Behold star of The Hills, Heidi Montag, aka Feminist Hero.
Defying our expectations, Heidi has emerged as a kind of feminist hero this season, climbing her way to a bigger position at the event-planning company where she orchestrates Nascar parties, and refusing to acquiesce to the demands of her fiancé, Spencer, that she get herself home on time. Her career-mindedness sets their relationship off course. Heidi identifies the problem with no name: a boyfriend who sits around an apartment decorated to look like an ’80s video arcade while trying to deny Heidi a real wedding with the glory of registering. Her groundswell of self-assertion begins when he insists on eloping, prompting Heidi to declare, “This isn’t, like, Spencer’s relationship and you decide what we do.�
Yes, a modern day Gloria Steinem. I don't joke to denigrate Montag - frankly I don't watch The Hills so I can't speak to her feminist cred. However, I do find it somewhat hilarious that Montag is being deigned a "feminist hero" by the very reporter who famously declared feminism dead on the cover of Time Magazine.
Ann's brilliant (and sadly probably right-on) reaction: "She's probably compiling material for a 'Is Feminism STILL SUPER DEAD?' cover story."
Bellafante's 1998 article bemoaned today's feminism, saying it has "devolved into the silly...And it has powerful support for this: a popular culture insistent on offering images of grown single women as frazzled, self-absorbed girls." And yet Bellafante looks to The Hills for feminist icons. Baffling, really.
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This is so far off I don't even know what to say....
This is the same woman who alienates all her female friends as soon as she begins dating a man, lets him treat her friends like crap, and then blames them for not supporting her and accuses them being unfair by disliking her boyfriend. Oh, and blames them when they bring up the fact that he flirts incessantly with other women.
She is not my feminist hero by any means.
I prefer to hold up and praise these feminist Goddesses Audre Lorder, Winona LaDuke, Vandana Shiva, Wangari Muta Maathai and Arundhati Roy!
Yeah, from Bellafante's track record, I would almost say that this is a not-so-subtle mockery of modern feminism, or at least, what she thinks the feminist cause has devolved into.
Since when does being in a manipulative relationship with a sexist ass make you a feminist? This article is completely insane!
So she's a feminist for not being a complete doormat (even though feminism is dead)? I was going to link the youtube video of her "music video" that shows her rubbing herself down in a bikini on the beach. I also remember her being in another topic on feministing (or maybe feministe) when she was in a magazine discussing her breast implants. I remember her saying she didn't feel like a woman/attractive and she was tired of being "as flat as a board," so she HAD to get implants to finally feel pretty.
I don't want to bash other women, but really?! Her as a feminist icon?! Ah yes, someone to finally support the right to get breast implants and frolic on the beach in a bikini. I'm sure Gloria Steinem is proud of the comparison.
And yet Bellafante looks to The Hills for feminist icons. Baffling, really.
Okay, I've been in a funk for the last while from getting turned down from a job I needed, & that was the 1st thing that made me laugh in the last 4 days. Cheers!
Good ole Heidi "revenge breast implant" Montag.
Sorry to disappoint, folks, but I'm fairly certain her being called a feminist icon was meant to be tongue in cheek. The writer's bad joke apparently didn't land.
Not to mention, she "climbed her way to a bigger position" by encouraging her more-experienced female co-worker to apply for the position, only to go behind her back and apply for the position herself.
OK, I'll admit it, The Hills is one of those semi-unfeminist guilty pleasures of mine. ;)
Why are average people so interested in the personal lives of the ultra-wealthy?
I can't watch those shows. They make me want to storm the castle.
Anyway, to qualify as a feminist icon, you basically have to do...something...while awake...in public. *edits résumé*
Wait, when did a question equal a declaration?
I think the author might be joking.
And, as a joke, I think it's funny.
Run to the hiiills, run for your liiife!
*Ahem* Sorry, that's all I can think when this show is mentioned. In any context.
DevenL, that's my ringtone!
Iron Maiden love! \m/
Oh, I saw this and just assumed it was a joke. But I didn't know about the writer's previous articles.
