Are you guys reading Carefree White Girl? August 17, 2011 Jill You should definitely be reading Carefree White Girl.
I really don’t like this and Stuff White People Like. I feel like it’s saying if you’re white and middle class you can’t have any serious real problems, so just shut your whining. Which is unfair and untrue.
I really don’t like this and Stuff White People Like. I feel like it’s saying if you’re white and middle class you can’t have any serious real problems, so just shut your whining. Which is unfair and untrue. That’s… not what it’s saying.
anna: I really don’t like this and Stuff White People Like. I feel like it’s saying if you’re white and middle class you can’t have any serious real problems, so just shut your whining. Which is unfair and untrue. Lolwut. How is that what you’re getting out of this?
anna: I really don’t like this and Stuff White People Like. I feel like it’s saying if you’re white and middle class you can’t have any serious real problems, so just shut your whining. Which is unfair and untrue. Here we go…again…
Here we go…again… I’m starting to think that the troll factory that churns out rape-apologists also churns out these. The arguments are EXACTLY the same, just with different villians.
anna: I really don’t like this and Stuff White People Like. I feel like it’s saying if you’re white and middle class you can’t have any serious real problems, so just shut your whining. Which is unfair and untrue. It is not making fun of serious problems.
Rare Vos: I’m starting to think that the troll factory that churns out rape-apologists also churns out these.The arguments are EXACTLY the same, just with different villians. Yep, they all sound like variations of each other.
No one’s done that. People are rolling their eyes at the complaint that this is mean to White people. We’re just fed up with yet another thread about race being derailed by a White person who is Very Upset at Being Oppressed by People of Color Thinking They Are Racist or Privileged.
It wasn’t loading an hour ago, but it is now. I just read some hate mail a few posts down, from a white supremacist who thinks sexy white women are the key to pacifying the black male community. (If the site is ****ing off white ultranationalists, the site admin is doing something right.) :-p
The insidious thing about the whole carefree white girl is that I spent way too much time as a teen/early-20-something wishing I was one. Why can’t I sprint through meadows looking effortlessly thin and gorgeous? Make out with the cute guy? Make everyone fall in love with me just because of my gentle smile?
anna: I really don’t like this and Stuff White People Like. I feel like it’s saying if you’re white and middle class you can’t have any serious real problems, so just shut your whining. Which is unfair and untrue. I know. It’s just SO MEAN isn’t it?!!!!!11!! I just CAN’T BELIEVE people would be SO MEAN!!! /jumps into a Christmas tree
“I’m starting to think that the troll factory that churns out rape-apologists also churns out these. The arguments are EXACTLY the same, just with different villians.” Ooh, is that the place that makes the guys who think feminist websites should be all about addressing men’s negative feelings about feminism? And the ones who think queer people just need to not be so obviously queer at people? Because I’m just saying, I’m not entirely against calculated acts of arson providing that no living creatures are harmed in the process.
Ha! I clicked on the link- checked the website out then scanned to see if they had any posts about the Lady Gaga Judas video. Yes, sing about Judas… and ignore all of the varied and many racial implications that your video has. Or maybe it’s more self-aware and I just don’t realize it.
It’s kind of an interesting site. I’m having a hard time truly codifying my feelings about it. The main reason is that there appears to be some genuinely good commentary there about racist media. However, I feel like the focus on the trope of the “carefree white girl” carries an undertone of conflating girlishness and playfulness as inferiority. The swiftness with which people tend to disparage these qualities, combined with one of the videos on the top page (involving a man making fun of a group of female beauty contestants for waffling on teaching evolution in schools), gives me a thin whiff of misogny when I page through the site. The fact that some women of color are also featured on the site, also provides me with a slightly racist connotation that WOC who are feminine and “carefree” are also labelled as “white”. In my mind, this ends up making this site more of a racefail and genderfail than a success, but I’m sure other people have different opinions to share on the subject.
