That totally kicks ass.

I wonder if (sesame street? Muppets?) have ever done a similar video saying men can be stay-at-home dads, nurses, etc.

UCLA:
While it's become more acceptable for women to do traditionally "manly" things, it's still considered lame for men to do traditionally "girly" things. The world can see why women would aspire to "be like men" (even though there's nothing inherently manly about a "man's" profession) but men who want to "be like women?" Gay or pathetic, and certainly deserving of a good ass-kicking. Sigh.

I remember this! Loved it as a kid, love it now.

Wow.. I'm showing this to my daughter as soon as she gets home from school.

As a child of the 70s, I got a lot of this stuff. As the ERA was rising, the feminist message was mainstream and everywhere. Despite dealing with a mom who was still mired in domesticity, I still managed to internalize a message that being female didn't mean I was subhuman.

Unfortunately, I think the generation just behind me missed this, because after the ERA's failure, pop culture feminism became equated with consumerism. It seems like the solution for dealing with all us uppity females seeking to exercise our strength was to convince us that there was inherent strength in tarting oneself up like a streetwalker. Girls of the 80s may have rejected forced domestic servitude, but they adopted the other side of the Madonna/Whore dichotomy instead.

When I saw the Spice Girls using the "girl power" trope, I knew we were lost. The strong little girls of the 70s gave way to the pop tarts of the late 90s, and now, instead of women being largely united in the cause of gender equality, we're fighting amongst ourselves because so many young feminists have been brainwashed to believe that feminine strength resides almost entirely between their legs instead of between their ears.

This is awesome.

I remember watching that on PBS as a child

good shit

"Free to be..you and me" is also awesome :)

I remember watching that on PBS as a child

good shit

"Free to be..you and me" is also awesome :)

I remember watching that on PBS as a child

good shit

"Free to be..you and me" is also awesome :)

Aw, wow! i never saw this before.

Thank you :-) This has put me in such a good mood!

Don't forget this "Guys and Dolls" parody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2YY3Ba6Js0

LOL. That is the best. As soon as I heard the first word I remembered it from when I was a kid, but had totally forgotten about it until now. How great is that, thanks for posting it! :D

Speaking of Sesame Street and feminism...

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/sesamestreet11152002.html

"Khokha, the star of Alam Simsim, the Egyptian version of Sesame Street, is tenacious.

"Visiting a library, the inquisitive, pink Muppet with a cheery, chatty voice, asks the librarian for books that will help her chose a future profession. Beginning with texts about engineers, pilots, and architects, the stack becomes so heavy and rises so high in Khokha’s arms that she can hardly stand. Hungry to explore life’s possibilities, she requests one more manual—on bodybuilding..."

wow, Trash Queen.
you're commenting on feministing, and you're expressing (what i'm reading as) disdain for younger feminists?
really?
and you're here, and claiming that sex positive feminism = whoring ourselves out?
seriously?
i don't even know what to say to that.
except: le sigh. (and you question WHY there's in-fighting and intergenerational tensions?)

anyway.
the video is marvelous.
loooove it. :)

That's wonderful!

I love Sesame Street. I think they've done a damn good job steering away from stereotypes and discrimination like so many children shows do.

Kudos.

Jen, I don't think Trash Queen was passing judgement on the younger generation of feminists. It seems to me that she was decrying the inversion of feminist values - not by feminists themselves, but by the powers that be - into the "pop culture feminism" she mentions.

While sex-positive feminism is surely a boon, the way it's been misinterpreted by mainstream media to mean that women's sexuality is their primary strength and concern (and the correlative use of the "feminist" moniker when the Spice Girls and Pussycat Dolls of the world want to justify their teeny outfits and sex-obsessed cultural output), is absolutely a step backward.

This is not the fault of the younger generation of feminists, but an example of how the increasingly powerful corporate world and its advertisements have benefited from perverting a positive feminist message for profit. They sell women makeup and plastic surgery with advertising language that uses faux-empowerment messages cribbed from the women's movement. Think of a young girl who sees beauty products advertised as "empowering" choices - surely exposure to these confusing messages at a young age obfuscates the real meanings and goals of feminism.

Jen, I don't think Trash Queen was passing judgement on the younger generation of feminists. It seems to me that she was decrying the inversion of feminist values - not by feminists themselves, but by the powers that be - into the "pop culture feminism" she mentions.

While sex-positive feminism is surely a boon, the way it's been misinterpreted by mainstream media to mean that women's sexuality is their primary strength and concern (and the correlative use of the "feminist" moniker when the Spice Girls and Pussycat Dolls of the world want to justify their teeny outfits and sex-obsessed cultural output), is absolutely a step backward.

This is not the fault of the younger generation of feminists, but an example of how the increasingly powerful corporate world and its advertisements have benefited from perverting a positive feminist message for profit. They sell women makeup and plastic surgery with advertising language that uses faux-empowerment messages cribbed from the women's movement. Think of a young girl who sees beauty products advertised as "empowering" choices - surely exposure to these confusing messages at a young age obfuscates the real meanings and goals of feminism.

I remember that! Thank sweet baby bjork for YouTube.