The issue of Women in Refrigerators

This post continues a conversation started earlier on this blog on the status of women in comic books. Anita Sarkeesian over at Feminist Frequency is a pop culture media critic who produces an ongoing video series in collaboration with Bitch Magazine regarding tropes in popular media that marginalize and trivialize women. The second part of this series deals with the Women in Refrigerators trope that occurs quite frequently in comic books and across popular media:

When [Gail] Simone released her list [of over 90 comics that featured female superheroes who suffered a loss of super powers, brutal violation or an untimely, gruesome death] in 1999 there was an instant backlash from some comic book fans who thought it was unfair that they were singling out female characters. This criticism happens whenever we point out tropes specifically about women. In this case, comic book fans criticized the Women in Refrigerators by saying that male heroes get killed and tortured too so what’s the big deal? The people who run the Women in Refrigerators website responded to this by creating another trope (how much do I love fans!) called Dead Men Defrosting. Comic fan John Bartol explains, “In cases where males heroes have been altered or appear to die they usually come back even better than before, either power-wise or in terms of character development/relevancy to the reader." 

This video is quite enlightening. For more information check out these related links:

• Tropes vs. Women: #2 Women in Refrigerators - the original blog post at Feminist Frequency
• Women in Refrigerators - the official Women in Refrigerators (WiR) website, including Gail Simone's original letter, an ever-expanding list of comic book characters, and responses from other comic book fans
• Dead Men Defrosting by John Bartol
• The Cold Shoulder: Saving Superheroines from Comic-book Violence by Shannon Cochran at Bitch Media
• Women in Refrigerators: Alexandra DeWitt - an article critiquing the original WiR comic for which the trope was named
• A Woman's Place is Not in the Refrigerator by Marie Brennan at Science Fiction and Fantasy Novelists

Homemade Frappuccinos!

I've been contemplating how to make my own homemade Frappuccinos for some time now. After a few orders at Starbucks, where I asked for a non-sweetened Frappuccino and thoroughly confused the baristas, I discovered that the coffee Starbucks uses for their Frappuccinos is pre-sweetened (in both real sugar and sugar-free varieties). This was confirmed when I discovered that The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf sells a pre-packaged coffee base for their Iced Blendeds (their equally delicious version of a Frappuccino).

Using this information, I determined that my previous attempts at making homemade Frappuccinos had failed because I used plain coffee, which resulted in a drink that was slightly too watery and didn't pack the punch of the drinks I ordered at national chains.

So last night I went on a mission to develop my own coffee base. Using what I know about brewing tea, I determined that the coffee I brewed for my base would need to be twice as strong as what I would normally drink. So I doubled the number of scoops of grounds per cup compared to what I would normally brew. Once the coffee finished brewing I dissolved two cups of sugar in the brew, and set it to chill in the fridge.

This afternoon I put together a Frappuccino based on what I had figured out by watching baristas make my drinks for years now. I filled the cup of my compact blender (I use the Cuisinart CPB-300 SmartPower model, but my parents use the Cooks 5-in-1 Rocket, and they're both excellent) with an inch of the coffee base, then filled it the rest of the way with ice. I finished by pouring in enough milk to cover the ice and blended my drink! The result was about the same flavor and consistency as the Starbucks variety, although I would prefer it slightly less sweet and with a thicker milk (I used nonfat milk, and prefer 2%  or 4% milkfat).

I wish I had pictures to share with you, but I promise the drink is delicious! I added some caramel syrup to mine to recreate the caramel-flavored Frappuccino, which is my favorite, but with an at-home recipe you can blend it any way you want!

Teaching Boys Feminism

Ileana Jiménez over at The Feminist Teacher wrote an excellent post last March about teaching young boys feminism and how it affects their lives. Read the excerpt below, then check out the full post here.

I’ve read many horror stories about women’s studies professors being heckled by male students who are just there to make a sexist scene. In the high school setting where I teach, I have never had that experience. Instead, the boys in my classes are curious about how feminism might connect to their lives. They want to know if feminism can help them become better versions of themselves in a world that tells them only one version is acceptable.

The boys in my feminism course have taught me that it is essential that we teach them about the various global feminisms so that we can finally reach gender, racial, and economic justice together as fully realized men and women. They have taught me that it is crucial that we bring a feminist lens to not only high school classrooms but middle and elementary schools as well.