Gender On Television: It's Like Feminism Never Happened

[Jacqs]

Another gender trope i hate: Young Girl Puberty Episode well after the actress has started to develop signs such as visible breasts.

I could mention Lizzie McGuire in which Lizzie and Miranda were visibly wearing bras *before* the We Need a Bra Episode, but I'll be retro and mention Samantha Smith's Elizabeth in 1985's Lime Street. A newspaper report on a speech she gave to a university audience in early '85 mentioned she had obvious signs of puberty and had started wearing makeup... but her Lime Street character has her first period in an episode!

[Silver Raven]

Photographer Brad Everett Young tweeted, "When @cw_charmed premieres this Sunday! #CharlieGillespie is gonna be one to watch! Catch the #Charmed SeriesPremiere Sunday Oct 14th 9/8c! @TheCW For a sneak peek at the @Polaroid @polaroidorignls shots from today’s shoot check out my insta stories"

And I replied, "A show with three female leads, but the white male is the one to watch?"

And I'm the bad guy.  Being attacked and criticized for being nasty and told to shut up.

Funny enough, Perez Hilton is liking my comments in the "discussion".

Edited October 15, 2018 by Silver Raven

[topanga]

On 10/7/2018 at 4:36 PM, JacquelineAppleton said:

Another gender trope i hate: Young Girl Puberty Episode well after the actress has started to develop signs such as visible breasts.

I could mention Lizzie McGuire in which Lizzie and Miranda were visibly wearing bras *before* the We Need a Bra Episode, but I'll be retro and mention Samantha Smith's Elizabeth in 1985's Lime Street. A newspaper report on a speech she gave to a university audience in early '85 mentioned she had obvious signs of puberty and had started wearing makeup... but her Lime Street character has her first period in an episode!

Wasn’t there a similar ‘Who’s the Boss’ episode? All I can remember is the annoying little boy saying, ‘That’s Sam in that dress.’

[GHScorpiosRule]

Just now, topanga said:

Wasn’t there a similar ‘Who’s the Boss’ episode? All I can remember is the annoying little boy saying, ‘That’s Sam in that dress.’

Yes. It was Jonathan. But there was a difference. Allysa Milano hadn’t quite bloomed yet. Her Samantha was going through puberty but she hadn’t, well...bloomed. Up to this point, Sam didn’t wear dresses or makeup. And  it was the first season and Jonathan had never seen Sam in a dress.

[Jacqs]

Kate Ritchie (Sally on the Aussie soap "Home and Away") famously mentioned that the show gave Sally a first bra episode about 18 months after Kate starting wearing one.

[Jacqs]

Today Children, we are going to look at 1979, You Can't Do That on Television's local-only season, and who the Jimmny Cricket thought it would be OK to include a shot in the end credits focusing on the rear end of a pre-teen girl in short-shorts:

[angora]

I was thinking the other day:  has a non-period-piece TV show ever shown a character struggling to access an abortion (i.e. the nearest clinic is 200 miles away; there's a mandatory waiting period; the character is a minor and, by law, needs a parent's consent)? 

The closest one I thought of was BoJack Horseman.  In the episode where Diane gets an abortion, access isn't a problem, but in addition to the protesters outside the clinic, she's shown having to deal with a lot of emotionally-manipulative legal requirements:  mandatory ultrasound, the doctor is obligated to tell her a lot of dubious "facts" about abortion, and Diane is forced to watch hours of cute puppy videos (for those who don't know, BoJack Horseman features a lot of anthropomorphized animals, and Diane's husband is a dog.) 

I realize that plenty of shows don't even bring up abortion during unplanned pregnancy plots and not many shows depict a character having one, but I was wondering if anyone has seen anything like this?

[Raja]

7 hours ago, angora said:

I was thinking the other day:  has a non-period-piece TV show ever shown a character struggling to access an abortion (i.e. the nearest clinic is 200 miles away; there's a mandatory waiting period; the character is a minor and, by law, needs a parent's consent)? 

 

Maybe an episode of Cold Case, but that would be a period piece when it comes down to the reason for murder with modern characters talking about it. Most shows tend to be set in places were abortions are readily available.

