Leslie Knope: My Favorite Feminist

NBC's Parks and Recreation returned recently to not nearly enough fanfare. It's one of the smartest shows on TV, and has been consistently good, after a rocky start, since the beginning of the second season. The entire cast is brilliant in their specific roles (Rashida Jones doesn't get enough love because she's playing the straight man to the wackiness of everyone else) and I honestly feel like the one loose end is now gone, with um... that dude... leaving. Brandanowitz. Or however that's spelled.

But the main reason I love this show is Leslie Knope. Leslie isn't like any of the other comedic leading ladies I've come to know in my life, except for one who I have vague memories of (more on that in a bit). Leslie is a feminist, and she wouldn't deny it if you said it.

Back in the nineties (remember those?) when "girl power" started floating around as a new term, and people were talking about new wave/fourth wave versions of feminism, they'd start talking about characters like Ally McBeal and Xena. More modern example are Liz Lemon or Starbuck.

Now, I remember Murphy Brown. Vaguely. I remember her journey through the male-heavy world of the news, and I remember the single mom kerfluffle when she became, well. A single mom. But I was ten. And a lot has changed in twenty years.

Right?

Well, supposedly.

See, if you call Liz Lemon a feminist, she'll probably crack a joke, freak out, then by the end of the show go on a rant about how feminism is great, it doesn't mean she's a lesbian, and she has a boyfriend, thank you very much. It's a mixed message, with a bit of what we need (a strong woman standing up for herself) and a bit of what we don't (the association of feminism with lesbianism, and the implication that both things are bad or abnormal).

If you call Leslie Knope a feminist, she'll say thank you and show you her signed copy of This Bridge Called my Back.

The thing is that there's a difference between a feminist icon and a feminist character. The former is a symbol for those of us at home, some sort of deviation (in a positive way) from the norm of the sterotypical strong male/weak female dichotomy. The latter is actually a feminist.

There aren't many of those on TV.

I love Leslie Knope because she's not an idiot (like Michael Scott, whom she is often compared to), and she cares about her community. And while it annoys her that she's single and makes her sad that she's lonely, it doesn't rule her life. I love Leslie because she's got a picture of Madeline Albright in her office (who, herself, looked up to Xena). I love Leslie because she's got civic pride and liberal pride and because she's completely and one hundred percent aware that sexism still exists (right along with racism, homophobia, classism, etc.) and she wants to do something about it.

My all-time favorite moment of Parks and Rec comes in the "Hunting Trip" episode. Leslie has managed to finally get herself invited to the "boys only" hunting trip, and brings the rest of the female cast with her. It's a premise that starts with the ridiculousness of someone who doesn't even like to hunt getting invited only because he's a dude, and builds from there to brilliantly and bitingly showcase the very real sexism that women still face every single day.

And then someone gets shot. Please enjoy one of the (arguably, and I'll argue it) single most feminist moments on television in the last thirty years.

I love you, Leslie Knope.

Sports, Kick-Ass Women, MMA, and those creepy Female Force comics. Oh my.

Okay, something different: I like sports.

Yeah, I know.

Get ready for one of my anecdotes.

I grew up watching baseball and hockey with my dad, and playing little league during the summers. Back where I lived in Illinois, girls and boys both played baseball. Then I moved to Massachusetts, good ol' progressive Massachusetts, where girls had to play softball.

WTF, Title 9? Softball =/= baseball. Yeah, it's a sport, yeah it's hard, yeah it takes skill. But I spent 6 years playing baseball and then was told I had to play softball instead.

So I didn't, I tried out for the boy's little league and I made the team. And then my coaches wouldn't tell me how to get to the field. Or how to get my uniform. See, I made Babe Ruth. I was one of the youngest kids on the team and the only girl in the whole league.

I was 10 or 11, so I didn't understand why my mom was so angry about what they were doing. And I was shy, so I didn't push it.

If I could go back now, I'd sue their asses. Or something. And I'd play baseball.

