The Strident Feminist

Take a moment and think about the word “feminism”.

It is likely you associated it with things such as “humorless”, “hairy legs”, “ugly” and “man haters”. But have you ever encountered feminism and its causes in real-life? Or are you judging the entire cause by what you’ve seen in the media?

As mentioned in previous posts, when we do not encounter a certain type of person in our everyday life (e.g. the Arab), we tend to narrow our opinion on them to what we have seen in media. And when the media only represents this person by a one-dimensional stereotype, we start to identify that particular group of people with those generalizations. The same goes for certain ideas.

Stereotyping can have purposeful intentions and definitely creates funny situations. But although stereotypes may be used for comical sense at the surface, some have much more serious subtexts when we dig a little deeper. One such stereotype is the one of the strident feminist (also referred to as straw feminist).

The strident feminist is mainly portrayed by an annoying, unattractive woman/girl who is unreasonable, extreme and/or ridiculous. Some examples from popular culture:

Jessie Spano in Saved by the Bell

One episode from The Powerpuff Girls features a character named Femme Fatale. She is an obvious representation of feminism (her uniform even includes the female symbol). Throughout the episode, she manages to turn the girls into raging feminists, thereby disturbing the perfect harmony of their town.  

Liz Lemon from 30 Rock uses feminism as an excuse for being single. On Valentine’s Day she hides her insecurity about not having a boyfriend and claims” "I will buy some cookies, but not for Valentine’s Day. Instead, these cookies celebrate the February 14th birthday of Anna Howard Shaw, famed American suffragette. Happy Anna How Shaw Day to you, Evelyn. A happy Anna Howard Shaw Day to us all!"

The movie Legally Blonde includes a character named Enid. She is arguably the most annoying character in the film. One conversation has her protesting against the term “semester” as it signifies the preference of semen over ovaries. She also mentions that she will therefore petition for the next term to be called “ovaster”. Funny, ridiculous, very harmful.

Feminism is about creating equality between men and woman. Nothing more, nothing less. Stereotypical, negative stereotypes that claim to be feminist characters are giving the cause a bad name.

Why is this hurtful? It alienates people from the idea. In the case of feminism, it makes people think that the only people who associate with it are ugly, unreasonable man-haters. Now what woman would want to join that movement? Same goes for other straw stereotypes such as the “religious freak” and the “tree-hugger”. These stereotypes take one single characteristic and blow it up to a very twisted representation of the original idea.

It’s interesting how this misrepresentation can turn:

into:

This only illustrates how influential media is in this age we live in. Now we’re not saying that the media are the reason for every single stereotypical idea in our society, but they do sustain it. Whether a stereotype starts in society or in the media, they complement and reflect one another. What is seen in the media practically always has some origin in real-life. At the same time, the ideas and opinions we have are often influenced by the movies and TV programmes we watch daily. Again, we stress the importance of being critical of what you see in the media. 

The Smart Asian

There was a time when most of what the West saw of East Asians were either cheap labourers useful in mining and building rail roads, or as enemy soldiers during the Vietnam and Korean wars in the latter half of the 20^th century. That time is not today. Today, East Asians, especially Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese and Taiwanese, are mostly associated with smart stuff. Say, robotics. Sleek, high-tech gadgets. Impossible skills when it comes to various field, including music, but mostly regarding science and mathematics. Suffice to say, as far as the West is concerned, Asians are smart. And as ever, popular media reflects and reinforces this image on a regular basis. Take for example an episode of Family Guy, in which, after being asked to take out his calculator, Peter Griffin sets an Asian child on his desk. 

C'mon, do math

Hiro Nakamura from Heroes, was a 

computer programmer before discovering his abilities.

He even has the glasses to match.

Interestingly, there does seem to be some truth in this stereotype; whilst only about 4% of the US population is American-Asian, 18% of students at Harvard, 25% of students at Columbia and 24% of students at Stanford are of Asian descent. There are even theories that some universities have an informal quota on Asian students to prevent them from outcompeting Caucasians.  This begs the question if Asians are per definition more intelligent than other races. Asking questions like this is treading on thin ice, as it can result in making social hierarchies on a racial basis. However, current research indicates that the difference in educational success in more likely to be due to different attitudes towards school and learning, rather than a biological advantage.

