Why do people scream "Feminist Agenda" when there is a female lead?

Kyrian007

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It's a persecution complex. A group is no longer allowed to get away with marginalizing and oppressing another... and because they long for "the good old days" when they were seen as the superior group, they cry-out against a "backlash" that for the most part isn't really happening and at most is an understandable reaction to past injustices. It happens with every "superior" group that gradually has to admit that all people deserve to be treated equally and fairly.

It's happened (and continues to go on) in this country with men, whites, Christians..., basically every privileged group except the mega-wealthy for various reasons. Because to a group with privilege, being "an equal" is a downgrade. The privileged person resents losing "status" and generally interprets the treatment of those they sees as "inferior" as equal to their status, as a conspiracy against them. I'm a middle class white Christian man myself and when I see dudes online screaming about "teh feminist agenda" I find it annoying and whiny. I see no danger of becoming a second class citizen, because a female lead kicked villain ass in a movie where a man failed.
 

IceForce

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sheppie said:
Sure, let's ignore that 'white privilege' is a lie peddled by racists,
Uhh, no? I'm pretty sure you're misunderstanding what that word means in this context.

"Privilege" in this context means the opposite of "poverty". Hypothetically, if a hypothetical country's population is almost entirely made up of two races, and ONE of these races experiences extreme poverty and hardship while the other doesn't, then the latter race can be described as being "privileged" in comparison to the former race.
Of course, I've simplified things in this hypothetical example to make it easier to explain, but you get what I'm saying.

The point is, living a completely normal life free of poverty is something that is considered by many to be "privileged", in comparison to certain other people's life experiences.

That's what people mean when they use the term "white privilege". It means that a white person might have a slightly easier time of it than someone of another race might have in the same environment.
It DOESN'T mean that every white person owns a Lamborghini, or something silly like that.
 

Kyrian007

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sheppie said:
Sure, let's ignore that 'white privilege' is a lie peddled by racists, and male privilege is a lie peddled by feminists, and pretend they're not actually being oppressed.
White and male privilege exist, ignoring that is just flat out denying history. I'm not saying we haven't made progress, we absolutely have. But to say we've eliminated racisim against non-whites, sexism against women... well the current state of chat in xbox live, online, and in yahoo and youtube comment sections kind of says we still have pretty far to go. I'm not saying some "minority" groups don't take it so far that they can be dicks about it. And that's annoying too. But that doesn't bother someone unless they have that persecution complex, unless they let it bother them because they are looking for something to offend them so they can feel oppressed.

In the meantime whites are violently attacked by a racist gang, and police did nothing [http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/15/dartmouth-protesters-assault-students-while-screaming-racial-threats/] while men are formally barred from top management positions in blatant sexist discrimination [http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30208400] and some bad companies [https://career8.successfactors.com/career?company=BEAerospace] proudly advertise their use of racist and sexist discrimination against men and whites on their websites. (set it to other languages for even more explicit messages of pro-racist and pro-sexist policy)
Gee, I guess that makes us even somehow? Centuries upon centuries of brutal oppression, well now we've had a decade or so of "payback" and now "guys, now we know how it feels, we get it guys." Criminal behavior is wrong and criminals deserve to be treated as such regardless of color, just like law abiding citizens. And yes, a hate crime should be seen as such regardless of who or what race or gender the recipient or offender is. But as unfortunate and tragic as such instances are, criminal response is a statistical aberration. And I see the police reports every morning that are proof enough to me that we still have a problem with (the traditional meaning of) racism/sexism far more than the so called "reverse"

And non-criminal so-called "reverse racism/sexism" is easy for me personally to put up with, because I've not seen it happen in real life, just in the "examples" copypasted to internet responses. Never been oppressed by a (insert whatever non-white race) or a woman myself, again such a response seems to be the statistical aberration of meeting "the wrong asshole." But using such examples to try and say racism against the non white and sexism against women is a thing of the past... nope, I don't think I'll ever see things that way. I'm just not that paranoid and don't suffer from that persecution complex.
 

