Comments on: Horton Hears a Sexist

By: Another Feminist Reponse to Horton Hears a Who: Why is it always the mother’s fault? | (Making / Being in / Staying in) TROUBLE

Thu, 28 May 2009 15:15:17 +0000

[...] when the Jim Carrey/Steve Carrell version of Horton Hears a Who came out, feminists responded (see here and here and here) to what they saw as the blatant sexism within the movie’s over-emphasis on [...]

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:55:51 +0000

I haven’t seen this show since it went off air, but the old Nick show Pete & Pete, had a lot of cool female main characters, Big Pete’s best friend Ellen, and Little Pete’s best friends are all girls:
Monica Perling (One of Little Pete’s friends, Monica is the resident Kreb Scout who is ready for anything. She has excellent hearing. Supposedly, this is because one of her ancestors married a bloodhound.)
Nona F. Mecklenberg (Little Pete’s best friend. Her middle initial “F” stands for Frances, but she wants to change it to Frank, Fahrvergnügen, or Forklift.)

It was on it the early 90’s and they stopped showing re-runs in ‘99 but they have dvds out now. It was my favorite show as a kid, it was a really funny show with good messages and plenty of great characters of both sexes and no stereotypical gender roles (even some of the bullys were girls).

Though it’s from the nineties it’s aged pretty well, all my younger cousins (boys and girls) love it and always ask to borrow the dvds.

PS. <3 Peter Sagal.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:31:24 +0000

There are no female leads that “save the day”?

Kim Possible
Kill Bill for your mature audiences.
The Life and Times of Juniper Lee
The Powerpuff Girls

Don’t tell me, people have actually overlooked this shows that are hugely popular?

By: Sonia Chopra

Sonia Chopra — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:29:40 +0000

It’s so heartening to read all these comments, because I could not believe what I was watching. Excited to take a break and watch an animated for a change, I could barely sit through Hortons whatever. It was so unabashedly and unapologetically chauvinistic. The theater was packed with little kiddos and their parents, all having a rollicking time with the popcorn and all. But gosh, I am not taking my daughter to another film by these makers. God, a nice Saturday was spoilt watching this tripe. Gripe!

By: octopod

octopod — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:24:28 +0000

I’ll put another vote in favour of the way Alanna’s sexual relationships are handled in Songs of the Lioness — I didn’t think it was overdone at all, she was just sleeping with whoever she fancied. I didn’t think much of it at the time I first read it, but now I’d heartily support it as pretty reasonable behaviour for an energetic and courageous young bi/het woman in a mainly-male society. (Personal experience supports.)
Cimorene is awesome too, although I was a bit annoyed at how she and Kazul both drop out for the last book. And “King” and “Queen” being job titles, rather than gender-based variants of the same job? Rock on. As a bizarrely genderblind kid, I latched right onto this.
Got my little brother reading it too. I try to get him hooked on good stories, but he’s also always had a major predilection for stories with strong warrior women for some reason — he loved Mulan when he was Disney age, and then there’s the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and now various Pratchett novels — Pratchett totally doesn’t suck when it comes to writing female characters. Try the Tiffany Aching novels, or Monstrous Regiment, or absolutely anything with Granny Weatherwax in it.
My actual point here, though, was this: You can raise an objection to any one female protagonist’s handling of her love life (Cimorene marries the first man she actually makes friends with; Alanna goes to bed with most of the guys who signal interest in her), but all of them are things that various women actually do, based on their preferences. What’s really unfortunate is that there aren’t enough of them to generalize; no single one plays into the stereotype, because there isn’t enough material to even MAKE a stereotype for female protagonists’ sexual behaviour! And for that, IBTP.

By: Radfem

Radfem — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:01:09 +0000

He might be lonely but he’s still the hero. If it were only one girl with 97 sons, she’d just be lonely.

By: Cecily

Cecily — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:08:38 +0000

I’m a little late to this party, but I wanted to throw in some points:

I haven’t read Robin McKinley’s Sunshine but her Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword are excellent. Both have female protagonists whose personalities and skills don’t mesh well with their societies, and who kick much ass.

Also, in case anyone is using this to recommend books to younguns: be a little cautious about Mercedes Lackey. Yes, female protagonists, gay protagonist, lots of good stuff, but I can count the books she’s written without rape or molestation in them on one hand (and she’s written a LOT of books.) I’m not saying this means you shouldn’t read her books, or give ‘em to others to read, but consider it when you’re deciding who to give them to, at what age, et cetera. I was almost sick when, as a kid, I had totally bonded with a protagonist for 2.5 books and suddenly she was being gang-raped and tortured.

By: Emburii

Emburii — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:01:45 +0000

Gah. The comment above was in reference to ‘Sunshine’, by Robin McKinley.

By: Emburii

Emburii — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:00:37 +0000

I never got ’strength’ from that character. I was interested in the world, but the main character was a little too twee and /entirely/ too hapless. Even to the end, she gets dragged along by the male vampire, just sort of shoved in the direction of where to go. She never knows what exactly she’s doing, except for when the power derived from her father’s bloodline shoves some new plot device into the narrative.

By: Morganna

Morganna — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:45:44 +0000

For books I’d say the Sons og the Lioness quartet, and the Wild Magic books by the same author. Also the Protector of the Small and Trickster Choice books.
I don’t understand why Alanna isn’t allowed to have sex with people she happens to be in love with. I see this as more of a woman expressing her sexuality without shame, She also leaves the Prince when he’s an ass, further showing her empowerment, and has relationships with two other men-both of which she loves.
Also, the “too emotional” complaint doesn’t quite fit-she isn’t only emotional about her lovers, she feels emotion about everything like a normal human being. The other characters don’t have as much emotional expression because the story is told from her point of view-which doesn’t allow us into the other charachters minds.