Taking Feminism for Granted

The quote that I found most interesting from the reading is one talking about Sabrina. After mentioning the recent (or at least it was recent when the article was written) explosion of shows about girls, the authors pull from Susan Orlean saying that Sabrina is a lot of positive things like assertive, “in the way that only girls who have grown up taking feminism for granted are able to do”. I like that quote because it is something I have been thinking about lately. It bothers me that we are still in a place where people get angry over shows that have some negative portrayals of women, or women that aren’t feminists. I first began to think about it when Erin posted an article about Parks and Rec to the Facebook group. First off, I completely disagree that in the most recent season Leslie has become less strong willed and has started to rely on Ben. But the part that bothered me was that if the author was looking for them to not use the damsel in distress act, maybe they should have looked at Donna. Donna is the exact opposite of a damsel in distress. She is an overweight confident black woman who has no problem “using and abusing guys”. In fact in one episode she even tells Ann “I have several men in rotation. One's waiting for me out in the car. Don't worry I rolled down the window.” Getting to my point, there are so many representations of men in the media that it doesn’t matter if they have a character like Tom Haverford, who makes men look like idiots. And I think that if television will continue to show multiple different representations of women that we will get to a place where girls grow up taking feminism for granted, because we are very close. However, we won’t get there if feminists continue to point out the negative, like calling out Leslie Knope for being a damsel in distress, instead of highlighting the positive, like the independent Donna. Side note. If you have never seen Parks and Rec, then I’m sorry for the confusing post. Also go watch it.