lesbian relationships in the late nineties. At the time, it was what the world wanted and needed. Now it isn’t. That doesn’t devalue what he did and where he sits in the pantheon of TV writers shaping the cultural landscape. It’s also important to remember when you’re slamming Whedon you need to be careful not to erase the work of Marti Noxon (et al) who had a huge part to play in Buffy. Noxon wrote a significant amount of the episodes, was instrumental in many of the arcs and steered the show as show-runner in the final few seasons.
And so….
There’s no consistent branding for feminism, there’s just opinion, and those opinions clash all the time. As my friend and I agreed to disagree about Wonder Woman the discussion ended by me saying ‘Joss Whedon did this whole sexy woman kicking men in the face thing 18 years ago’. I suggested that ‘Ladybird’ was intrinsically more feminist though less immediately inspiring than Gal Gadot in skimpy armour — I was immediately accused of Mansplaining female culture. And perhaps I was… it all depends how you like your feminism served.
Another great article — I love the ones I can disagree with :o)
