Blogs We Love: Feminist Frequency

To continue the "Blogs We Love" thread I'd like to introduce one of my new finds, Feminist Frequency and it's accompanying YouTube channel.  Led by media critic Anita Sarkeesian, this site presents "a video webseries that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives."

Well researched and well presented, the "Tropes vs Women" video series focuses particularly on video games and traditional media.  Videos exploring recurring "stories, themes and representations of women in Hollywood films and TV shows" include:

1. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl
2. Women in Refrigerators
3. The Smurfette Principle
4. The Evil Demon Seductress
5. The Mystical Pregnancy
6. The Straw Feminist

Video game related topics have included:

• Damsel in Distress (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
• Ms. Male Character
• Women as Background Decoration (currently Part 1).

Sarkeesian does a wonderful job presenting well balanced and well organized evidence for each "trope" gathered from both media sources and academic research.  I found the identification and naming of specific "tropes" to be an empowering approach as it ultimately offers targeted avenues for change.

The site also links to Ms. Sarkeesian's TEDxWomen talk regarding online harassment, a variety of other videos, and lists of games, TV shows, novels & comics, films, blogs, nonfiction books, etc. that might be of interest.  It's definitely worth checking out!

Blogs We Love: TYCI

Hi all,

Sorry I've been slacking on posts recently. Full time job + night classes + life = a lot.

I thought it would be cool to start a new ongoing thread about other awesome feminist blogs that we find on the interwebs (or elsewhere!).

I recently stumbled across TYCI on Soundcloud (via my Lauren Mayberry and CHVRCHES related feeds) and was excited to discover that they not only have an awesome self-produced monthly podcast but also a blog, zine, radio show, and cool events (sadly in the UK) that help raise money for different charities that support women.

Here is what they say about themselves on their website:

"TYCI is a collective run by women.

On this website, we explore and celebrate all things femme, providing an open forum for discussion and a place to share ideas and make connections. We write about things which affect us and put together features on art, theatre, music, film, politics, current affairs and most things in between."

It's been so refreshing to listen to commentary about female artists that actually has to do with their talent and musical ability rather than their appearance and/or who they're dating.

You should definitely check them out!