When I hit puberty, with relatively little activity in my life and relatively large amounts of depression (puberty sucks, puberty for a gay kid in the early nineties doubley so, puberty for a gender queer gay kid in the early nineties tripley so) I put on about five billion pounds. It took me about fifteen years and some therapy to feel ready to get back into athletic activities.

So I did. I started going to Tae Kwon Do. This was something else I'd done as a kid in Illinois that stopped when I moved to Massachusetts. I've been going to an awesome TKD school for a little over a month. And twice a month this school has a teacher come in to teach students grappling. I went to the first class, had a TKD black belt as my partner, and held my own.

It was awesome.

Grappling is a big part of Mixed Martial Arts, which is a sport I got into thanks to my old room mate. I watch a lot of UFC. A lot. And one of the things about the UFC is that there are no women fighters. The only women involved (besides judges you don't see) are wives, girlfriends, and the girls in bikinis who hold the round cards. The UFC is the fastest growing sports franchise in the world, or something like that, and its president, Dana White, went on record saying he didn't see women fighting in the UFC any time soon (that was a few years ago, andI don't think his stance has changed, but who knows).

I just assumed that women weren't involved in MMA.

What a dumb assumption. After all, women are involved in boxing (more prominently now, thanks to Girlfight, Million Dollar Baby, and Laila Ali). Women are involved in martial arts (certainly at the Olympic level). So why not MMA? After all, one of the main tenets of Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, a premiere ground game technique and the one that changed MMA forever back in the day, is that the smaller, physically weaker opponent can still win with the right strategy and technique. Seems like a perfect venue for women, right?

And I found some. 'Cause I flipped on American gladiators and I saw Crush. And when I went to look up more info on Crush, I found out that she's an MMA fighter.

And she's hot. Over the next year or so, as I got more into MMA in general, I started trying to find events where women were involved as fighters. Usually I just googled Gina Carano's name, because she was The female MMA fighter. The thing is that to be a bankable female MMA fighter, you have to be hot. To be a bankable male MMA fighter, you have to kick ass.

This is the guy that just won the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter, the male version of a reality show, where 16 guys live in a house together, act homophobic and stereotypically masculine to prove that they're Real Men, and then fight each other for a chance at a contract with the UFC.

Basically it's a show that would be on Oxygen if it weren't about fighting, not that any of the MMA fanboys would admit that. (Seriously, I know professional sports are ragingly homophobic, but the UFC is like something special. I hope one day some dude kicks a lot of ass, wins a title, then comes out of the closet. Then defends his title.)

Oh, right, I was talking about Big Country.


Now, there's a lot of talk on MMA forums about how the UFC is basically going to try to drum this guy out as soon as possible because he looks like a fat hick. The fact is, he's a super-skilled ground fighter that uses his giant belly to his advantage and still has knockout power. That means he's a good fighter. And if he's drummed out of the UFC for not looking right, I'll feel a little better about the UFC as a whole, because at least they're consistent. Not that I like to look at Nogueira's face a whole lot.

But the deal is that they cast this dude in the first place, gave him weeks of screen time, and eventually a really big contract (which he did earn, yes).

And they won't give women a shot.

This goes back to what I was talking about in my last post, about female action heroes. You have to be hot to be an action hero, male or female. We're just willing to make more exceptions for the males. Would people think Daniel Craig was good looking if he didn't have a great body? Probably not. But no one calls him a "but his face" (you know, like a "butter face"?). Or makes remarks about it.

And when those male MMA fighters get in the octagon to square off, no one's commenting on how hot they are (or if they are, they're doing it in private). But it's pretty standard for female MMA fighters.

For the record, Gina Carano was recently beaten by a woman nicknamed Cyborg, who is significantly less traditionally attractive. And the female MMA buzz fell silent for a little while until a recent fight between the wife and ex-wife of some male fighters.

