Sunday, July 1, 2012

Feminists are Humorless?

In the interest of full disclosure, I set this post up yesterday, inspired by a comment I left on A.K.'s latest post at the must-read Riddled...

There's a common troll trope that feminists are humorless (though, thankfully, the top search results for "humorless feminists" are subversive). Yeah, those feminists, always so serious while they attack the phallocentric patriarchal dominance system... wait, what's this? A hilariously subversive act has been fighting sexism and racism for decades? Can this be? Well, here's a small sample of the awesome, hilarious Frank Chickens:





The original video for the single, which can't be embedded, explicitly upends the stereotype of the submissive Japanese woman.

Another early single subverts songs about young women pining away for love... as nutty as it sounds, it's a welcome dose of Cho-Cho Sanity.

Like most superheroes, Frank Chickens had a good origin story, and they are still active well into the 21st Century (although I'd venture to say that they were always a 21st Century Act, even in the 1980's). Hilariously, they won status as comedy gods in a Scottish contest sponsored by Foster's beer... they've even managed to be subversive by proxy!

7 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Troll (Troglodytes vulgaris) tropes tend to be tedious.
~

wiley said...

Here is the heinous origin of that expression:

Susan Brownmiller wrote "Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape". She opened the book illustrating her thesis with a joke about a caveman hitting a woman over the head with a club and dragging her back to "his" cave" (a very common trope at the time) to illustrate myths about rape.

At a press conference, a journalist shouted that "feminists have no sense of humor" in response to her assertion that rape isn't funny. It took off like wildfire from there.

Hamish Mack said...

The "must read" Riddled. Like "I must make a will" or "I must sort out the family photographs".

bbkf said...

i am nothing if not HIlarious...

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

As I recall from the Great SadlyNo Feminist Purity Wars (in which mikey and Pinko were decorated Heroes), as a man, I am definitionally unable to be a feminist, or even a feminist ally.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Troll (Troglodytes vulgaris) tropes tend to be tedious.

Yeah, they do!

Here is the heinous origin of that expression:

Holy crap, wiley, that is more heinous than I imagined. Hell, I remember that particular "comic" trope, and it wasn't funny- the fact that someone would lambaste a woman for pointing out the implications of the trope is sickening.

The "must read" Riddled. Like "I must make a will" or "I must sort out the family photographs".

I think it's more like "I must hit the pub and drink a lot of beer".

i am nothing if not HIlarious...

You know it, sister!

As I recall from the Great SadlyNo Feminist Purity Wars (in which mikey and Pinko were decorated Heroes), as a man, I am definitionally unable to be a feminist, or even a feminist ally.

That's the problem with Purity Wars... did you at least obtain neutral status?

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Zombies are never neutral.