Even though this stereotype may seem to relate to reality, it is important to note that it can warp people’s view of the stereotyped group, and can cause things such as implied expectations (and resulting pressure or disappointment), and self-fulfilling prophecies. Luckily for us, there are also plenty of other Asian stereotypes; did you know, for example, that the majority of Asians know martial arts? They also tend to own restaurants or local stores, and prefer to travel in large groups of fellow tourists, snapping pictures of themselves posing in front of just about anything remotely interesting, flashing a V-sign.

The Bridezilla

Another gender stereotype based on static notions of women’s desires. The bridezilla is the creature a bride-to-be turns into when her wedding day is coming close. She becomes overly emotional, irrational and intolerant of anything that goes against her idea of the perfect wedding. Furthermore, she does not care about anyone else’s feelings, including the groom to be.

Cracked.com explains the phenomenon by the following steps:

* Bridezillas will do anything it takes to make their special day perfect. Even if this means destroying friendships, the marriage in question, or even whole cities.

*  Bridezillas seem like normal human girls, until the wedding planning begins. By that point it's too late.

* Anyone woman you know could be a bridezilla. Your sister, your best friend, even that girlfriend you've been considering popping the question to.

This stereotype is relatively new as the commercialization of big, white weddings emerged during the late seventies. It is built from the general belief that this extravagant wedding is every girl’s biggest dream and life goal. The main drive of the Bridezilla is to make her wedding day perfect. And as perfection an impossible goal, she is bound to go a little crazy when things go wrong.

Cracked.com further identifies a list of “symtoms” that may indicate the presence of a Bridezilla, including:

*Disregard for groom's preferences

*Constant insistence that she is not being all that particular

*Constant reminders that she has been planning her wedding since she was a little girl

*Overuse of the word "perfect"

*Disregard for politeness or even civility when conversing

*Stomping of feet

*Shrieking tone overtakes voice

The stereotype does not appear to be harmful at first sight. However, the term “bridezilla” already carries a misogynistic tone. It also suggests that a big, fancy wedding should be what girls should want and justifies their irrationality, just for this one time.

The Bridezilla stereotype is generally used in comedic narratives such as rom-coms and sitcoms:

"Bride Wars": a movie based on the stereotype

Monica from “Friends” stops at nothing to get her perfect dress

“Bridezillas” is a reality TV series that centers around newly engaged women and their (crazy) journey to the big day

The Mafia

Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface 

Mafiosi have, for a long time, been compelling villainous stock characters that represented the suave organized crime system that is common to many large cities and other areas of the world. There are many, many variants; the Russian ‘Mafiya’, the Chinese Triads or the Yakuza in Japan. The stereotype of organized crime the West is most familiar with is, however, the Sicilian or the American-Italian mafia. These characters live by a strict code of honour and consider family to be the most important. Though especially the actual American mafia has been losing power over the last decades, ‘the Don’ stock character of a shrewd, ruthless, gentlemanly mob boss who makes offers people cannot refuse, still survives to this day. If any character remarks how nice something looks, and what a shame it would be if something happened to it, expect them to be part of the local crime syndicate. The same rule applies to characters saying ‘capisce’ a lot.

Sometimes, the big bad of a story is, for whatever reason, unavailable for the weekly dose of mayhem a series needs. It is not uncommon for writers to then rely on this stereotype, as it provides a simple and recognisable throw-away villain, while also illustrating the depths of depravity  in the area the hero is active. The Batman comic series for example, has several Mafiosi as smaller villains, such as Carmine “the Roman” Falcone.

  

However, there is also plenty of media out there which has Mafiosi as main protagonist or antagonist. Think The Untouchables, a 1987 movie on a group of Prohibition agents in 1920s Chicago. Or, of course, The Godfather from 1972, which tells the story of the fictional Corleone family.

