A4 Reflection

In creating “Shit Feminists Don’t Say,” our initial goal was simply to explore the feminist theories and related characters we covered in class, but once we finished, I noticed something more: we were defining feminism. As with the best videos in the same genre, the humor depends on stereotypes and generalizations. While, at times, our video was exempt from this because of its (hopefully) humorous plays on theoretical tenets, many of the better moments pull from more realistic scenarios. Sure, someone who works with feminist theory most likely will not think, “Freud is so spot-on”—harmless humor. But consider the scenes of where women seem to want to be objectified: these pull from stereotypes of what the archetypal feminist would say.

In class, we have discussed the potential gains from objectification and briefly alluded to the viability of lipstick feminism, but our video does not consider these options. During the writing process, we struggled with whether to push back against unqualified generalizations to try to make the least offensive video possible. While it ultimately became clear that without the stereotypical we would end up creating a short and rather unfunny video, let it be known that these generalizations were not included undetected.

By compiling phrases that feminists apparently don’t say, we seem to be arguing that someone who considers themself a feminist should not say any of these things, and if they do, well then they aren’t exactly a feminist. But this is not the case. While the video does poke fun at beliefs that are typically outside the spectrum of feminism, this not with the idea that they discredit a person’s feminism if they hold them; we just want to generate some laughter and maybe some thought from both sides of the text.