Belated linkblog & ponyfail
"Gender Equality: Not for Women Only" by Michael S. Kimmel
"Get Your Antifemininity Out of My Feminism" by s. e. smith
(Though I don't think everything--tangible or otherwise--traditionally associated with femininity needs to be uncritically celebrated, either. Certainly not women's fashion. There's a reason we no longer wear whalebone corsets, okay. Don't get me started on heels. But the point of the post stands.)
"Tropes vs. Women #3: The Smurfette Principle" by Anita Sarkeesian @ Feminist Frequency
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media: Research
An interview with Geena Davis on the above.
As for My Little Whitey: Racefail is Magic, I was going to rant a rant about the buffalo episode, but these folks have already done it:
http://deadbrowalking.livejournal.com/488814.html
http://the-sun-is-up.livejournal.com/333273.html
So here's the abridged version. When I first read the criticisms by that one Ms. blogger, I was indignant--because she mostly didn't know what the hell she was talking about, and because this series is good at the portrayal of female characters and relationships among them and (as Lauren Faust puts it) "different ways of being a girl," and those things are so valuable in a media landscape in which a lot of series esp. for children can't even pass Bechdel, see above re: Smurfette Principle and the Geena Davis Institute--but after "Over a Barrel" I'm no longer in any mood to defend the show and haven't watched an episode since. Besides the cavalier rose-colored fantasy revisionist treatment of, yanno, actual historical genocide, the series has made it pretty clear that PONIES = WHITE PEOPLE = DEFAULT, while NON-PONIES = PEOPLE OF COLOR = OTHER, forever marginalizing the metaphorical POC. I suppose this is the consequence of some sort of initially well-intentioned attempt to develop a multicultural fictional universe, but it's a load of horseshit and no one should be excusing it. Dear Lauren Faust et al., you need to cut that shit out right now. You needed to cut it out months ago.
"Get Your Antifemininity Out of My Feminism" by s. e. smith
(Though I don't think everything--tangible or otherwise--traditionally associated with femininity needs to be uncritically celebrated, either. Certainly not women's fashion. There's a reason we no longer wear whalebone corsets, okay. Don't get me started on heels. But the point of the post stands.)
"Tropes vs. Women #3: The Smurfette Principle" by Anita Sarkeesian @ Feminist Frequency
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media: Research
An interview with Geena Davis on the above.
As for My Little Whitey: Racefail is Magic, I was going to rant a rant about the buffalo episode, but these folks have already done it:
http://deadbrowalking.livejournal.com/488814.html
http://the-sun-is-up.livejournal.com/333273.html
So here's the abridged version. When I first read the criticisms by that one Ms. blogger, I was indignant--because she mostly didn't know what the hell she was talking about, and because this series is good at the portrayal of female characters and relationships among them and (as Lauren Faust puts it) "different ways of being a girl," and those things are so valuable in a media landscape in which a lot of series esp. for children can't even pass Bechdel, see above re: Smurfette Principle and the Geena Davis Institute--but after "Over a Barrel" I'm no longer in any mood to defend the show and haven't watched an episode since. Besides the cavalier rose-colored fantasy revisionist treatment of, yanno, actual historical genocide, the series has made it pretty clear that PONIES = WHITE PEOPLE = DEFAULT, while NON-PONIES = PEOPLE OF COLOR = OTHER, forever marginalizing the metaphorical POC. I suppose this is the consequence of some sort of initially well-intentioned attempt to develop a multicultural fictional universe, but it's a load of horseshit and no one should be excusing it. Dear Lauren Faust et al., you need to cut that shit out right now. You needed to cut it out months ago.