Blog Post 6

 It was so incredibly satisfying reading the Bad Feminist excerpt because it was like she was literally taking the words right out of my mouth. She perfectly articulates the struggle that I have had with coming to terms with my own understanding of feminism versus the “Capital F” Feminism that comprises mainstream media and the general public’s understand of what feminism really means–or rather what it should mean. A part that really resonated with me was when she said “I’m not trying to be an example. I am not trying to be perfect,” because for the longest time I was trying to be perfect. I felt like in order for me to proudly call myself a feminist, I needed to be an expert on the topic but this only led to me feeling insecure and inadequate. I held myself to an unreachable standard and realized this was only counteractive. Only recently have I gotten into the habit of reminding myself that I don’t need to be perfect to consider myself a feminist and from now on I’m going to confidently claim the label “Bad Feminist”.

I ended up watching all of Hannah Bonner’s films but my favorite one is definitely “The Problem That Has No Name”. It seems like she was trying to highlight the way in which the monotony of domestication can drive a woman mad and the ways in which this problem is presented in the media. The title made me immediately think of the Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan because that book was all about the deep dissatisfaction that second wave feminism had with the relative gender norms of the time. The book, however, had faced some back lash from the feminist community because it only surveyed and examined the lives of white middle class women. The women in the clips that Hannah used were all white middle class as well. I believe Hannah might have been using a lot of clips from horror movies to portray the psychological breakdown of such a phenomenon and the flaw of such narrow minded thinking. 

I checked out the films on Untied/ Shoes and the one that stuck out to me the most was “The Great Malaise” by Catherine Lepage. The film is a combination of animation and narration by a young woman “poignantly illustrating the intense anxiety that comes with the quest for perfection and the pursuit of happiness”. It was incredibly relatable and honest. I was nodding my head and chuckling to myself the whole time I was watching it. I loved the animations as well, very creative and silly in a heartwarming way, displaying the awkwardness in the art that is “faking it till you make it”. Below are some screenshots of my favorite animations.