[Jacqs]

 If there’s one thing I’ve learnt it’s that it’s incredibly unfair that some true crime cases get a heap of media and some get none. And despite well-meant stereotypes, this can happen to white child victims as well. Seana Tapp was obviously a gorgeous little girl, so I’m unsure why the case isn’t more well known. I've never figured out why Sheree Beasley stuck in Australian's memories and Seana Tapp did not. Part of me wants to say it's because Seana didn't have an image of her little pink bike with the Coca Cola bottle still in the bike's basket plastered all over the media.

[slf]

There are so many things I see in tv shows that could go in this thread but where to start? Violent abusive men being portrayed as love interests, women who desire the love of a man above everything else (and so accept the man eventually no matter what he's done to her) - both of which are disturbingly popular in shows aimed at young women/girls (The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Veronica Mars, etc.). Women always doing the majority of housework and child raising, always perfectly coiffed, etc. It's kind of depressing to think about the things that haven't changed.

[connieinnc]

9 hours ago, Jacqs said:

 If there’s one thing I’ve learnt it’s that it’s incredibly unfair that some true crime cases get a heap of media and some get none. And despite well-meant stereotypes, this can happen to white child victims as well. Seana Tapp was obviously a gorgeous little girl, so I’m unsure why the case isn’t more well known. I've never figured out why Sheree Beasley stuck in Australian's memories and Seana Tapp did not. Part of me wants to say it's because Seana didn't have an image of her little pink bike with the Coca Cola bottle still in the bike's basket plastered all over the media.

I looked up Seana's case. How horrific  

[Jacqs]

9 hours ago, connieinnc said:

I looked up Seana's case. How horrific  

I went to Seana's school - she was some grades ahead of me. The fallout at the school and in Seana's Brownies troop was horrible. As i said, she was gorgeous/beautiful and only 9, so you'd think the media would have been all over it. And, in 1984, there was still an afternoon newspaper in Melbourne that could have covered it if the morning papers didn't want to. 1984 was more than six years before the afternoon "Herald" and the morning "Sun" merged to form the "Herald Sun".

[possibilities]

20 hours ago, Raja said:

Most shows tend to be set in places were abortions are readily available.

Here in MA, where abortion is more available than most places, there's still a massive problem for poor women raising the money to pay for abortions. There's a group EMA Fund, that specifically raises money to help, but they can't keep up with the demand and even though I'm fairly well connected to this kind of thing, I didn't even know about them until recently.

There are lots and lots of women who live in places with far less access than here, as well. Many places no longer have providers who will do it, so women have to travel long distances. There is also the issue of minors who, in many places, need parental consent. If the media had the interest and will to portray it, the reality is that there is a LOT of struggle around this issue, and a lot of suffering. It would be serious drama, but it's largely unexplored because of denial among the privileged folks who make tv and movies, and lack of guts to break the silence about it when they do know.

It's one more topic we've been trained not to talk about, and not to believe. Only a massive movement to tell these stories will change the way it's handled in the USA. Maybe that will happen soon, and take off like #metoo.

Edited January 6, 2019 by possibilities

[Anela]

23 hours ago, slf said:

There are so many things I see in tv shows that could go in this thread but where to start? Violent abusive men being portrayed as love interests, women who desire the love of a man above everything else (and so accept the man eventually no matter what he's done to her) - both of which are disturbingly popular in shows aimed at young women/girls (The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Veronica Mars, etc.). Women always doing the majority of housework and child raising, always perfectly coiffed, etc. It's kind of depressing to think about the things that haven't changed.

The Vampire Diaries was the first thing I thought of here, as yet another example of "the love of a good woman (in this case, a teenage girl!) makes the bad boy turn good". Twilight, with the girl falling for the only boy who lusts after her, because he wants to kill her for her blood - I can't remember what, but she had a special smell I think. I read the book eleven years ago. And just history showing women and girls staying with men/boys who are bad for them. I have been sick of this crap my entire life. 

[slf]

2 hours ago, Anela said:

The Vampire Diaries was the first thing I thought of here, as yet another example of "the love of a good woman (in this case, a teenage girl!) makes the bad boy turn good". Twilight, with the girl falling for the only boy who lusts after her, because he wants to kill her for her blood - I can't remember what, but she had a special smell I think. I read the book eleven years ago. And just history showing women and girls staying with men/boys who are bad for them. I have been sick of this crap my entire life. 

