Conversation

Aella
@Aella_Girl
When movies show a traditional gender roles world (like, historically or culturally), and then the women rise up and Do Feminism, I just don't buy it. I was raised in a super traditional gender roles world and I didn't see a single woman around me Doing Feminism.
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
Like, not even whispers in woman-only tea parties. The closest you'd get was a woman going "oh he cheated on you? That's actually biblical grounds for divorce you know".
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
Women did not believe they were chafing under the oppression of men, there was no sense of being enslaved. They all were participatory, unchallenging. Sometimes it sucked, but they'd shrug and be like, "Well, we're women, this is what it's like, what did you expect?
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
So when movies portray some spirited young girl from a peroid piece community going "hey! Actually girls can do all this too!" I just see her as a puppet for the outside world which is living out its fantasy of injecting Feminism into cultures they can't access directly
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
But me, having lived in a culture where our pastor's daughter was still at home at 22 because she wasn't allowed to leave home without the authority of a man over her (so had to wait till marriage), finds this alienating and unrelatable. Media does NOT know what it's like.
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
This is why I'm so relieved by traditional worlds featuring strong women characters who don't Do Feminism - women who obviously are hurt by their gender role but figure out incredible steps *inside* the system to get what they want, instead of being Woman Power Puppet #33
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
Media like that makes me feel less alone and my experiences more understood. And, maybe more importantly, it's still accessible to the woman still in those highly traditional communities, who don't even have a section of their understanding of reality for Doing Feminism at all.
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Sarah Fletcher
@SarahFPoetry
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
Surely a lot of these narratives target the fact someone likes to be the first to 'gain consciousness' & realise how sexist/awful the surrounding society is? I grew up in a conservative Christian household & as a teenager related to these narratives (though not my peers)
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