The Lost Lenore

           

 In her vlogs for Feminist Frequency, Anita Sarkeesian focused primarily on tropes in popular culture that emphasized negative female gender stereotypes. While her representation of female tropes leads to the conclusion that the majority of female characters embody these negative stereotypes, there are plenty of tropes that female characters that are not necessarily destructive. One such trope is the Lost Lenore, from the Lenore from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” This trope is similar to the concept of the women in refrigerators that Anita talked about, but this trope takes it a step further. The Lost Lenore is a female character that has been deceased from the beginning of the work, and acts solely as a plot device for the writers to work off. While Sarkeesian would likely argue this trope as being a negative objectification of a female character, it could be argue that this trope acts as a way to complicate gender norms, and work in positive ways for female characters.

            In many ways, the Lost Lenore represents exactly what Sarkeesian was against. These characters are females whose death has more importance to the story than they did when they were alive. In this sense, they are little more than a plot device. It could be argued that, as women, they have been belittled to the point where they are only being used as a justification for the actions of the men. Given Sarkeesian’s arguments for other tropes, specifically in her interpretation of the trope of the women in refrigerators, this seems like a likely approach for this trope for someone arguing from her standpoint. This interpretation, though, belittles the importance of the character as a whole. The whole point of a character acting as a Lost Lenore is that their absence completely alters the life of the lover that they left behind. For Lenores that have passed before the work begins, the audience never sees them, and never gets to know their character. This does not belittle their existence as women. As a matter of fact, their effect, in death, on their former lovers is a testament to their significance.

            When the Lost Lenore is thought of, thoughts of gothic literature, such as Poe’s work, or modern Hollywood dramas are the first thing to come to mind. For this reason, one distinctive type of the Lost Lenore is seen in comedy. For example, the television sitcom Full House is based upon a father and his daughters, who have lost their mother. Danny, the father, must cope with the loss of his wife throughout the entire series. To the viewer, Pam, our Lost Lenore, is never seen. From a plot standpoint, she remains rather insignificant. Her back story is almost non-existant. The only information that is given about her is that she was killed in a car accident. Very few episodes, especially in later seasons, revolve around Danny’s lost lover. However, the significance of her lost can be seen in the effects of the characters. In this way, the Lost Lenore complicates gender norms, instead of reinforcing negative feminine stereotypes. After her death, Danny is left to raise three daughters by himself. Apart from the anxiety, and possible obsessive compulsiveness, that the loss of his wife gave him, Danny’s character is decidedly more feminine than other males in the series. Without a female figure in the house, Danny is forced to adopt the roles that she would have played. This concept is often played on by making Danny appear humorously over-feminine. After the death of his wife, Danny not only has to cope with the emotional side of loss, but the familial side. From a superficial viewpoint, some would say that Pam only acts as a plot device to serve Danny, but when taken in as a whole, the significance that this female plays cannot be denied. Of course there is very little to her actual character that is revealed, which is an argument that Sarkeesian offered against female tropes. Though, her roles in the family in no way enforce a negative stereotype towards women, and through her death, her positive aspects are only enforced further.

            Most characters across any form of media can be fit into a specific trope. The call that Sarkeesian is making to Hollywood writers to “write realistic characters” is quite ridiculous. No matter what traits are given to a character, they are always going to possess some traits that fit them into a specific stereotype. Even when the character is purposely given traits to contrast with those stereotypes, they can be overanalyzed to the point where their contrasting characteristics are linked to negative stereotypes. When analyzing tropes, it’s important to understand the ways in which both negative and positive stereotypes are being presented. Along with that, it’s important to understand why these tropes are being used. In the case of the Lost Lenore, the character is belittled to be little more than a plot device, who could be argued as using her femininity as a tool for the male characters. However, the greater context of the character, and the audience consuming the media must be considered in these situations. While Pam possesses many of the stereotypes that Sarkeesian is condemning, it is hard to see these features in the Lost Lenore as being negative.

