Tag: Anita Sarkeesian

Feminist Frequency: The Straw Feminist

This is an old video from Feminist Frequency, but I just discovered it. It talks about ‘the straw feminist,’ a character in media that is actually meant to demonize and confuse real feminism. It’s about 10 minutes long and worth the time.

Here’s the description of the video:

The Straw Feminist trope is a deliberately created, exaggerated caricature of a feminist that is used to undermine and ridicule feminist movements. . . . The Straw Feminist trope has many more facets and MANY more examples but I hope I was able to provide a general overview.

Lately I’ve been reading the book Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV, which is why I found this video so compelling at this particular time. After reading this book, I could name dozens of examples of straw feminists meant to undermine women coming out of reality shows. Anita Sarkeesian didn’t get to reality TV in this video, but the book makes it clear that reality TV is one of the most effective backlash tools against women in the culture now.

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Anita Sarkeesian Speaks at the XOXO Festival

Anita Sarkeesian from Feminist Frequency spoke at the XOXO Festival recently. This is her entire speech. It’s a bit over 15 minutes long, but worth listening to until the end for the simple conclusion that could change the culture very quickly.