An avatar of normative femininity
Jan. 13th, 2012 07:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
It’s in the pilot of That Seventies Show. Community devotes an episode to it. Even Sports Night references it. Why is pop culture so obsessed with the idea that women always go to the bathroom in groups?
Especially given that I have only met a vanishing small number of women who, in fact, actually go to the bathroom in gaggles; indeed, only one girl who went so far as to recruit people to go to the bathroom with her, and she was hardly an avatar of normative femininity.
(Maybe that’s why she did it. She thought it would make up for her femininity shortfalls.)
But! I have a theory. These episodes are written by men, who normally pay no attention when women go to the bathroom - except when women are using the bathroom as an excuse to escape from their unwanted advances. And under those circumstances, of course, it’s much more common to recruit companions: otherwise, there might be no one in the bathroom to snark with about the creeper’s creepiness!
Especially given that I have only met a vanishing small number of women who, in fact, actually go to the bathroom in gaggles; indeed, only one girl who went so far as to recruit people to go to the bathroom with her, and she was hardly an avatar of normative femininity.
(Maybe that’s why she did it. She thought it would make up for her femininity shortfalls.)
But! I have a theory. These episodes are written by men, who normally pay no attention when women go to the bathroom - except when women are using the bathroom as an excuse to escape from their unwanted advances. And under those circumstances, of course, it’s much more common to recruit companions: otherwise, there might be no one in the bathroom to snark with about the creeper’s creepiness!
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 03:39 pm (UTC)I think you hit it though--men only notice because it's THEY we are going in there to talk about, and some deep-rooted bit of male ego knows it.
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Date: 2012-01-13 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 06:16 pm (UTC)"An avatar or normative femininity" is the phrase of the day, by the way.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 07:21 pm (UTC)