It's hard to find this stuff on TV, and it's hard to find a discussion of this stuff anywhere that doesn't involve comments on the attractiveness of the fighters.

So WTF does this have to do with comics?

Yeah, sorry. So remember that weird comic series Female Force? The biographical sketches of real women? Well, you know, they did a Barbara Walters one. So she mentioned it on her show The View.

Does anyone remember another time when a comic got a mention on a daytime, women-oriented television show? Anyone?

Bueller?

The deal is, this isn't a comic about female superheroes. It's a comic about real women doing real things. And it's "super" because it's effing hard to be a woman doing real things in this world sometimes. So, yeah, they deserve a bit of a shout out.

But maybe Barbara would like to show Detective Comics on her show. Or even the old standby Wonder Woman. Though at least Batwoman wears a full body suit, even if it has pointy nipples.

Or maybe they'd like to talk about how Batgirl (the current one) is juggling being a young woman, going to college, and being a superhero, under the tutelage of the old Batgirl, current Oracle, who is a woman with a disability.

Granted, it's not like male superheroes really get a lot of shout outs on national television. Not unless they're in the movies, anyway. Except, you know. They're in the movies.

Let me repeat that:

They're in the movies.

The women are few and far between, and usually relegated to the love-interested, ingenue roles.

Why?

No idea. Here's a thought.

So Robert Downy Jr. is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and brought Iron Man (the character) and Iron Man (the title) to national prominence. Hugh Jackman did the same thing for Marvel in the first place, back with the first X-Men. Meanwhile, check out the cleavage:


Gaaaaaaaaaah.

Sorry, I'm rapidly losing focus.

I suppose my point is that I'd like to see The View (or Ellen, since she's getting a Female Force comic too) take some time to put a spotlight on the positive women being written about and doing the writing/drawing in comics. So, mostly DC I guess. Though Black Widow: Origins and Spider-Woman have been pretty good.

Get some focus on those interesting character, make the companies and studios realize that women a) care and b) spend money on these things, and get them to do some decent, female-led superhero movies. Preferably written by Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, Amanda Conner, or Paul Cornell. Or me. I'll take the job!

Heh, so I guess in the end the whole point is: give me a job writing a female superhero movie.

Anyone listening?

A confession.

Another small pull list today (Wednesday Comics and Exiles #5, a title I continue to enjoy and will sadly miss after next month), and NEC finally had the first volume of Y: The Last Man in (no back issues of Secret Six, so I'm waiting for September's TP), so I picked up the first two (this is my logic). Yes yes, I've never read Y, I know. I know!

That was the confession, for those not paying attention.

But I'm reading it now. I'm about halfway through Volume 1, Unmanned, so... three issues, I think.

Yeah, I love it. The storytelling is snappy, the content is mature, a woman co-wrote it (and draws some mighty nice art), and the story itself is interesting.

When I was in college I took a class called... actually, I don't remember. But it was about Utopian and Dystopian fiction, and it was taught by a professor that had formerly been part of the Women's Studies department, but had left in a flurry of political intrigue and gone to the Comparative Literature department. Not that I knew that at the time. I was just into post-apocalyptic science fiction, and needed a Gen Ed, so I took it. We read some interesting stuff, some boring stuff, and some good stuff.

And we read this book called Egalia's Daughters. The premise was that this world existed where females were dominant and males were oppressed. But, like, just completely opposite. Like that one episode of Ellen where the majority was gay and the minority was straight. Complete opposite things don't really work for me, because, well. Reality. I think the intent was to say that women would be just as bad in power as men are, which makes sense in the context of that professor (like I said, she'd left the Women's Studies department, and I'd found out it was because she'd become a vocal "anti-feminist") but which fell really flat in the context of the story. I don't know, maybe it was the translation, or maybe it was the fact that the most memorable scene in the book was one where the male protagonist was gang raped by some women... who rubbed themselves against his thigh.