Body-Positivity and tumblr.

                Blogging has established itself as a unique method in which people can independently voice their own opinions, and spread their ideals to the largest audience possible. The blogging platform Tumblr has provided an easy way for users to create their own blogs, as well as to follow blogs that appeal to their interests. While many users use this service to look at funny pictures, and read interesting news, there is a large portion of the website’s population that is interested in the Third Wave Feminism movement. Tumblr has become a modern platform to spread awareness of issues facing women in the present. Along with these issues, there is a focus on female portrayal in media. Specifically, the physical expectations for women to conform to. Through these blogs, there is an attempt to raise questions to the expectations of female appearances, and create a counter-culture of body positivity. However, due to the vast population of users on the website, not all people agree with the attacks on modern beauty myths.

                Tumblr has almost become synonymous with the concept of feminism, to the point that it is parodied. While some users take their political beliefs to unrealistic extremes, the website still works as a platform for spreading information and ideas. It has made it much easier to directly put an advertisement, or a screen grab from a piece of visual media, and immediately add personal commentary. A common criticism is that the media, whether it be a movie, or more commonly, an advertisement, is that it creates an unrealistic expectation for women. Doctored pictures of celebrities paired alongside the original photographs show how the media works to create this unrealistic representation. The posts are then reposted to thousands of blogs, increasing the amount of people that will see them, exponentially. The website then becomes a real-time representation of the public’s feeling regarding these beauty myths.

However, these stereotypes of feminine beauty have been around for hundreds of years, as Naomi Wolf pointed out in her book The Beauty Myth. In her book, she states that “Like any economy, it is determined by politics, and in the modern age in the West it is the last, best belief system that keeps male dominance intact” (12). In this passage, she refers to the constructed myth of beauty as being created by those that perceive it, and due to its widespread nature, it enforces male dominance. As these strict notions of feminine beauty are continually advertised to young women, they begin to believe it fully. The ways in which feminine and masculine beauty standards are portrayed in the media are grossly uneven. The focus on feminine beauty as being simply physical further emphasizes male dominance, in that respect. This fact is where tumblr takes a stand. They refute the standards of feminine beauty, claiming it to be a remnant of patriarchal society. The concept of beauty as being confined to the models that are pasted in magazines no longer has a hold on these bloggers. Hundreds of blogs, which function as independent websites, have been created in order to spread the idea of female body-positivity. This counter-cultural movement stresses that beauty isn’t confined to a Hollywood check-list, but instead comes from positivity. These blogs offer an alternative view to the women that feel overwhelmed by the beauty ideals they have been fed their entire lives. Instead, they are taught to love the way that they look, and reject the idea that they must conform to those ideals to be beautiful. Unfortunately, there are others who do not believe this, and instead, continue to force the ideals of feminine beauty, but in a more extreme way.

Pro-ana blogs, ana being an abbreviation for anorexia nervosa, are blogs that promote eating disorders as a way to conform to feminine beauty standards.  These blogs idealize the idea of not eating, and starving oneself, and almost glorify it. With artistic shots of women with concave stomachs and bulging hipbones, they create an ideal beauty based around unhealthy activity. Luckily these blogs are generally thought of as harmful, and are condemned by most tumblr users. Though, this does not exclude them from the general tumblr movement. Those who fit into the ideal are not excluded, but instead are treated as equal. There is no disdain for those who strive to look like the models in advertisements, only for those who believe that it increases their worth as a human being. The movement to disregard personal appearance when evaluating the worth of a person, and framing all appearances as equal, creates an opposite culture than that which is enforced through the media.

The concept of body-positivity is by no means new, but it adds an interesting twist onto the way in which people perceive beauty myths. The primary focus of this particular culture is to spread the idea that it’s okay to look like the models in the advertisement, but it’s also okay to look like yourself. The promotion of this idea aims to reduce the amount of young women which undergo drastic changes to their lives, in order to change their appearance. With the number of young women, as well as men, who suffer from eating disorders, the concept of body-positivity can help promote healthier lifestyles, and hopefully change the way in which the public perceives objective beauty.