Anyway, I admit to occasionally watching The Hills (brain candy!) and Heidi is just so... boring. Well, they all are, but she is a special brand of insipid. That is my insightful commentary for this evening.
Heidi just makes me sad. She is a lost soul that puts all of her worth in her failing and ridiculous relationship with Douchebag #1. (sort of like public enemy #1).
She got implants and now collagen in her lips to help her low self-esteem. She turned on her best friend for the douche and she is completely isolated from her old friends and family. We all know a "heidi" and admit it, they are the women you feel sad for.
Parody and Satire only work when done obviously with a good healthy dollop of hyperbole and even then sometimes it can simply not work. If this was what she was going for?
It did not work.
Hell, even the Onion would have at least put in something about a fake quote from Hilary or Gloria or -something- to make it obvious it was intended as ridiculous. Given this author's history, I honestly think she thought she was making yet another edgy point about the changing of the women's movement or something. Her logic doesn't quite seem to be earth logic.
This has to be a joke. It's a subtle jab at contemporary feminism, perfectly in frame with her assertion that feminism is "dead."
As others have alluded to above, Heidi appeared in a cover story in Us magazine titled "Revenge Plastic Surgery," where she talks about how she got implants to get back at the boys who used to make fun of her for being flat. Wait, "revenge?" Wha'? Factor in her weird relationship with her manager/boyfriend/svengali, bizarre backstabbing "friendships," and so on and so on... it wouldn't take much to paint her the picture perfect anti-feminist.
By holding her up as a "feminist icon of sorts", it's Bellafante's snide way of saying "feminism is dead," once again.
This has to be a joke. It's a subtle jab at contemporary feminism, perfectly in frame with her assertion that feminism is "dead."
As others have alluded to above, Heidi appeared in a cover story in Us magazine titled "Revenge Plastic Surgery," where she talks about how she got implants to get back at the boys who used to make fun of her for being flat. Wait, "revenge?" Wha'? Factor in her weird relationship with her manager/boyfriend/svengali, bizarre backstabbing "friendships," and so on and so on... it wouldn't take much to paint her the picture perfect anti-feminist.
By holding her up as a "feminist icon of sorts", it's Bellafante's snide way of saying "feminism is dead," once again.
This has to be a joke. It's a subtle jab at contemporary feminism, perfectly in frame with her assertion that feminism is "dead."
As others have alluded to above, Heidi appeared in a cover story in Us magazine titled "Revenge Plastic Surgery," where she talks about how she got implants to get back at the boys who used to make fun of her for being flat. Wait, "revenge?" Wha'? Factor in her weird relationship with her manager/boyfriend/svengali, bizarre backstabbing "friendships," and so on and so on... it wouldn't take much to paint her the picture perfect anti-feminist.
By holding her up as a "feminist icon of sorts", it's Bellafante's snide way of saying "feminism is dead," once again.
This has to be a joke. It's a subtle jab at contemporary feminism, perfectly in frame with her assertion that feminism is "dead."
As others have alluded to above, Heidi appeared in a cover story in Us magazine titled "Revenge Plastic Surgery," where she talks about how she got implants to get back at the boys who used to make fun of her for being flat. Wait, "revenge?" Wha'? Factor in her weird relationship with her manager/boyfriend/svengali, bizarre backstabbing "friendships," and so on and so on... it wouldn't take much to paint her the picture perfect anti-feminist.
By holding her up as a "feminist icon of sorts", it's Bellafante's snide way of saying "feminism is dead," once again.
ugh, sorry for multiple multiple multiple posts....
"from Bellafante's track record, I would almost say that this is a not-so-subtle mockery of modern feminism, or at least, what she thinks the feminist cause has devolved into."
Exactly!
If people are going to insult "today's feminism" they should at least choose a representative who, claims to be a feminist. Or someone "today's feminists" characterize as a feminist icon.
Heidi never claimed to be doing anything for feminist reasons; she's never called herself a feminist. In fact, I'd guess she'd run for "the hills" from the feminist label.
After hearing that being a pole-dancer is about "female empowerment" I'll believe anything.