  

Though the media representation of the mafia and especially the romanticized ‘Don’ image makes for compelling characters, it does have some potential pitfalls. Aside of, in some ways, misrepresenting organized crime and making it look really cool when it really shouldn’t be, especially the way in which the American-Italian mafia has been represented has led to disadvantageous views towards migrants (of Italian descent in particular). Migrants, in any situation, are often suspect to a difficult position in society where they cannot speak a country’s language, don’t understand the culture and have difficulties integrating. Negative stereotyping in the media, in both fictional series or in news reports, can decrease the migrant’s opportunities of getting a job or education and can increase the chances of discrimination. In some cases, this results in marginalization of immigrants, meaning that they cannot participate in society as a whole and are ‘pushed to the edges’. Often, this also means residential segregation, where migrants live in poor slums where opportunities for social climbing are few. Some people in these areas are thus pushed into the criminal circuit, resulting in more negative stereotypes and news attention, creating a loop difficult to break out of. Early Italian migrants in the US were heavily discriminated against, and there are reports how this resulted in them accepting jobs in the bootlegging circuit or the racketeering business, both of which were often related to the organized crime in the area.

The Godfather is the best known Mafia film, often said to 

have created the Don stereotype as it is today

A spoof of the mobster stereotype in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. 

Apparently, Mafiosi only speak incomprehensibly 

when they've just visited the dentist. 

The mafia-inspired sharks in Shark Tale are led by Don Lino, 

voiced by Robert De Niro, who also played Al Capone 

in The Untouchables

Even Springfield has its branch of the mafia, 

represented by Fat Tony in The Simpsons 

The Damsel in Distress

The damsel in distress is a stereotype that has often been used in the earliest fairy tales, and can still be seen in modern popular culture. The stereotype is a female character (obviously) who finds herself in a situation that requires someone to save her. She is portrayed as helpless; unable to or reluctant to do something about the situation herself. The pursuit of the rescuing of the damsel in distress is often the event that puts the characters, and the plot, in motion.

The stereotype can easily be traced to the very first Disney princess: Snow White (film was released in 1937). This beautiful lady takes a bite from an apple and seemingly dies. But then a prince appears, and in the ban of her beauty, kisses her, and thereby rescues her from the spell.

 Of course, many of the other Disney princesses and other fairy tale characters are also part of the stereotype. Cinderella needed the prince to save her from the horrible life with her stepmother and –sisters, Sleeping Beauty also required a kiss from a handsome prince to wake her from a long nap, and Meg’s soul was luckily saved by Hercules.

The stereotype is particularly harmful when used in movies for children as they reinforce stereotypical gender roles and send little girls the wrong message: “don’t worry when you’re in trouble, some handsome stranger will come and rescue you”.

Although fairy tales are full of damsels in distress, live-action TV and film are also guilty of containing quite a few examples.

A clear example is Rose from Titanic. Jack even saves her life twice (once when she slips after he talks her out of committing suicide and at the end).

Damsels in distress are also very common in movies where male characters are to be seen as heroes:

Spiderman

Bond girls are very often damsels in distress

Pretty Saint, Ugly Sinner

One of these two kicks puppies for a sport. Guess who.

Go on, I dare you.

Very simply put, within media there is a strong correlation between a character's looks and their morality. Any protagonist, especially in a visual medium, is unlikely to be anything less than ‘Hollywood Common’(AKA real-life head-turner). Villains come with a little bit more variety; most ugly character can safely be assumed to be either moving stage-props, or bad guys, but there is also the Evil is Sexy factor to take into account. Generally however, the distinction between the two is made quite clearly, allowing any genre-savvy hero to safely navigate his story-verse.

This stereotype is so frequently used that aversions are becoming as common as the real thing, where beautiful characters are, against expectations, actually mean or evil, while ugly characters are kind. In fact, there are plenty of examples of stories who try and tell their audience not to judge a book by its cover: think Beauty and the Beast, or Wickham from Pride and Prejudice, who is handsome and charming enough in the beginning, but later turns out to be a jerk. Thus, a very wide range of beauty/goodness combinations are possible. This is especially true for more realistic media, which portray a vast range of beauty in their cast and has characters which are morally grey rather than black or white. Still, this stereotype remains present in almost all media. Maybe it’s just because people prefer to look at pretty people.