Not that that's not a violation, but I don't even recall there being any penetration. And this led to a quasi-interesting discussion about the nature of rape, which I had in a way more interesting context in my 1L criminal law class a few years later, but it just really took away from the book. The scene was almost comical. Also there were a lot of really ignorant things said during that discussion that got us off on tangents.*

Speaking of tangents, my point was that Y reminds me of that book, but in a good way. Like, this was what we should have read in class. It doesn't show women as the exact same as men, but it shows them acting similarly in difficult situations (okay okay, I'm only three issues in, so we'll see), thereby showing actual equality. It's not ridiculous, it's very realistic and that makes it much easier to connect to and much creepier. I love me some well-done post-apocalyptic fiction.

I'll probably write the occasional reactionary post as I read through the ten volumes. Last year Pia Guerra was supposed to go the Gallifrey One convention, but lost her passport (or something). I hope she goes this year. By February I'll have finished the books and would really be interested in talking to her.

Anyway. I'm finally reading Y. There we go, confessed and absolved.



*To be fair, I tried re-reading the book about a year ago. It was even worse than I'd remembered, and I failed to see the point to it at all. The males weren't "men that are oppressed," they were written like caricatures women in our culture, but with penises. And the same for the women: caricatures of men, but with vaginas. Satire!fail.

Girl Wonder, but Not Wonder Girl.

So the DCU blog gave us another cover shot fo the new Batgirl. She's got purple eyes. Gasp. Shock. Awe. I don't really care. The only answer I could possibly be annoyed with would be Barbara Gordon. Other than that, let's just reveal who she is an move on.

I mean, I'm assuming she's a she. 'Cause, after all, her name is pretty clear. Batgirl will always be female. Batman will always be male. (Good thing Bruce never took on a female side - OH WAIT.) Luckily Superman's been cloned so there can still be a Superman if Clark ever decides to retire. Whew. And Wonder Woman is, well. You know. She's actually one of the rare examples of a gendered hero-name getting first billing. But her version of first billing is pretty pale compared to the other Big Two of the Big Three (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman).

Considering I took An Awful Lot of Women's Studies classes (enough to get a degree in it, actually), usually with a lot of reading about critical race and gender theory, I don't remember a lot of the buzzwords I'm supposed to. I've been out of Academia for awhile now, and that kind of stuff just doesn't stick with you unless you practice.

Most of my dislike of various sexist, heterocentrist/homophobic, and racist images in comics (and the rest of pop culture) boils down to common sense. At least I think it's common sense, until I mention my frustration with Yet Another Crazy Lesbian Storyline and someone goes "huh?"

Seriously, it should be weird for everyone that most of the time you remember seeing a lesbian on television, she was pregnant or wanted to be pregnant or had just been pregnant and was fighting for her right to have her child.

This should bother people on so many levels.

Anyway. Pop culture. Women. Where was I?

Oh, my favorite Robin. (No, really, that's where I was. I swear.)

My favorite Robin is Carrie Kelly. Carrie came around in this dark and grounbreaking Elseworld right after Jason Todd "died". She wasn't my first Robin.* My first Robin was the Dick in the 60s TV show. But that's sort of my point. I grew up with Robin "the boy wonder". And then Frank Miller gave us Carrie Kelly, this spunky (hey, remember that word?) young girl who pushed and pushed until she was accepted. And she was fearless. Or she seemed fearless, until that scene on the roller coaster.

Good little soldier, Carrie Kelly. She was a Robin for the end of the world as we knew it. I was bummed when she ended up as Cat-Girl in the sequel. For a few reasons: one, Bruce's relationship with her bordered on romantic, and setting her up as an heir to Catwoman just reinforced that. Two, I really really really really hate hero names with genders in the title. Thanks a lot, Nietzsche. Three, because of two... it took a lot from the character. She'd gone and turned the original boy wonder into a role that didn't need a boy, thus freeing it from the requirements of having a specific (male, of course) gender. Stephanie Brown should thank her (and I should read more of her run as Robin, and I will be upset for similar reasons if Steph is the new Bat-Girl).

