When the words “Feminist Make-Up tutorial” sashayed onto my Tumblr dashboard, I took the delicious piece of click-bait in order to find out how to fight misogyny while looking fabulous. Sure enough, it taught me how to put my Smash the Patriarchy #2 lipstick to good use, AND it became an instant favorite amongst my peers. Now we have a charming, uniform mask of righteousness to wear when we take up our rightful position as the superior sex.
In case it’s not evident, what I just demonstrated in the above paragraph was a staggering attempt at ~comedy.~ As is the video itself, which you can tell from the “PARODY” at the end of the title.
The Youtube comment section, where intelligence goes to die, is ridden with debate and confusion on the true merits of feminism. Specifically, some have assumed that feminism is under attack with this video. You guys. You…girls. Everyone. This is not meant to be a serious threat to our cause.
Also, “the ashes of Susan B. Anthony?” I’m sorry, that’s fucking hilarious, I just about died when I heard that.
In the words of Youtuber tadelesmith herself:
“If you want to take anything from it (which you don’t have to), it’s meant to play on some common misconceptions about feminism.”
So there you go. But there are some interesting issues brought up by this video, and no, not the ones regarding whether feminists wear make-up in the first place. It’s not 1967; some feminists wear make-up, some don’t. Let’s not get into it, because I’ve already beaten the subject of choice to death this week.
Something I briefly touched upon recently with a friend of mine who’s currently working at another third-wave feminist sister publication (we’re all “sisters” here, you see) is whether feminists can enjoy jokes about feminism. That is, in a community that tries to be so air-tight in political correctness, can we laugh at the ridiculousness of our subculture? I mean, I work at BUST and I still think that Vag Magazine was the funniest webseries of 2010, if not of all time.
I mean, I recognize that in this specific video she’s making fun of how society perceives our more negative man-hating stereotypes. Which of course, is not all of us. I mean, I actually wore that lipstick to work today, and I occasionally happen to hate men, but that has…nothing to do with my status as a feminist. So I’m just gonna table this.
As feminists, are there certain things that are “off-limits” in the world of comedy, namely, making fun of certain aspects of feminism itself? Or is setting these limits and declaring it “unfeminist” another way to hold women down when they’re trying to create…um…”art?” Is this even a feminist thing, or more of a general you-either-get-the-joke-or-you-don’t issue? And finally – and I dread asking this – do you think we take ourselves too seriously sometimes?
Are you picking up what I’m putting down, or do I just sound like an asshat because it’s 5:55 on a Friday and I needed a drink, like, yesterday? (You don’t need to respond to that one, I know the answer already.)
Sound off in our comments, and watch the tutorial below so you too can look hot while fighting oppression from the white, upper-class male devils!