Jarek Mace

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sheppie said:
Kyrian007 said:
It's happened (and continues to go on) in this country with men, whites, Christians..., basically every privileged group except the mega-wealthy for various reasons.
Sure, let's ignore that 'white privilege' is a lie peddled by racists, and male privilege is a lie peddled by feminists, and pretend they're not actually being opressed, while they're the group with the least rights in western countries, and these are most often violated.

After all, we should believe racist and sexist lies. What could possibly go wrong if we parrot those without critical thinking?

But you were right about one thing: It is a persecution complex. The idea of equal treatment strikes racists and feminist sexists as utterly wrong, heretical even.
That's why lies about supposed privilege have to be invented and defended; without those poor excuses, their oppressive agenda can not be defended.

In the meantime whites are violently attacked by a racist gang, and police did nothing [http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/15/dartmouth-protesters-assault-students-while-screaming-racial-threats/] while men are formally barred from top management positions in blatant sexist discrimination [http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30208400] and some bad companies [https://career8.successfactors.com/career?company=BEAerospace] proudly advertise their use of racist and sexist discrimination against men and whites on their websites. (set it to other languages for even more explicit messages of pro-racist and pro-sexist policy)
Ssshhh, you're posting on the Escapist. It's become increasingly 'progressive' (I hate using that word) over the past year or so to the point of being outright disturbing at times. (Like threads about legalising incest being giving overwhelming support). The issue is that at one time the idea of the evil dominant white straight male may have been true, but that that has long since been realised. What people have now failed to realise is that it's not just themselves that have noticed this, it's everyone; and when everyone notices it people start to take action - and, unfortunately, they don't realise that the pendulum has been so violently swung the other way that the inverse begins to happen.

Men are denied jobs due to 'equality quotas', whites are denied positions due to race, and being straight in some industries is a death sentence. That being said, it is true being gay is in turn, but isolating two sexual orientations to different career paths due to the aforementioned isn't really suitable, is it?

I've seen it, I've experienced it. Its not fun and it's a worrying indication of things to come.

That being said, the whole SJW thing on Overwatch? Yeah, I mean, that -IS- a Tumblr Fem dream. Pink hair (for maximum disobedience of societal beauty norms in the patriarchy!) and a build that, among Women, is like the equivalent of The Rock amongst men.

The SJW in Star Wars? Well.. yeah... I mean, I don't really see any SJW. I can see concerns... a black guy and a white woman in a franchise that has - in many ways for the worse - been heavily dominated by white guys. I haven't got anything against change, although there's certainly something strange about the abrupt change in a franchise notorious for being dominated by white guys. Now, don't get me wrong - I like seeing them, and whether we get a black woman or an asian guy or whatever doesn't bother me, the intent of it does. If Finn and the more forgettable woman are in it because "Hey, they just are. They're the right actors for the job." Then cool! I like that. If they're in it because "Fuckin' need more diversity up in here. Getting some non-gender binary firefoxes up in here because we need to fight societal norms" then I'll pass up on that. Making everything political is my 'trigger'.
 

Kyrian007

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sheppie said:
No stuff from history. No vaguehoods from the internet like taking troll-posts seriously. No correlations without a causal relationship either. All known debunked myths like the wage gap are out.
So although you do acknowledge history happened... you flat out refuse to discuss historical perspective. Like it doesn't matter at all? Institutionally, yes here in America and in much of the modern world we have made progress. Like I already stated, as you've ignored. If you narrow the definition of "privilege" very specifically to "institutional privilege, specifically current ignoring any historical context, and contained completely within specifically traditionally white, western or first world civilization's written laws, again ignoring historical context of the very much privilege based laws they replaced... well, you are correct. With that narrow and specific a definition it would indeed be difficult argue against you. I'd have research to do. Good thing I don't bother with narrowing my focus of the discussion to make sure I'm ignoring all of the things wrong with my argument to make sure that under very specific conditions my arguments are technically correct.

Well, I guess it's a way to claim victory anyway. Unsure of how persuasive a such a victory would be though. Hasn't convinced me I'm wrong yet. But sure, if those are the house rules... you win? I guess.
 

