Here's an idea.
BMO from "Adventure Time" is expressive of feminism.
So if you still have not seen "Adventure Time,"
and you need a little background,
we have got you covered.
We made this earlier.
You should watch it.
But for those of you who ain't got time for that-- and this
is YouTube, so let's be honest, ain't
nobody got time for that-- here is a very quick refresher.
Main character's Jake the dog and Finn the human
go on all kinds of mathematical adventures
in the magical land of Ooo.
Alongside Finn and Jake there is a cast
of weird and crazy characters, like the Ice King,
Flame Princess, Peppermint Butler,
and the weirdest slash craziest of them
all, the Earl of Lemongrab.
Unacceptable!
Right now, we're going to talk about BMO,
who lives with Finn and Jake and is
a thoughtful and sentient video game system and alarm
clock and outlet and television and camera.
A surprising little gadget, BMO is made all the
more intriguing because she-- he doesn't have
a strictly assigned gender.
BMO self-identifies as both male and female
and loves other unclearly gendered objects.
I wonder, could this make BMO a third-wave feminist?
Now, before we get much further, yes, we
are going to talk about feminism, not about
the role or effectiveness of feminism-- which for the record
I'm 100% and completely for, but my support of feminism
has nothing to do with this video--
but about how gender and feminist theory
might be applied to BMO and once applied,
what the effects might be, which brings us presently
to a very important question.
What is third-wave feminism?
Well, let's work our way there.
First-wave feminism was focused on institutionalized
inequalities, like women gaining the right
to vote, execute contracts, or own property.
Second-wave feminism broadened its focus
to cultural inequalities, the treatment of women
as generally inferior or unfit for tasks outside of the home.
Third-wave feminism's approach is even wider.
Where many current feminists felt second-wave feminism
focused on white heterosexual women,
third-wave feminism tries to account
for women of all backgrounds, ethnicities,
sexual orientations, and genders.
Yes, you heard correctly.
Women of all genders.
A central tenet of modern feminism
is that gender is not as strictly
embodied or experienced as our language or social structures
make it out to be.
The gender binary, that every person is strictly
male or female determined solely by their biology,
isn't as straightforward as all of that, something
which David Bowie and Grace Jones clearly
demonstrated in the '70s and '80s, but which for some reason
we've distanced ourselves from.
In "Gender and Language," linguists Penelope Eckerd
and Sally McConnel-Ginet say that it
is our social world and not biology
that insists on a binary classification
and on the permanence of that classification.
They explain that gender discourse
is about connecting concepts of woman and man grounded
in reproductive biological theory and practice
to a wide array of other theories and practices.
This can be sort of frustrating for people
who want to do things a little outside of their gender role,
like women who want to cut their hair short
or men who want to carry tote bags.
But it can be downright imprisoning for people
who do not feel the gender their biology has assigned them.
With all of that social insisting,
the burden can get pretty massive.
BMO and her friends provide a model
of what it could be like with a lot less insisting.
BMO implicitly challenges the genderness
of all of his wacky adventures and even goes one step further
to challenge whether or not a character need even
be a single gender at all.
I mean, it's a little easier for her,
because she's a video game system
and doesn't have a biology grounding her gender
expectations.
But then again neither do R2-D2 or Rosie from "The Jetsons,"
and there is no question about their gender
or what's expected of them based on it.
BMO, on the other hand, is a kind of gender uber-mensch
or uber-frau.
He exists in a perfectly non-biological personal fluid
gender zone.
BMO has role-played as a hardboiled, presumably male
noir detective and referred to herself
as both a little boy and real baby girl
while talking to her mirrored alter ego, Football.
Other characters, including Finn and Jake, refer to him as he,
she, m'lady, and man, depending upon the context.
And in the gender swap episodes, where
all of the characters' genders are, you guessed it, swapped,
BMO is the only character who is essentially unchanged.
And sure, BMO is always voiced by a woman,
but so is Bart Simpson, so that easy answer isn't so easy.
Finally, amongst her objects of desire,
BMO most famously falls in love with a bubble.
It's you, BMO, I feel at home with.