God, Twilight. Yeah, she smelled so good that he wanted to rip her throat out; presented as simply an obstacle to their love that had to be overcome. I remember the first time I slammed that book down, it was after those guys tried to rape Bella- she was freaking out, understandably, but she had to set aside how she was feeling and focus on calming Edward down.

[Luckylyn]

Sexual Assault of Men Played for Laughs 

[tennisgurl]

Its just so brutal to see it all just...right there, one after another. The jokes about men being sexually assaulted and raped is played for laughs so often, it just blows past so many people, like any other tired joke. Even shows and movies that truly try to show empathy for other victims and try to get some Woke points will do the same things, especially the "your gonna get raped in prison! HAHA" threat to suspects or perps. So many shows have done this, I bet that video could only show a small portion of them! And when they broke down the reason for the jokes, to at its core be the old standard "you were asking for it, this is your fault", its just so deeply messed up. 

[Danny Franks]

So this is off the radar for a lot of people, I'd guess, but I think it bears mentioning:

The WWE will have women main event Wrestlemania for the first time ever

Is it a PR stunt? In part, yes, because they've been angling for good press a lot, with the way they've built the women up on their roster, and the presence of Ronda Rousey is obviously going to draw eyes. But they have legitimately given women the chance to be stars on the same level with the men, over these last two or three years.

Also, Becky Lynch will be the first non-North American to main event since Andre the Giant did, in 1987.

[UYI]

30 years ago today.

In these videos, Lucy's good friend Carol Burnett and her daughter Lucie Arnaz talk about her position as a businesswoman, and her role as the first woman to own a studio in Hollywood. It wasn't really something she loved to do--she preferred acting and getting to be funny--but she was good at it.

There is also a great PBS special from 2000 about her life called "Finding Lucy."

[Blergh]

UYI, 

 While, this time, I agree with every word you say here (and I'm thankful you remembered Lucy as I've never forgotten her nor even where I was or what I was doing when I found out she no longer was in this world), I have to add there's a bit of irony here. Namely, even when she was at her angriest over Mr. Arnaz's infidelities and alcoholism, she ALWAYS would give him credit for the conception, production and direction of I Love Lucy - and that includes long after everyone else had considered him to be a complete has-been who deserved to be left in obscurity. Lastly  should also be noted that when he was dying and had nothing left to lose, he saw to it that, at the Kennedy Center Tribute to her in 1986, he made sure that  to have his  praises for her contributions read  posthumously - and capped off with the final sentence " P.S. re I Love Lucy, it NEVER was just a title!" 

So, even though their marriage proved to be too toxic for either of them to remain in, they DID do some brilliant, beautiful work together and had a bond that neither divorce, remarriages or even death could totally sever. 

[Broken Ox]

29 minutes ago, UYI said:

30 years ago today.

THAT long? Wow...

[UYI]

19 minutes ago, Broken Ox said:

THAT long? Wow...

I was two months old two days after her passing! THAT'S how long ago it was. 

And she was, of course, the last of the four principal I Love Lucy cast members to pass away: William Frawley passed on March 3rd, 1966, Vivian Vance passed away on August 17th, 1979, Desi Arnaz passed away on December 2nd, 1986, and finally Lucy passed away on April 26th, 1989. But she is still the First Lady of Television. 🙂 

[Annber03]

I would've been 4 years old at the time. I have a vague memory of being at my grandma's house in Arizona, eating cereal, and hearing about her death on the news. 

I have much admiration for all Lucille Ball was able to achieve in the industry. I think about that sometimes when I catch an "I Love Lucy" rerun on TV-it would've been very hard for women and minorities to take charge of anything back then, yet Lucy and Desi both managed to push past a lot of those obstacles and make their mark in the world. Pretty impressive and cool. 

[Spartan Girl]

Game of Thrones current direction with Dany is proof that sexist tropes are alive and thriving in fantasy. Strong women must be broken. They must have everything taken away from them and to add insult to injury be ignored for all their achievements just because they don't like your father and you come off as arrogant and ruthless. And if you finally snap under all that, then it's just proof that you are unfit to rule all along and that the legitimate male heir is a far better choice -- even if he doesn't even want to be King.

Fuck you, show.

Also, Sansa's speech to the Hound about how she's glad she was raped and abused because it made her stronger?! Double fuck you, show.

[Annber03]

6 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Also, Sansa's speech to the Hound about how she's glad she was raped and abused because it made her stronger?! Double fuck you, show.

