The Feminist Theory and MST3K

[Katana]

Soooooo I found a book in the library. And it's hilarious!

I really have no idea how to lead into this. XD; So I scanned in the article - all 19 pages of it - and have put it on my Photobucket for your reading pleasure.

I think I'm safe posting here as opposed to like, the LJ community. I feel like I'm not violating copyright laws as much.

Page 1 (plus a little note)

Pages 2 and 3

Pages 4 and 5

Pages 6 and 7

Pages 8 and 9

Pages 10 and 11

Pages 12 and 13

Pages 14 and 15

Pages 16 and 17

Pages 18 and 19

To quote Kevin: "We don't need a 'story arch', we're a 'puppet show'. We just need an excuse to tell jokes!"

That's how I feel and I'm not sure you can really put a theory on it. But lulz! *brick'd*

[Robyn]

Hmm, this looks interesting, let's see what -

Every week on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) a young white male

Oh boy HERE WE GO, settle in everyone! *shot*

Okay I admit it's kinda interesting to look at the show through different eyes, but it just blows my mind that ANYONE would write nineteen pages analyzing ANYTHING about MST3K. xD

What really burns me is that the author can't seem to decide how women should be portrayed: Gypsy is bad because she's dumb and nurturing (on that note, what's wrong with a woman being nurturing!?) and mostly stays in the background, but Pearl is bad because she's aggressive and in-your-face and actually smarter than her male companions! Anyway I don't think MST3K ever implied that Gypsy and Pearl were supposed to be positive role models for girls, just like Joel or Mike or Dr. Forrester are supposed to positive role models for boys! Also I love how the author says that the jokes are less sexual in later seasons, probably because Mary Jo is on the writing team, CAUSE WOMEN NEVER EVER MAKE SEX JOKES, RIGHT GUYS? Also it's just stupid cause Mary Jo was with the show for a long time, AND SO WAS BRIDGET, WHO THE AUTHOR COMPLETELY IGNORES. I guess Bridget doesn't count cause she married a MAN. >8l

[MovieSignJunkie]

Now if only those nineteen pages of MST3k-centric paper happened to be something that didn't sound like a chick who needs to remember the MST3k mantra. >>' There were holes in her argument freakin' everywhere. You know there's a problem when whoever is writing the article cannot take the time to distinguish voices from one another, let alone peek at the silhouettes to see who's moving while talking.

Apparently, the episode where Mike and Pearl switched places never existed. Pearl being just as large of a ham as the other characters seems to detract from her portrayal, I guess, as if no one else on the show has been hacked at in a negative light. Considering Mike alone is the potential fore-bearer of Bobo's race, a "Destroyer of Worlds", the butt of some nasty jokes and essentially a babysitter (a role traditionally given to teenaged girls) to Crow and Tom, I find her argument of Pearl being too stout and controlling as unattractive to be relatively ungrounded. (There are fetishes for everything, lady. Everything.)

She also doesn't seem to think that Gypsy having the lives of everyone in the SoL in her hands (tubing? coils?) to have any sort of positive connotation at all. When Gypsy takes care of everything, she takes care of everything, including the things that fall into geek/wrench wench categories. I don't think the author had seen a picture of KTMA Gypsy, which is much different than the more-recognizable Gypsy we know.

Her "close analysis of just two episodes" doesn't fly with me. ._. It just became one of those things that further cements my view of feminists stereotypically being a dowdy, whiny nitpicker who cannot take a joke and only had bad experiences with men further into the ground. D: If she wants to use MST3k as a negative example, I would suggest she use much more than two episodes that seem to (in her eyes) magically work for the argument she is attempting to make.

[ronnieknight]

Very nice you watch two episodes. Then suddenly you, know everything there, is to know, about MST3K. While shoving a feminist agenda down other womens throats.

I'm sorry but this woman really gets on my nerves. How dare she call Gypsy "who has a squeaky bimbo voice." It was a guy with a falsetto voice. I could call her something nasty too. Then there's the distinct personalities for anyone on the screen.