Of course, as Cat-Girl she was also brutally attacked by the original Robin and mangled for life. As the non-gendered Robin she was strangled, shot at, et cetera, but as Cat-Girl, her physical features were literally shredded.

And for me it's common sense that that is Some Very Bad Symbolism Right There, but I don't think it is for everyone else.

Which is probably why the female characters in comics still have a long way to go.




* This idea of having a "first" anything only really came to me when I got into Doctor Who fandom. In DW we have long and drawn out conversations about our first Doctor, our favorite Doctor, our first companion(s) and our favorite companion(s), and said conversations usually involve a lot of geeky talk about the minutia of episodes, the context of the era they were broadcast in, and some good old fashioned fisticuffs. Okay, no fisticuffs, I made that up.

Space Girls Gone Wild. For Real Real.

Okay, I admit that I have very little familiarity with Power Girl. I have never read any of her stuff before, and only know the history I've read about her either on the internet or in various TPs or other comics where it's mentioned. I know her chest size is some kind of running joke, which... grates, but. Whatever. "Eyes up here." Yeah, it's just so funny every single time. Har har.

SoI have to ask. Is the entire title meant to be a commentary on feminism, an attack on feminism, or is it just stupid?

Because. Seriously.

DC released its September solicits on Monday (?), including this gem of an arc title: "Space Girls Gone Wild". (Okay, okay, this started in the August solicits, but I didn't read those. And it didn't have a cover with the "trio of sexy alien marauders".) Cool. I mean, it's not like Girls Gone Wild is a misogynistic series of videos that takes advantage of inebriated and peer-pressured young women for the voyeuristic pleasure of men (and some women, maybe?). Sure, they've got their staged porn scenes with actors, but most of the draw are the real women that do various sex acts for the hordes of men watching in person and at home.

So I'm really excited for this arc, needless to say. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the actual videos and more to do with having a catchy tag line, but really DC. If I were your target audience (a horny guy?) I'd probably still be annoyed. Or maybe I'd be busy watching GGW. I don't know, because I know I'm definitely not your target audience (let's talk post Detective Comics, btw).

Like it's not bad enough that Power Girl's chest is still a running joke in 2009?

So I went into PG #2 this week already in a bad mood. And what do I get? Bestiality! A giant ape (get it! ape! like! chest beating man!) that's really a dorky, sickly guy who's trying to overcompensate! Bestiality and blood play! Hysterical mom-scientists and rational guy-scientists! Jokes about how PG doesn't use her brain! Blondie remarks! Chest jokes!

By the way, I think I managed to get the variant cover, which didn't have a slightly-cranky looking PG with a ferocious Ultra-Humanite behind her (edit: that one was by the interior artist, a woman, thanks for the correction, Michelle). Instead I got an almost Alex Rosseque and statuesque PG with her fists on her hips and cape flowing in the wind (and, you know, giant breasts, because yeah).

I suppose I can take comfort in the fact that PG will eventually beat the Big Bad Ape-man. I suppose I can also take comfort in the fact that Karen Starr is sort of a kick ass liberal business woman (I don't know if she's a feminist yet, I haven't seen enough of her, but it seems like she is in the over-the-top way that men write feminists, you know... actually, this should be out of the parenthetical).

Just to grossly generalize (how's it feel?), men seem to have two ways of writing feminist characters in comics (with two exceptions): either as man-haters or as hard-working women just trying to get by who constantly (and I mean constantly) have to deal with sexism, but don't want to. Karen Starr seems to fall into the latter category. Nevermind the fact that there are many shades of feminism (which leads me to my exceptions, because I think Greg Rucka and Paul Dini both do great jobs with strong women that I think would be called feminists if everyone weren't so afraid of that word).

So if there are any long-time Power Girl readers out there, I'd really like to know:

WTF?