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Look, it's simple
She needs to be beautiful, but not too beautiful because otherwise I think she's overly vain
She needs to be smart, but not so smart she threatens my intelligence
She needs to be funny, but not more funny than I am
She needs to have political beliefs that align with mine
She needs to be straight, not political
She needs to be able to pass for white, not political
America Ferrera's speech in the Barbie movie sums it up nicely:
spoiler
"It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don't think you're good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we're always doing it wrong.
You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass. You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean. You have to lead, but you can't squash other people's ideas. You're supposed to love being a mother, but don't talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men's bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining. You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood.
But always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line.
It's too hard! It's too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault.
I'm just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don't even know."
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It's wild that some people have takes like that. It's like yeah, art is made under capitalism and is definitely influenced by it, but it's still worthwhile to engage with the art.
Cries in Humanities
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My solution is just to watch it with the babies. Having kids cackle at some dumb jokes makes watching a kids movie fun, their laughter is infectious. I watched Avengers part whatever with my nephews and honestly had a good time even though it's total slop. Or maybe it was one of the Thor movies. I honestly couldn't give a shit. But the kids had fun so that's all I cared about. Plus I got some popcorn and some Mike and Ikes.
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One of the funniest and depressing things I read in recent years was some dude saying "dune is proof you can make a star wars film for adults" and all I could think was "you are so close to understanding star wars is for children but still so far away."
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Literally partly my inspiration for that lol
it's a good piece
I think the ideology implied in the post is that they must not be funny or intelligent, but merely quiet and agreeable, and that there is no such thing as "too pretty" and anyone saying so is a feminist trying to make women ugly. Rather, she needs to look like someone who models as a full time job but never talk about the work done for if and never or rarely be visibly doing that work (the work of keeping up that appearance, obviously she can't be an actual model because then she is vain).