Sheelzebub: No one’s done that.People are rolling their eyes at the complaint that this is mean to White people.We’re just fed up with yet another thread about race being derailed by a White person who is Very Upset at Being Oppressed by People of Color Thinking They Are Racist or Privileged. How does a comment about White people derail a thread about carefree White girls?
Darque: The swiftness with which people tend to disparage these qualities, combined with one of the videos on the top page (involving a man making fun of a group of female beauty contestants for waffling on teaching evolution in schools), gives me a thin whiff of misogny when I page through the site. I’m not sure I see it. The guy making the video is making fun of their viewpoints on teaching evolution (rightly so), and he is also making fun of their beauty pageant-ness (again… something that needs to be addressed). Although I can see your point overall, and I think we do need to be careful of whiffs of misogyny and talk about it, I think the man on the video satire is fairly appropriate and makes some good points. There is a line between satirizing the stereotype of femininity and women that beauty pageants represents and mocking women. I’m probably not making that very clear and could spend more time articulating it. If you’d like to see a significantly more misogynistic mocking of the same topic, here’s one that made me furious on a number of levels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Xk3o7fKpw
Drawing attention to racism and white privilege is not the same as saying white people have no problems, just like drawing attention to sexism and male privilege is not the same as saying men have no problems. Feminists, even white ones, should be able to get this pretty easily, so it’s disappointing to see that sort of comment on a feminist site. Also, I think the phrase “carefree white girl” is meant to refer to a common trope in advertising and popular media, not to suggest that all white people are carefree. I’m with Darque on the “thin whiff of misogyny,” though. The object of criticism is “carefree white *girl*” and girliness seems to come in for as much derision as whiteness. That might be difficult to avoid given the way femininity is so often constructed as white, but I think it’s important to make it clear that the problem is white domination and white people’s (in this case, white women’s) appropriation of the images, cultures and art of people of color, not women being frivolous and ditzy. Or maybe the site was intended as a critique of sexist as well as racist imagery, showing both how people of color are excluded or placed in the background and how even the women whose racial privilege places them front and center are still forced to look harmless, submissive and “carefree” –but in that case I think it’s a little too subtle and will end up playing into misogynist narratives regardless of the intent.
To take Adrienne’s point into account: “There is a line between satirizing the stereotype of femininity and women that beauty pageants represents and mocking women.” I agree, but I think the site as a whole might have a couple toes over that line. Especially because so many of the entries are just pictures of women, sometimes even just naked female bodies with no context. There’s a lot you could say about why those particular women (white, young, skinny, etc) are used in advertising or other media, but when the gimmick is to make fun of the woman in the picture rather than the people and systems of power that created that picture, it becomes difficult to see how the point on which she is being criticized is anything other than the fact that she’s female. Again, I think it might actually be meant as an ironic commentary on sexism, but that doesn’t always come through very well.
Guys. The website is mocking advertising/media imagery of “carefree white girls” as the female ideal. It mocks the way that such imagery marginalizes all other people, and creates an impossible beauty/lifestyle standard that is about frailty, permanent girlhood, etc. It’s not the women who are being criticized; it’s the aspirational fantasy their bodies are being used to represent. Come on, this is not so hard.
Jill, while I generally agree with you about the message. I do think that the inclusions and commentary of the videos of Kreayshawn (and her interview) and perhaps Oh Land make it seem to be a little more complex than that. It’s also not a test that is “hard” or easy.
“just naked female bodies with no context” from Claire Yeah I thought that was really strange too. Thanks, Sheelzebub, for the term derailment. I was trying to remember that. People aren’t necessarily trying to derail or deny their privilege sometimes people just need you to be a bit clearer with your message. It seems the author of carefree white girl understood that problem and tried to go back to clarify. Seems like that could be done best in about section for the site. In general it seems her site could be a lot more effective with a better webmaster.
Thanks, Sheelzebub, for the term derailment. I was trying to remember that. Have you been reading the other threads around here recently?