talking-bird:

rtothemj:

talking-bird:

I just saw an article call Leslie Knope a slut-shamer, and I’m confused.

She didn’t berate Trish in the Beauty Pageant for being “slutty,” but for being uninformed and unintelligent.

She didn’t berate Jessica Wicks for being “slutty,” but for destroying historical landmarks.

She didn’t care that Shauna had sex, she was just upset that it was with Mark.

She has had sex. She knows Ann has sex. She is fine with Ann having sex.

I’m… seriously really confused, did I miss something?

[Gif description: Leslie Knope making an “ew” face.]

Assuming this is referring to my article.…

Slut-shaming is not quite the right word and so I’ve changed it. But I think she shows a lot of whorephobia in the episode where she takes Tom to the strip club (2X11, Tom’s Divorce) - Ron also participates - where they basically make a ton of judgey comments about the life choices of the strippers they see. IE, Leslie calls Sierra “Seabiscuit”, which is kind of dehumanizing, and then tells her to reconsider her life choices.

I’m postponing that particular article because I’m interested to see where the “empowered slut” storyline Rashida has mentioned goes, but I was very frustrated by that scene in particular.

Ah, alright. I’m hoping you don’t think I was being rude, because it was genuine misunderstanding on my part.

The way I see it, Leslie has always been a misguided feminist, which you touch on in your article also. I don’t think the “Seabiscuit” joke and the life choices thing is dehumanizing so much as Leslie being uncomfortable with the situation (because she isn’t a flawless feminist; she acknowledges the school of thought that some think of stripping as a feminist activity, but just finds herself not at ease in the situation) and the character being socially awkward. And the Seabiscuit thing was  her mishearing the woman in the strip club.

Leslie isn’t a perfect feminist, and I don’t think the show has ever set her up as someone truly schooled in that world of thought; she’s just incredibly enthusiastic about it, and sometimes in misguided ways, which is where the humor comes from. I don’t know that one episode of stripperphobia is enough to condemn her; she’s a socially awkward character.

You weren’t rude :) I love your blog, BTW.

I hope you don’t think that I’m trying to condemn her; like I say in the article, I really, really love Leslie Knope and I think she’s great.

That episode was particularly frustrating for me because I think it’s one of the times where she spends the most time talking about feminism, and in the context it was illustrating something I don’t like about feminism. Which for me was disappointing because there are times that I think she’s a fantastic feminist, as the article I quoted pointed out - she’s kind and good to other people and treats them with respect.

I can understand a different reading of the episode, though. The Seabiscuit comment actually meets my standard for a critical joke (as opposed to one that reinforces the problem) since Sierra actively corrects her. And since it’s not something that is really touched upon much in other episodes now that I’m thinking about it, I might not expand upon it in a future article. I’ll keep your thoughts in mind when I sit down to write it. Thanks for engaging.