A person’s attractiveness has actually been shown to play a large role in the way they are approached by others. There’s a little thing called the halo effect, which explains how people’s judgements of another person’s traits influence their overall opinion of this person. For example, if someone is known to be kind, people consider this person trustworthy, even though these two are not necessarily related. And when someone is beautiful, people expect them to be friendly or competent as well. This system influences things like job interviews or dates, and is even important in things as presidential elections!

To give some examples:

I think there’s little need to point out who is the evil one, huh?

From Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

To the left: kind and understanding teacher.

To the right: Malicious and child-abusing counterpart.

From Matilda

And this, dear children, is why you should never do evil. It is bad for the skin.

And the nose.

From Harry Potter

The Jock

The Jock: a stereotype that is present in virtually every teenage movie. He is a good-looking boy who usually engages in a team sport such as football, basketball, lacrosse, etc. The jock is the alpha male of a group of cool boys who follow him in his every move. Despite his personality, he is one of the most popular guys in school.

Character traits include:

*Aggressive

*Arrogant

*Unintelligent

*Abusive use of alcohol and drugs

*Sexually active (with many beautiful girls)

*Bullies those less popular (such as nerds)

Harvey

T-Birds

The stereotype has several variations. For example, Harvey from Sabrina: the Teenage Witch is athletic and dumb but a genuinely sweet guy. And the T-Birds from grease do not engage in sport but are within the jock-stereotype based on populairty and intelligence.

The term “jock” is believed to go all the way back to 1963 and is derived from the word “jockstrap”, an undergarment worn to protect the male genitals while playing sports. Nowadays, the term is widely used in Western culture and has created the negative stereotype of the male athlete.

It is a general belief that intelligence and athletic success are mutually exclusive. This has fueled the generalization that all athletes are dumb. The female equivalent can partially be seen in the dumb blonde stereotype (where pretty girls are considered stupid). However, studies have found that there is no correlation between academic and athletic success. The stereotype is therefore based on false assumptions and portrays athletes in a negative light.

Other examples from film and TV:

Nathan from 'One Tree Hill'

Andy from 'The Breakfast Club' 

Jackson from 'Teen Wolf

Action Girl

So much for Disney girls only being damsels in distress

There was a time when the vast majority of women in media who weren’t ugly, evil, or both, did nothing more than sit around, be pretty and let the hero save them from the dragon, riding of in the sunset with them. Or baking them a cake.  That time has since passed. While the damsel in distress is still used in some settings, and gender issues have not left media entirely, the last decades has seen a huge increase of female characters who are not scared of getting their hands dirty and kicking as much, or even more, ass as their male cast members.

These characters come in a wide variety of flavours, from cat-suit clad sexy spies to friendly moms who go mama bear-mode when their children are in danger, all share one trait, and that is their capability of dishing out some serious ass-whooping. This stock character actively defies the ‘women stay in the kitchen’ attitude that is associated with traditional female gender roles. However, the character itself is not without gender issues of its own, depending on the way it is handled. Some action girls are subject to objectification and are mostly in the show because their hot; after all, running around performing martial arts, sword fighting, gun slinging or spell casting can’t help but keeping you in shape. Additionally, there is sometimes a correlation between level of viciousness and badassery and moral standards. Dark action girls fighting on the villain’s side get more action, but it seems to imply that good girls can be part of some of the action, but shouldn’t overindulge. On the other hand, there’s the faux action girl, who is stated to be an action girl and to be on par with the guys, but somehow always ends up being kidnapped, curb-stomped or for whatever reason in need of saving or excluded from the actual fighting.