...wow. 

[Danny Franks]

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

Game of Thrones current direction with Dany is proof that sexist tropes are alive and thriving in fantasy. Strong women must be broken. They must have everything taken away from them and to add insult to injury be ignored for all their achievements just because they don't like your father and you come off as arrogant and ruthless. And if you finally snap under all that, then it's just proof that you are unfit to rule all along and that the legitimate male heir is a far better choice -- even if he doesn't even want to be King.

Fuck you, show.

Also, Sansa's speech to the Hound about how she's glad she was raped and abused because it made her stronger?! Double fuck you, show.

Well. That's certainly a way for the writers to explain their troubling obsession with sexual assault and rape. It's not an approach I would have used, but... whatever they think explains it best, I guess.

[proserpina65]

8 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Also, Sansa's speech to the Hound about how she's glad she was raped and abused because it made her stronger?! Double fuck you, show.

I didn't take it that way at all.  I took it more as if she hadn't gone through what she went through, she wouldn't be the person she became.  She'd still be that spoiled princess she was at the beginning, and she accepted what had happened to change that.  Not that she was glad.

[Spartan Girl]

3 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I didn't take it that way at all.  I took it more as if she hadn't gone through what she went through, she wouldn't be the person she became.  She'd still be that spoiled princess she was at the beginning, and she accepted what had happened to change that.  Not that she was glad.

Okay maybe I phrased it wrong and that's an excellent perspective. However it still plays into the tiresome sexist trope of rape as character development.

[Drogo]

We're not here to bash fans AKA posters on this site.

Talk about the shows, not the people who watch them. 

[Anduin]

This story is old, but I just stumbled across it. Screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis was fired from the Bionic Woman TV show, because apparently she couldn't write women. You may find yourself thinking, hang on, isn't she a woman herself? You'd be right. You'd also be right in thinking that Bionic Woman only ran for 9 episodes.

I wonder. Do you think there's a correlation between a woman being fired from a woman-led show by a man, and that show being shit and getting cancelled?

[MaryMitch]

14 hours ago, Anduin said:

This story is old, but I just stumbled across it. Screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis was fired from the Bionic Woman TV show, because apparently she couldn't write women. You may find yourself thinking, hang on, isn't she a woman herself? You'd be right. You'd also be right in thinking that Bionic Woman only ran for 9 episodes.

I wonder. Do you think there's a correlation between a woman being fired from a woman-led show by a man, and that show being shit and getting cancelled?

I really didn't watch it, but that didn't sound right, so I checked: The Bionic Woman ran for 3 seasons, 58 episodes. Lindsay Wagner actually won an Emmy for it.

[Hybridcookie]

I think the poster was talking about the 2007 remake with Michelle Ryan

[slf]

9 minutes ago, MaryMitch said:

I really didn't watch it, but that didn't sound right, so I checked: The Bionic Woman ran for 3 seasons, 58 episodes. Lindsay Wagner actually won an Emmy for it.

There was another. It starred Michelle Ryan and Katee Sackhoff.

Edited May 28, 2019 by slf

[Anduin]

3 hours ago, Hybridcookie said:

I think the poster was talking about the 2007 remake with Michelle Ryan

Yep, that's the one.

[magicdog]

On 5/28/2019 at 10:32 AM, MaryMitch said:

Do you think there's a correlation between a woman being fired from a woman-led show by a man, and that show being shit and getting cancelled?

I thought the reboot was inferior to the original show, regardless of who wrote it.  I have no idea what was going on behind the scenes anyway,  It could have been a number of factors.

[proserpina65]

20 hours ago, magicdog said:

I thought the reboot was inferior to the original show, regardless of who wrote it.  I have no idea what was going on behind the scenes anyway,  It could have been a number of factors.

Yeah, what I saw of it was dreadful.  I doubt it had anything to do with sexism; it was just bad.

[Spartan Girl]

I guess the lesson from the fallout of the Game of Thrones finale is that having "strong" female characters don't mean a thing if the show is going to stick to the same tired sexist tropes.

It's a lesson we probably should have learned from Buffy and all the double standards there. Buffy was supposed to be an empowered heroine and yet she gets punished for losing her virginity to Angel by having him lose his soul, is deemed "too strong" for "good guy" Riley, and then there was that mess with Spike.

