3 of My Problematic Faves in 2017

Despite having a fascist/despotic cheeto “running” the USofA, we’ve seen some pretty awesome strides for representation of women in 2017.

Unfortunately, a lot of our faves are fucking problematic.

Here’s a listicle/rant, and maybe we can all cry together and be shitty people together.

1. Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman

Y’ALL WE FINALLY GOT A WONDER WOMAN MOVIE DIRECTED BY A WOMAN WITH REALLY ATTRACTIVE AMAZONS, EFF YEAH! Unfortunately, while we’d like to hold up Gadot as a feminist superhero, there is one (huge) problem.

Israel, and specifically, Zionism.

Jewish woman plays a character who fights Nazis, who is also a Zionist. Also, said movie does $100M during opening weekend in the USA (Military Industrial Complex ftw),

Gadot “served as a solider in the Israel Defense Force (IDF). The actress made her position on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict clear in 2014 when she, not surprisingly, declared her support for the Israeli military on Facebook.” (Source)

Full Truth: I went and saw Wonder Woman anyways. I made a moral comprmise for telling women’s stories over Israel v. Palestine. Still debating the ethical ramifications of this.

2. Elizabeth Gilbert

I first read “Eat Pray Love” when I was suicidal and taking time off from Stanford. Gilbert’s commitment to battling with her inner demons, and taking time to #FigureHerShitOut really #resonated with me. Unfortunately, the book supports this idea of “White People Spiritual Tourism,” wherein white people visit poor countries and have life changing experiences — using their economic and social privileges to find themselves, without a whole lot of regard for the culture they’re visiting.

She’s like my first-wave feminist auntie or godmother, whose advice is golden but who also makes me squirm.

Starved for photos of “elderqueers,” it looks like we’ll take what we can get? Source

ALSO. Her book, Big Magic, is stellar.

AND ALSO ALSO, Elizabeth Gilbert had a commitment ceremony with a woman (omg so cute), and she has a problematic place in my heart.

3. Tina Fey

Another memeber of “Favorite First-Wave Feminist Aunties” is Tina Fey. From racist jokes about Afghanis in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and she is also transphobic as fuck. She butts up against the “anything can be funny,” joke, but when you’re a cis white woman, there’s just some shit you shouldn’t joke about.

Tina, I want to love you, but I know too much.

Tina, plz stop being mean to underrepresented groups. Image Source

Thing is, I’d be over the moon to hang out with Elizabeth Gilbert or Tina Fey. Like internal fangirl screaming and massive group texts.

Which feels weird.

Writing this brought up a slew of quetions for me. How can we encourage and support women’s representation in media, when it feels like a lot of our options have terrible aspects?

Also, how do we call in folks with large followings, and leave room for growth/apologies and avoid tarring/feathering folks on the internet?

Should we pull a #WomenInPolitics stance, and refuse to criticize successful women? That doesn’t work either.

It’s a thought experiment gone wrong — a merry-go-round of white guilt, enabling and just wanting to turn off your brain and enjoy a damn movie. And I don’t know where we stop.

Many white tears.

If you want to yell at me/call me a SJW/snowflake etc, check out my twitter!