Thaluikhain

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sheppie said:
Not being discriminated against isn't a privilege.
Excepting in the context in which the word is being discussed.

sheppie said:
A bold claim. I look forward to you quoting at least ten laws from western countries that assign additional rights based on male gender and white skin colour.

No speculative nonsense please. Privilege must be institutional, meaning it has to be enshrined in laws, regulations or customs.
Yes, it includes customs. And thus doesn't require laws to be involved.

But, hell, women are barred from various military roles in many countries by virtue of gender, regardless of their capabilities. Abortion is still a contentious issue. Now, sure, men face the same restrictions in getting abortions, but women are overwhelmingly the ones that suffer from them.

Jarek Mace said:
The issue is that at one time the idea of the evil dominant white straight male may have been true, but that that has long since been realised.
And yet, straight white males dominant the political, religious, financial, military and industrial systems of more or less all western nations. Straight males tend to dominate those in nations that are predominantly not white.

Jarek Mace said:
Men are denied jobs due to 'equality quotas', whites are denied positions due to race
Sure...in places where they'd get an unequally large share of them without them.

Now, quotes are a hamfisted way of dealing with this, but a law that ensures a more proportionate share of jobs isn't inherently more unfair than a system with ensures a disproportionate one.
 

JimB

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WinterWyvern said:
No, a real positive female character is born as a female character.
Thor was born female, though. Her human identity was always female. She just received the transferable power of a being whose powers have always been transferable and have been transferred to others several times in the course of his career. Thor is simply the first woman to do so...at least in canon (Rogue did it in a what-if) and in the Marvel universe (Wonder Woman did it in the Marvel vs. DC crossover).

Kyrian007 said:
I would love to get into the "privilege doesn't exist because I can cite a few examples to the contrary" argument that's sprung up, but I don't have time; work work work. Thank you for handling it, Kyrian007.
 

Bombiz

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Parasondox said:
Err... dude/dudette. It's just a story. A piece of fiction. It's not real and not telling of any true event in history. Changes happen. Alternative stories happen. Telling the same story over and over again gets boring. New ideas come to light. Tested and results come up. Good or bad.
@Parasondox

I take umbrage with that. specifically the "it's just a story/game/move/whatever" part. Since we have a thread of at least 11 pages it's clearly not "just a story". If it was "just a story" then why would people be making such a big deal out of a female thor or female ghost busters?

Parasondox said:
So really, relax.
you should tell that to people who send death threats on both sides of the fence.
 

Zacharious-khan

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Star wars at least it's because the female lead is basically jesus, has no flaws, has every skill imaginable, and ruined the movie for me along with "Kylo Ren". People scream Feminist agenda because it seems like this is what they want. Like when that whole stink happened with Black widow in the latest Avengers film, it seems as though women can't have silly things like flaws or emotions in films.
 

JimB

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WinterWyvern said:
Don't nitpick: you know exactly what I mean.
I really don't, though. I feel your logic could be applied to the woman who took over as manager of your office, and calling her a female version of Dave because Dave was the guy there before her.

WinterWyvern said:
She-Hulk, Spider-Woman and Batgirl are all born female too. And all of them are simply reverse-gendered versions of a male hero.
If you think so, then I do not believe you know much about the characters. They are significantly different from their male counterparts.
 

AlphaLackey

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WinterWyvern said:
I'm a feminist, and I hate female Thor. It's a sexist trope to pick an already existing male hero and just add "female" in front of it. It just reinforces the sexist idea that male is the norm and female is the exception (you NEVER see "male Black Widow" or "male Emma Frost").
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catman_%28comics%29

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Boy

http://www.comicvine.com/phantom-lad/4005-12871/

http://www.comicvine.com/wonderous-man/4005-59090/

http://www.comicvine.com/superlad/4005-68713/ (granted, it's simply the Superman -> Supergirl copy going the other way)

http://www.comicvine.com/shadow-kid/4005-47294/

http://www.comicvine.com/quinntets/4060-11401/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Boy_%28comics%29

All of these characters appeared after more popular female characters, and were explicit derivatives thereof.
 