Meanwhile, Xander is free to have sex with Anya without fear of her losing her soul or anybody judging him, despite the fact that she's had a history of killing innocent people -- and for all the crap that Xander gave Buffy about supposedly "not caring" about the people Angel/Spike killed, Anya's body count never seemed to bother him that much. Even when she became a vengeance demon again and killed those frat boys, he was still all about "saving her" -- the same guy who wanted to help Faith kill Angel after he found out he was back. It would have been really nice if his experience with Anya made him realize that he'd been he'd been a hypocrite to Buffy and at least apologized and acknowledged that he can't really judge her for who she loves/sleeps with anymore. But he never did. That wouldn't do for "the one who sees."

Because that's what every "feminist show" needs: a petty self-righteous man always nagging and berating the heroine for all her mistakes. 

[proserpina65]

On ‎06‎/‎08‎/‎2019 at 6:37 AM, Spartan Girl said:

I guess the lesson from the fallout of the Game of Thrones finale is that having "strong" female characters don't mean a thing if the show is going to stick to the same tired sexist tropes.

Idk, most of the female characters on GOT didn't follow tired sexist tropes.  For the most part, their endings were more liberating than those of the male characters.

Edited June 12, 2019 by proserpina65

[Spartan Girl]

58 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

Idk, most of the female characters on GOT didn't follow tired sexist tropes.  For the most part, their endings were more liberating than those of the male characters.

If I may respectfully disagree. The only female characters with liberating empowered endings were Sansa and Arya -- and Sansa being Queen of the North at the end feels hollow since her entire arc in the final season was to be pitted against Dany, i.e. The sexist trope that women of power can't get along with each other.

Now let's look at the other female characters:

Missandei: Fridged in order to drive Dany insane.

Dany: Goes insane/evil just so that she can be killed by Jon, the man she loves, and add to his manpain.

Ellaria and the Sand Snakes: reduced to one-dimensional vengeful sex kittens.

Cersei: reduced to a crying weak victim in her final moments and gets an unearned romantic ending with Jaime.

Brienne: got to be knighted but loses her virginity to Jaime and then promptly ditched by him for Cersei. And while she survives, she winds up the only woman on the council (meaning she'll probably be ignored and outnumbered) and her last scene is to make sure JAIME is remembered.

Shireen: dies horribly to ensure Stannis' downfall.

Talisa: dies horribly while pregnant.

Shay: turned into a woman scorned and was killed by Tyrion to add to his manpain.

The only women who died on their own terms were Olenna and Melisandre. Other than that, none of these other character ends seem "liberated".

[Jacqs]

Very few people, male or female, die on their own terms in the real world, so saying a woman has to die on their own terms to be liberated or feminist is more than a little strange.

[talktoomuch]

On 6/8/2019 at 5:37 AM, Spartan Girl said:

I guess the lesson from the fallout of the Game of Thrones finale is that having "strong" female characters don't mean a thing if the show is going to stick to the same tired sexist tropes.

This is a lesson I learned way back at the Sex and the City finale. Years of building to Carrie learning to stand on her own and be good with her own choices with or without a man. Only to have her drop her entire life to follow a man she didn't love to a city she did so she could be rescued by her twu wuv, a man who had repeatedly chosen not to be with her.

Edited June 15, 2019 by talktoomuch
SATC NOT SITC...I know better.

[Spartan Girl]

16 hours ago, Jacqs said:

Very few people, male or female, die on their own terms in the real world, so saying a woman has to die on their own terms to be liberated or feminist is more than a little strange.

I wasn't trying to say that it was liberated/feminist, I just meant that those two character ends were at least better than the other female characters that wound up fridged or had their character development destroyed.

[topanga]

14 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I wasn't trying to say that it was liberated/feminist, I just meant that those two character ends were at least better than the other female characters that wound up fridged or had their character development destroyed.

This. See: Nicole Beharie on Sleepy Hollow, who'd been written and developed as Ichabod's partner--they were supposed to be spiritually fated to fight the apocalypse together. But after her character died, she told Ichabod in a long speech that her true purpose life was to prepare HIM to fight the apocalypse. The partner prophesy was dropped without explanation. 

[proserpina65]

On ‎06‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 5:57 PM, Spartan Girl said:

If I may respectfully disagree. The only female characters with liberating empowered endings were Sansa and Arya -- and Sansa being Queen of the North at the end feels hollow since her entire arc in the final season was to be pitted against Dany, i.e. The sexist trope that women of power can't get along with each other.