Yeah, right and whenever Crow goes too far. Who is there is stop him? Joel and Mike both done it. Like in Hellcats Joel threatened Crow to shut him off. All because he was making a really lewd remark. Outlaw of Gor that's also another example. What about that episode. C'mon this is ridiculous. Trying to drive an arguement into her favor.

Just because she's obsessed with trying prove MST3K is sexist. Maybe she could keep herself occupied with the unriffed movies of the '50s and '60s. I'm pretty sure, they're full of, blatant images of, what women were, intended to do then. Dishes, the homemaker, cleaning the house, you only have limited occupations to pick from!

Could she be so dense? She's wasted her time and that poor tree.

[kurieifoxfire]

I didn't actually read the whole thing because what I did read was complete nonsense, but if there was a way to contact the author of that piece, I would love to find it. I want to email her so I can break down her entire theory piece by piece because she has no idea what she is talking about, and you can't get much "research material" from only two episodes.

And her facts about when things happened on the show was wrong, which irked me as well. She said Mike didn't become the host until it went to Sci-Fi, and that Mary Jo became a new writer when it went to Sci-Fi. You need to check your facts when you write something, and she didn't.

Last comment: She needs a check up from the neck up.

[msmystie3000]

It's doofuses like her that set the Women's Movement back decades! I'm all for Women's Rights, Gender Equality, etc. BUT GAD! Bitter, Radical, Man-Hating Femnazi types I HATE! It's gals like her that make it hard for REAL PROGRESS!
Men are not evil...just the silly attitudes they're rased on! We need to befriend men & love them & work together for change. Sexism on both sides feed off each other....Misogyny & Machismo hurts guys too...they have to suppress their very souls to live up to some big shot ideal....blecch!
This lady knows ZILCH about MST3K & Gender Relations. Obviously, she never saw the last episode, where GYPSY is a highly intelligent CEO of her own COMPANY...and Mike & the bots are idiots sitting in a tiny apartment watching THE CRAWLING EYE & eating rice.....
Or J&TB's reaction to EVERY MALE CHARACTER in that stupid EYE CREATURES movie (JOEL: 'On behalf of the entire male gender we apologize for that scene')....
I could go on! Feminism needs a serious housecleaning...or totally rebooted with a name like "The Gender-Equal Movement" or "Genderlatarianism" (Gender+Egalitarian).

[pepper218]

That was a seriously TL;DR type thing; I read the whole thing anyway.

.....
Does she REALLY not understand the sarcasm at all? When they pretend to be the doctor in 'The Amazing Colossal Man', they're not sexualizing Carol, they're making fun of the doctor! The same thing happens when they speak for Andrea in 'The She-Creature', because they're making fun of how stupid the movie makes her seem. The author doesn't seem to grasp that Pearl and Gypsy (and Joel, Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo) are CHARACTERS. They're not role models or the idea of a perfect woman/man. They're just characters made to be amusing in a show that's made to be amusing.

It's snots like her that piss me off. I consider myself feminist, maybe even a bit radical at times. But dear God, that's not feminist, that's just plain stupid. I'm going to watch MST3K Pod People to clear this crap out of my brain. Pepper out.

[msmystie3000]

May 9, 2010 23:20:50 GMT -3 pepper218 said:

That was a seriously TL;DR type thing; I read the whole thing anyway.

.....
Does she REALLY not understand the sarcasm at all? When they pretend to be the doctor in 'The Amazing Colossal Man', they're not sexualizing Carol, they're making fun of the doctor! The same thing happens when they speak for Andrea in 'The She-Creature', because they're making fun of how stupid the movie makes her seem. The author doesn't seem to grasp that Pearl and Gypsy (and Joel, Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo) are CHARACTERS. They're not role models or the idea of a perfect woman/man. They're just characters made to be amusing in a show that's made to be amusing.

It's snots like her that piss me off. I consider myself feminist, maybe even a bit radical at times. But dear God, that's not feminist, that's just plain stupid. I'm going to watch MST3K Pod People to clear this crap out of my brain. Pepper out.

That, too....sarcasm & irony is TOTALLY lost on this "Ms. Big Stupid".