Who, though voiced by Lavar Burton,
is similarly of an unclear gender, because, you know,
bubbles don't have gender, unless you
speak French, in which case they're feminine, which
actually raises a really good point concerning
BMO's relationship to feminism.
Grammatically gendered nouns like "la maison" or "le stylo"
do not express a gender.
They are expressive of a gender.
"La bulle," the bubble, is not a feminine noun in French
because bubbles themselves are innately feminine,
but because a cultural impression of bubbles
or the sound of the word itself is
in some way suggestive or expressive of femininity.
Similarly, BMO does not express feminism.
BMO is not a feminist mascot.
He is simply expressive of some feminist ideals.
She is a silly little being who leads
an awesome love-filled life with friends
who think she is red hot like pizza supper,
and, oh, she might be male or female
or neither or something else altogether.
Whatever.
No one needs to ask or challenge and BMO doesn't need to defend,
because that is just who BMO is.
His multivalent gender is part of his character, but not
his defining characteristic, like Jake's can-do attitude
or Finn's love of adventure time.
Come on, grab your friends.
This is arguably the most forward-thinking thing
about BMO's characterization by the creators of "Adventure
Time."
By not radicalizing her gender situation,
they make her totally normal, which she is, well,
except for the fact that she's a talking video game system.
BMO.
They reinforce the notion that this
is just how some people are, but not all they
are, that wherever their gender lies
on the non-binary continuum is perfectly acceptable.
Acceptable!
What do you guys think?
Is BMO expressive of feminism?
Let us know in the comments.
And if you want to subscribe, just click on this BMO
that my friend Michelle made.
Hey, BMO.
Hey, Mike.
So my question is, I want to know
what Reese is doing with all of the beetles that I sell to her.
Let's see what you guys had to say about Animal
Crossing and otaku citizenship.
KillingAcademy makes the point that "Animal Crossing" might
promote otaku citizenship, but only
within the world of the game, and that really all it does
is encourage people to play more video games.
I don't know.
I think it's a pretty big assumption
to say that people are just going to be playing video games
and they're not going to go outside
and interact with the world, but that is a fair criticism.
AngelValis and a couple other people
raised the very good point that saying "Animal Crossing" will
definitely encourage good behavior
is as problematic as saying "Call of Duty"
will encourage bad behavior.
I think that the problem is not in saying a game will encourage
a certain kind of behavior, but in saying that it definitely
will encourage a certain kind of behavior.
And we never meant to say that "Animal Crossing" will
definitely cause people to act a certain way.
But I think it's definitely fair to say
that media affects people.
I think that's non-controversial.
ProdigySim points out that we got the translation for otaku
wrong and that it is not "you," it is rather "your house."
Sorry for messing that one up.
And relatedly, Konachan points out
the sort of more complicated background of otaku,
in that in Japan and some parts of United States,
it has a very negative connotation,
which, yeah, is like a whole part of the story
that we didn't really have time to get into,
but hope to eventually.
Aaron Wrotkowski makes a very fair point
that "Animal Crossing" could actually just
be a reinforcing of materialistic-- ooh, shiny.
To Mara K, thank you.
I agree there were certain points in watching the comment
responses last week where I wished I had stuck
to my guns a little bit more.
Thank you for keeping me honest.
DiotheDino and Bollon03 say that if you
apply what you learn in "Animal Crossing" to the real world,
then you will definitely make your community a better place
and that you will develop a strong sense of citizenship
and a strong citizenry.
rainbowdew, on the other hand, says
that because there is no real work
to be done in "Animal Crossing" that it really is just
kind of a game that is not really maybe
as applicable as all that.
Wheatley Smith, Brad Simms, and a bunch of other people
say that "Animal Crossing" does in fact have a narrative.
I don't know.
I mean, I would say that it definitely
has a kind of metanarrative, that it's
all about this idea of the town growing,
and that there is certainly a progression
about the characters.
Then again, maybe this is my ignorance,
having only played this one "Animal Crossing" game.
So maybe it's very clear across all of the games.
I guess I'll just have to play more "Animal Crossing."
Shucks.
This week's episode was brought to you
by the vibrant work of these vivacious individuals.
And the tweet of the week comes from @frequentbeef,
who points us towards a GameSpot article about how
competitive gamers are now officially athletes.
It's about time.
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