The Evolution of Female Gender Roles in Video Games

From ancient mythologies, to modern blockbusters, it’s a trope almost as old as storytelling itself. A man desires a woman, and sets out to save her from a certain danger that she is faced with. The man, portrayed as the hero of the story, is either successful, and is immediately loved by the woman, or he fails miserably. This damsel in distress myth has been retold, time after time, in almost all forms of storytelling. Video games are no exception. This myth is undeniably based on gender stereotypes. The man is heroic, bold, and aggressive, while the female is weak and passive. The man is strong, and able to defeat the enemies that had kidnapped the poor, defenseless woman. However, as storytelling within video games has become more advanced, partially due to the ability to created larger games, these basic stories that are based on stereotypes have been called into question. Now, there is a distinct movement to challenge these stereotypes that they had been perpetuating, by essentially challenging the gender norms themselves.

            Many people are familiar with the stories of early home console games such as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, or, more accurately, the lack of story. The player is dropped into the game with no knowledge of the world that they are in, knowing only that there is a princess missing, and it is their job, as the masculine hero, to find them. The primary consumers of this medium, at the time, were boys and men. Due to this, the boys playing the game would see themselves as the masculine protagonist. As they controlled the character, they would feel powerful, and vicariously through their avatar, they would feel like they could save the defenseless princess. They could slay their enemies with ease, feeling wholly masculine. However, this has changed since the eighties. As more females became vocal about their desires for games that catered to their needs, companies began pumping out games that conformed to female stereotypes. These games did not have all of the violence, but instead, took a more peaceful approach to the game play. The appeal was to the stereotypical feminine characteristic of passiveness. Games such as these continued to be made, as the female audience fought back. While men enjoyed being able to see masculinity in the characters that they played as, women were not enjoying the stereotypical femininity that was being thrown at them in their games. The female antagonists were unrealistically feminine, and held very little qualities that women actually wanted to present. This fight back has led us to today, where female protagonists in game are finally being given their due. A good example of this is Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series. Lara Croft has consistently been the epitome of gender stereotypes in video games. While she is portrayed as being intelligent and athletic, most of the emphasis of the design of her character was on her sexuality. Lara has consistently been designed as being an ultra-thin, big breasted, computer generated sex icon. This emphasis on female gender was not working to encourage women to play their games, but instead, to encourage men to play a game where they were able to stare at the backside of this polygonal heroine. Again, the gender stereotypes being portrayed were still quite feminine, but female gamers were still not pleased. Their demands were clear. They did not want to play as a character that was a beacon of femininity. They wanted a character that seemed real. In order to do this, in the latest installment of the Tomb Raider series, Lara Croft was masculinized. Her breast size was reduced to that of a normal looking human. Her muscles were pronounced, as any athletic climber’s would be, and most importantly of all, she was wearing pants. This version of Lara was considerably grittier. She could withstand being cut, stabbed, and essentially impaled, and continue on the quest that was at hand. No longer was she a symbol of female sexuality and feminine gender roles. She now represented a mixture of the feminine traits that she had, and new masculine traits of aggression and independence. This was met with praise from female gamers, but this notion lead to a complication in the ways that masculine and feminine stereotypes were to be portrayed in games.

            While it appeared that most men desired to take control of a character that possessed traits that matched their gender, it would seem that many female gamers did not. While they desired to play as a character that matched their sex, they did not want one who strictly conformed to feminine stereotypes. Thus, it has been determined that most female gamers look for a female protagonist who does not serve as a symbol of their gender, but instead, acts as a realistic character. This discrepancy between male desires for their fantasies, and female desires for their fantasies provides a noticeable complication in the stereotyping of females by feminine traits.