JimB

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Zacharious-khan said:
Star Wars, at least, it's because the female lead is basically Jesus, has no flaws[...]
She's abrasive, violent, fearful, and a loner in an environment where being alone is a great way to die of falling and breaking a leg or choking on your bread.

Zacharious-khan said:
[...]has every skill imaginable[...]
I know this is hard for a modern-day American to comprehend because the society we live in rewards specialization and hyper-focus, but the world Rey lives in would punish that brutally. The society doesn't have the infrastructure for something like that. Someone who doesn't pick up as many skills as she can is someone who's going to die, because unlike us, there are no taxi drivers to take her places, no police to call if hired goons start attacking her, no one to cook her food for her in exchange for money. Compare her to Finn, who does come from a hyper-specialized background and was going to die because he didn't have the skills he needed to run.

Zacharious-khan said:
Like when that whole stink happened with Black Widow in the latest Avengers film, it seems as though women can't have silly things like flaws or emotions in films.
I don't know what you heard people screaming about, but I never heard anyone screaming about her having flaws. I heard them screaming that Joss Whedon is a misogynist for saying women who can't have babies are monsters (which isn't what he said, but that's what a lot of loud people seem to have heard).
 

Something Amyss

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JimB said:
Thor was born female, though. Her human identity was always female. She just received the transferable power of a being whose powers have always been transferable and have been transferred to others several times in the course of his career. Thor is simply the first woman to do so...at least in canon (Rogue did it in a what-if) and in the Marvel universe (Wonder Woman did it in the Marvel vs. DC crossover).
If we're counting What If, there's been a few. One of them was Jane Foster, who clearly fits the bill of a woman wielding Thor's powers.

If you think so, then I do not believe you know much about the characters. They are significantly different from their male counterparts.
They're all clearly distaff counterparts. They also have similar reasoning behind them. They may be totes different, but that doesn't change the argument here.

I heard them screaming that Joss Whedon is a misogynist for saying women who can't have babies are monsters (which isn't what he said, but that's what a lot of loud people seem to have heard).
Wheedon's at best an idiot who praises women in the most tone deaf way possible. Like when he used enduring rape as an example of why women are so strong and awesome.

WinterWyvern said:
Don't nitpick: you know exactly what I mean.
She-Hulk, Spider-Woman and Batgirl are all born female too. And all of them are simply reverse-gendered versions of a MALE hero.
Right, none of them got their powers as part of a transfer of powers from a character whose powers were transferable, though, and that's kind of a big deal. It's been previously established that other people can be Thor, even in mainstream canon, where Beta Ray Bill fought for it, Erik Masterson got it, and we even have a frog worthy of wielding Mjolnir. [REDACTED] is simply the first woman to get the powers (following Jim's same caveats of mainstream canon and the Marvel universe). At least, that I know of. She's not Fem-thor, Thorette, Thorina, Thor-Girl, or Thor-Woman. She's another person in a line of people who can use Thor's powers and/or be called Thor.

Spider-Woman, She-Hulk and Batgirl can't say that. This is more like a woman getting Hal Jordan/Kyle Raynor's ring and becoming Green Lantern than someone making a Spider-Girl or Spider-Woman. The closest from that list would be She-Hulk, only because she got her powers from the source. But then, that would also apply to Miles Morales.

And while I'm on this, the fact that the complaints only sprung up because a woman picked up the hammer are, in themselves, kind of bigoted. Sort of like how they've been changing who Captain America is since the 60s (earlier, if you count the communist bashing retcon), but it only became a problem when the black guy picked up the shield (which is ironic, since Sam Wilson was one of the first to do so back in the day). I have a feeling there would be a fit if James Rhodes picked up the Iron Man armour like he did in the 1980s if he did it for the first time today, because things have become so reactionary.

