Community is finally back from exile! I love this show and I'm glad the new season has finally started. So in honour of the return of the greatest show on television I
want to take a moment to talk about everyone's favourite straw feminist, Britta
Perry.
To be clear, I don't mean to make it
seem as though I'm dismissing Britta as a character or her contribution to the
canon of the show. I love Community and have been watching since the very
beginning. Britta is a great character and so naturally, she has a lot of flaws.
According to TV Tropes,
a straw
feminist is:
"A character whose "feminism" is drawn only for the purposes of either proving the character wrong or ridiculing them. More likely to fight an imaginary male conspiracy rather than actually help disadvantaged women, often being an out-and-out man hater with exaggerated beliefs."
This
isn't to say that Britta is bad or even problematic, or that you have to stop
liking her. You don't; and I certainly don't intend to.
The thing is, Britta is
basically harmless. She's all bluster and very little substance when it comes
to her feminism and activism, and I think that can be seen as a comment on the
thoughtlessness of modern feminism. She's a straw feminist because her
perspectives are often wrong, and transparently so. Her arguments are easy to
refute because they're so ridiculous and outlandish. Like this episode where
she says she can "excuse racism but not animal cruelty." No actual
feminist would say that out loud (regardless of what they actually
think....*ahem*) but Britta thinks nothing of it.
I don't think Britta is
presented in a way that's meant to say "hur dur, stupid feminists!" I
think she's presented in a way that allows her straw feminism to be a
reflection of her rather than on the feminist movement as a
whole, and that's one of the main reasons I think she's an excellent character
despite being a terrible, terrible feminist. Like a lot of
people, she's well intentioned, but ultimately clueless, and the other members
of the group keep her in check as necessary. Britta is a written in a way that
makes it clear that she has a lot of learning to do still,
especially since by their actions, we see that most of the other members of the
group are fairly feminist themselves. Britta uses her feminism as a shield
against the world, rather than you know, actually espousing its principles and
helping women who need it. But the show makes it clear that that's on her. At
least that's always been clear to me.
So don't think I'm
trying to say that because she's a straw feminist, you don't have to like her.
I still like her. I love her actually. But she's still, very much a straw
feminist.
I actually think Britta's approach to feminism (and later to psychology) are reflections of her ideas about education, if that makes sense. She acts, at least to me, as if the opportunity she's afforded to go to college (even Greendale) implies that she knows what she's talking about, so when she understands very little of the facts needed and absolutely none of the context that makes sense of it, she still feels like she has to be right because she can't see herself having wasted her time there.
ReplyDelete(Also, just found this blog and it is perfect. You continue being awesome.)
I hadn't thought about it like that but you have a point. In a way it's as though she think her degree/education gives her legitimacy despite having learned exactly zero.
ReplyDeleteyou're absolutely right! And i LOVE the show! It's so intelligently written and frank about human motivation and logic! it celebrates diversity and almost always has a positive message to serve with top notch comedy to boot. <3
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can help me with something. I found your article while searching for a term to describe real life people like her. "Straw feminist" describes a fictional character trope but real people with views just like hers exist!
The extreme "feminists" that helped inspire the trope are just Extremists, but I feel like there is another type forming. More and more often, I encounter women who flaunt their feminism and, while many don't cross into the castrating-type extremism, they are fundamentally misled as to what being a feminist actually means. They are almost always young, idealistic men and women. (the men have always presented themselves as self described "Feminists" who are sympathetic to the plight of women! lol) I suspect that they are the kids who grew up watching these tropes and not understanding the orchestration behind character writing. They seem to split into those who think straw feminists represent real feminism and reject it (as they should) but also reject reasonable feminists (booo!) and those who think straw feminists represent real feminism and jump on board!
Basically, I'm thinking that the tropes (like the one in powerpuff girls that I grew up with) have raised real life straw feminists that are well-intentioned but misled and not strong critical thinkers. What do we call them? How do we differentiate so that I don't hesitate to identify as a feminist for fear of being associated with them?
Maybe the true feminist just needs a fresh name or something more geared toward equality?
"Feminism" as a term even kind of supports the misconception by being grammatically gender chauvinistic. Women want equality to men because we don't have it anymore and are moving back toward it. I mean, gay rights organizations fight for equality without being Homosexualists LOL.
Maybeeee....... we're gender egalitarians. haha yes i think ill go with that from now on. "Feminism" as a term is dated and doesn't seem to be fairly accurate when describing equality between genders. and at this point, it's almost exclusively associated with straw-feministic views by everyone except those who truly understand the concept behind it. As a communicative label, it's definitely obsolete. we need to rebrand.