If there’s anything that’ll spur me to get back to my blogging, it’s fangirl feminist rage. And in today’s edition, we have an absolutely boneheaded, sexist piece of crap in the form of Moviefone’s “Girl’s Guide to the Avengers”.
Seriously, writer? Instead of writing an intelligent guide to the movies for people who aren’t already fans, you write this? Using idiotic, sexist stereotypes? Sorry. Even as a humorous piece, it fails horribly.
A quick note: Moviefone has now added a disclaimer at the top of the article in an attempt to address criticism. I still think the whole thing is a hot sexist mess.
Let’s do a quick rundown of the most egregious bullshit:
As your boyfriend probably told you, “The Avengers” is hitting theaters this Friday. And you, dutiful girlfriend, are attending. But you hate action movies and you’ve never even read a comic book. (Of course, that’s not a slight against the girls who actually do read comic books — i.e. real fans, actual people with varied interests — but for this, let’s just go with the stock view of ladies, ladies!)
That little “Oops, I didn’t mean to offend girls who like superheroes!” line really isn’t helping, since you’re still writing an article entirely based around the idea that women don’t like icky boy things, so here’s how you can please your boyfriend (which is obviously a woman’s only goal in life). Psh.
Including cocktail introductions a la “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and boyfriend impressing tidbits, below is everything you need to know about “The Avengers.”
…Seriously?
What NOT to say:
“Do you think Scarlett Johansson is pretty?”
“Oh, so it’s like the ‘New Years Eve’ of superhero movies?”
“Who could concentrate on the story with all those biceps?”
“Boys are so weird.”
Yes, because every girl going to see The Avengers is a giggling twit who’s obsessed with being pretty, watching inane rom coms, and who never got over high school. That’s insulting both to fangirls AND to girls who dig rom coms, because it’s a nasty, idiotic sterotype that downplays womens’ intelligence and their taste in films. If girls like it, it must be fluff. Bullshit.
I’m not going to touch the biceps comment because I have plans to see the movie twice thanks to said biceps (as well as Ms. Johansson’s ass-kicking AND attractiveness, so there). Criticizing that would be hypocritical of me. ;)
What to say:
“Thank GOD someone did the Hulk correctly.”
“I can’t wait for ‘Thor 2.'”
“Joss Whedon is the man.”
“Yeah, you’re definitely Iron Man. If he were buffer.”
See, these are logical suggestions (except for the last one. seriously.), and you know what, Moviefone? There will be many a woman coming out of The Avengers saying exactly these things.
But you know what else? They’ll be saying them because they used their brains and their enjoyment of superhero action movies to come to those conclusions. They’re not saying them because they want to impress a boyfriend.
You would think at some point that people who write about entertainment would clue into the fact that girls do, in fact, enjoy genres that they seem to think are boys-only. I mean, we fangirls rant about this shit all the time. Could someone pick up a clue?
Here, I’ll put it in big letters so anyone still holding onto that dumbass, outdated, sexist notion will understand it better:
WOMEN LIKE ALL KINDS OF THINGS.
There’s not a contract that we sign at birth stating that we can only like stuff with glitter and princesses and romance. Guess what? We DO like stuff with glitter and princesses and romance, and we also like stuff with badass superheroes, aliens, and ass-kicking. So stop writing about genre films as if women haven’t the faintest clue that superheroes exist, and they need a cutesy little nudge in the right direction so they can please their boyfriends. Stop perpetuating the misogynistic stereotype, okay?
Actually, you know what? After all that ranting, I think I can let Black Widow best express my disdain for that article:
Edited to Add: GirlFridayK on twitter encouraged me to add this, and I think it makes sense.
If you haven’t been reading TDF, you might not know that I’m a big fan of both superhero genre stuff AND romance genre stuff. Those two interests are not mutually exclusive, as you probably already know if you’re reading this post. So really, I found that article doubly offensive. I don’t like being talked down to. It makes me angry, and this makes me angry on many levels: as a comic book fan, as someone who likes “girly” things, and as a woman who is sick and tired of being talked down to as a woman. So, yeah.
Also, my husband wouldn’t have even noticed The Avengers coming out if it weren’t for me. So stick that in your stereotyping pipe and smoke it.
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