As illustrated with the above picture, Disney’s animated films have increasingly shown characters like this; early works such as Snow White and Cinderella showed rather passive heroines, as opposed to characters such as Mulan (who saves the whole of frickin’ China) and Esmeralda (remember those ten guards who failed rather miserably in capturing her? Also, she stood her own quite nicely against Phoebus) from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Some other examples:

Izumi Curtis, a bear-wrestling housewife 

from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Eowyn of The Lord of the Rings is no man, as the Witch King would do well to remember

Kung Fu Panda’s Tigress (nearly) putting the Dragon Warrior out of a job

Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender never misses out on any action. 

Bonus points for being a tiny girl. And blind.

Lucy Lui as the compelling dark action girl O-Ren Ishii from Kill Bill

Van Hellsing’s Anna Valarious apparently only has the sword for show: 

Out of the ten significant brawls in the film, she’s won two 

The Sassy Black Woman

Black people –and women especially- are often believed to be more outspoken than Caucasians. It would prove interesting to stop and reflect on where this stereotype comes from. The origin of the sassy black woman can be traced back to the seventies where both the civil rights movement and the feminist movement greatly influenced the African American woman. Women were give new liberty and were encouraged to be more outspoken. Blaxploitation in films of the 70’s and 80’s consequently developed the stereotype into what it is today. Although the stereotype is generally respected and opinioned, it denies the individual persona of each African American female.

The main features of the sassy black woman include:

*Solid confidence

*Speaking her mind

*Extrovert character

*Sexually assertive

The stereotype can also include negative characteristics:

*Controlling

*Selfish

*Rude

*Emasculating

*Often a bit overweight

Some examples from popular culture:

Mo'nique (in practically every role)

Queen Latifah (also in the majority of her works)

Wanda Sykes' character Barb in The New Adventures of Old Christine

Effie White in Dreamgirls

Tyler Perry's character of Madea

The Noble Savage

This is a character who, despite being of a barbaric or savage tribe, is portrayed as highly moral and often a great deal more noble than members of the dominant race in the story. The stereotype was especially popular in the Romantic period around the early-to-mid 19^th century, when artists and authors sought to escape from the cold rationality of the Enlightenment, and thus idealized uncivilized races who, unlike the civilized Westerners, lived a simple existence in touch with nature.

While it is, at face-value, a ‘positive’ stock character that portrays members of a different race in a friendly light, this stereotype still has some unfortunate implications. The biggest problem with it is that it ‘others’ the ‘savage’, meaning that the savage character is portrayed as distinctly different as the main characters, creating an ‘us vs. them’ situation. Furthermore, such a generalized portrayal oversimplifies the foreign culture.

Due to the recent rise in recognition of the importance of racial sensitivity, this stock character is becoming more rare in popular media. There is one exception to this, and that is the science fiction genre. Here, humans may encounter aliens who fit the noble savage stereotype, as happened in James Cameron’s Avatar. Other examples include Disney’s Pocahontas or the Lakota in Dances With Wolves.

The Arab

What features come to your mind when looking at this picture?

Arabs have long been stereotyped in the media. A clear example of the aggressive Arab can be seen in the children’s film Aladdin. The film starts with a visual of the desert and a song that includes the lyrics:

“Where they cut off your ear

If they don't like your face

It's barbaric, but hey, it's home"

When princess Jasmine gives a single apple to a hungry child without paying, the Arabian owner intends to cut her hand off. Throughout the film Arabs are depicted as mean, unreasonable people.

Hollywood has made it a habit to portray Arabs in a negative light. Movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Executive Decision also dehumanize Arabs by killing them off cold-bloodily.

Initially it looked like Rules of Engagement were to counter this dehumanizing of Arab people by showing their pain and suffering. The movie included a sad little Arab girl who has lost her leg, provoking empathy on the audience’s part. But later on, the same little girl is shown to be a killer. The massacre of Arabs at the conclusion of the movie implies that the death of even young children is justified.

Arab women are also very narrowly portrayed in media. Either they are exotic belly dancers or veiled women in the background.

When direct encounters with the Arab world are missing, it is inevitable we use the media as the main source of information. Therefore, upon hearing words like “arab” or “muslim” most westerners associate them with negative implications such as terrorism. This stereotype instills a negative prejudice against the Middle Eastern world and labels a group of individuals as a result of false representations.