Now let's look at the other female characters:

Missandei: Fridged in order to drive Dany insane.

Dany: Goes insane/evil just so that she can be killed by Jon, the man she loves, and add to his manpain.

Ellaria and the Sand Snakes: reduced to one-dimensional vengeful sex kittens.

Cersei: reduced to a crying weak victim in her final moments and gets an unearned romantic ending with Jaime.

Brienne: got to be knighted but loses her virginity to Jaime and then promptly ditched by him for Cersei. And while she survives, she winds up the only woman on the council (meaning she'll probably be ignored and outnumbered) and her last scene is to make sure JAIME is remembered.

Shireen: dies horribly to ensure Stannis' downfall.

Talisa: dies horribly while pregnant.

Shay: turned into a woman scorned and was killed by Tyrion to add to his manpain.

The only women who died on their own terms were Olenna and Melisandre. Other than that, none of these other character ends seem "liberated".

Dying on your own terms is something which happens far more often on tv than it does in real life, so for me, that's not a measure of how empowering or liberating a show may be.  I completely disagree with your assessment of Brienne's story.  Being a knight is the thing she wanted more than anything, and she not only got that, but she became commander of the King's Guard.

Yes, a lot of female characters died in GOT, but so did a lot of male characters.  Given the society GRRM created, the fact that ANY of the female characters were strong was an achievement to be celebrated, never mind that 3 of them got, let's face, pretty fantastic endings.

On ‎06‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 10:34 PM, Spartan Girl said:

I wasn't trying to say that it was liberated/feminist, I just meant that those two character ends were at least better than the other female characters that wound up fridged or had their character development destroyed.

No different than many of the male characters.

[Niuxita]

On 6/8/2019 at 5:37 AM, Spartan Girl said:

I guess the lesson from the fallout of the Game of Thrones finale is that having "strong" female characters don't mean a thing if the show is going to stick to the same tired sexist tropes.

I completely agree with you. I didn't watch GOT, but SO many otherwise feminist friends and relatives of mines are huge fans of it and have continuously tried to get me to watch it because "girl power like whoa," so, for better or worse, I ended up being pretty well-informed about its events. First of all, I wouldn't have been able to get past all the rape scenes (and I don't buy the "it's realistic!" excuse because, if the show really cared about that, they wouldn't have asked the actress that played Tonks on Harry Potter to shave for a nude scene), but second of all, just because you have a good amount of female characters and give them faux-"empowering" lines of dialogue doesn't mean you are a feminist show. It makes me sad to see those characters hailed time and time again in the media as "examples" of female empowerment in fiction.

[Jacqs]

again, seeing feminism as being adhering to the Helen Reddy stereotype is not "feminist" or "empowering" either. It is the suffocating opposite of misogyny - the pedestal.

[DearEvette]

13 hours ago, Niuxita said:

It makes me sad to see those characters hailed time and time again in the media as "examples" of female empowerment in fiction.

So many people mistake being 'badass' for being 'empowered'.  A female character who delivers cool, zinger lines and gets to kill someone in a cool zinger way doesn't necessarily equate to the same sort of systemic power or agency that many of their male counterparts have over the life of a show.

[andromeda331]

16 hours ago, DearEvette said:

So many people mistake being 'badass' for being 'empowered'.  A female character who delivers cool, zinger lines and gets to kill someone in a cool zinger way doesn't necessarily equate to the same sort of systemic power or agency that many of their male counterparts have over the life of a show.

Yes, thank you!  

[Luckylyn]

Leslie Knope, A Woman’s Woman in Government - This is a great analysis of the character from Parks and Recreation, and I think it fits the current discussion about how female empowerment can be portrayed.

[Anduin]

You all know how Joss Whedon is a total feminist, right? I shouldn't have to tell you what a total feminist he is, because we all know that. He'll happily tell you himself how much of a feminist he is. But here's a stunning article about how badly he short-changed the three lead women on Angel, killed them all off in almost the same way. Via childbirth. Isn't that surprising from such a total feminist?

I found this article via a tweet from Charisma Carpenter.

Quote

I have never felt more seen or understood than by this journalist’s expression of all I have never been able to articulate or say myself. Simply, Thank you.