Bombiz said:
I take umbrage with that. specifically the "it's just a story/game/move/whatever" part. Since we have a thread of at least 11 pages it's clearly not "just a story".
No, it could equally indicate people take something like the presence of a female character way too seriously. The fact that something's discussed does not make it important or significant. Especially since this is the internet, and we are all very likely nerds. Nerd/geek culture frequently obsesses over otherwise trivial issues; that's actually one of the common defining traits. And that's not a bad thing, but that doesn't make it significant.

Whether Han or Greedo shoots first is ultimately very trivial, and I will argue it anyway. People spend pages and pages fawning over imagined couples (shipping) for kids shows. And that's fine, but it's still trivial.

Zacharious-khan said:
Star wars at least it's because the female lead is basically jesus, has no flaws, has every skill imaginable, and ruined the movie for me along with "Kylo Ren".
As opposed to the already existing space wizards who were supposed to be expert pilots, master diplomats, capable of survival on alien worlds, master combatants with a special form of arcane weapon that only they can properly use, have magic powers that include mind control and telekinesis, almost always possess computer skills....

And the fact that Luke and Anakin already were Jesus?

People scream Feminist agenda because it seems like this is what they want.
What, that people don't think only men should be Canon Sues? Because while that's not the argument you're trying to make, it's the one you're making with Rei. Luke and Anakin read like fanfic Mary Sue characters already. I find it incredibly hard to believe Rei is any different in this regard.

But that aside, it's weird how it's always what they "seem" to want. Like there's no actual understanding, and people only know what a "feminist" is by third parties.

Like when that whole stink happened with Black widow in the latest Avengers film, it seems as though women can't have silly things like flaws or emotions in films.
Like this, for example: I mean, it could be that people don't appreciate the notion that a woman having her uterus removed makes her a monster, that the entire scene built up not to the sacrifices she made to get there but focused specifically no no can haz babby. No, it must be the idea that she can't have flaws. That in no way sounds like a strawman argument to me.

But okay, from your point of view, how do you explain the bit where the feminists are praising Jessica Jones and it's non-feminists who are up in arms over the character? Because JJ is part of the feminist conspiracy, too, it seems. Your hypothesis does not fit the model.
 

JimB

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Something Amyss said:
If we're counting What If, there's been a few. One of them was Jane Foster, who clearly fits the bill of a woman wielding Thor's powers.
Huh. I missed that one. Thanks, Something Amyss.

Something Amyss said:
They're all clearly distaff counterparts. They also have similar reasoning behind them. They may be totes different, but that doesn't change the argument here.
I think it does, because what I get from WinterWyvern's argument is a female character who springs from a male character is forever tainted by the circumstances of her creation. I think such an argument denies the possibility of evolution. I think such an argument demands that I as a feminist must take offense at the use of the word "woman," because a thousand years ago "man" meant "person" and "woman" meant "wife-person," so clearly the very word means women only have value as marriage objects even though things have moved on since then.

Something Amyss said:
Whedon's at best an idiot who praises women in the most tone deaf way possible. Like when he used enduring rape as an example of why women are so strong and awesome.
No argument there. I think Joss Whedon too often confuses "strong female character" for "female character who can beat up male character."
 

Something Amyss

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JimB said:
I think it does, because what I get from WinterWyvern's argument is a female character who springs from a male character is forever tainted by the circumstances of her creation. I think such an argument denies the possibility of evolution. I think such an argument demands that I as a feminist must take offense at the use of the word "woman," because a thousand years ago "man" meant "person" and "woman" meant "wife-person," so clearly the very word means women only have value as marriage objects even though things have moved on since then.
Except we're using the word woman in this context to differentiate from the man which she was based on, so I would take it the opposite way. And it's not like it's ancient history, like this gets dropped in a matter of a couple of decades, either. Language and concepts often take longer than that to evolve. If Spider-Woman was a thousand years old, you'd have a point. Spider-Woman's barely older than I am, and if you think concepts completely abandon baggage that fast, walk up to someone in my town and call them a "******."

No argument there. I think Joss Whedon too often confuses "strong female character" for "female character who can beat up male character."
Worse, he takes criticism about the same way as the people who think there's some sort of feminist agenda do.