Amy Poehler

I'm a feminist and a high school English teacher in the south suburbs of Chicago. Last year, one of the students in my class was inspired to start a group for girls at our school and approached me about sponsoring it. Of course I agreed! A few weeks ago, we tackled the topic of positive female role models in pop culture. The high school students came up with a list of eight current, mainstream "feminist idols" they and their friends look up to.

The list is a good insight into what interests teen girls these days, as well as hopefully a helpful resource. We talk a lot about degrading and regrettable portrayals of women in media, here are eight actresses and comedians my high schoolers are excited about supporting.

 

1. Emma Stone: My students loved the movie Easy A, a modern film inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. In it, Emma Stone plays a high school student who tries to bring the book into her real life. The movie definitely has feminist undertones, but Stone herself is a major feminist. In a recent interview she did with her boyfriend Andrew Garfield, she was asked who her style icon was. After Garfield said he never got asked questions like that, Stone piped up, "You get asked interesting, poignant questions because you're a boy... It is sexism." Way to call out sexist media, Emma Stone!

News broke yesterday that Comedy Central ordered an Amy Poehler-produced pilot based on the popular web series Broad City.

Monday's inaugural entry focused on a Palme d'Or winner. Thus it seems only appropriate to switch gears today and discuss a movie that was shelved for three years before it went straight to DVD in 2009.

Time to let out a collective "yesssss," because season 2 of the amazing online show Smart Girls at the Party is here!


Find more videos like this on Smart Girls at the Party

Smart Girls at the Party fans, prepare for a disappointment of the douche kind. In order to increase viewers for their second season, the SGATP team (whose first season focused on young girls kicking major ass – check it out if you haven't seen it) is joining forces with Joe Francis (the owner of Mantra Films and the jerkstore behind the Girls Gone Wild franchise) and his band of douchenozzles to create a Girls Gone Wild-type show for tweens. That's right – now, instead of watching tween girls talk about their awesome bands or cool art projects, on Smart Girls at the Party Season Two we can see them flounce around in teeny bikinis holding wet t-shirt contests and seeing who can tie a knot in a cherry stem the fastest. W.T.F.?

It's just about time for Spring Break, and you know what that means don't you? Well, for some of you it might mean a trip down to Señor Tadpole's to have a margarita made in your mouth, but if you're a pop culture lovin' feminist with a day job to keep, this year it means another Spring Break-themed Amy Poehler movie! (Yes, I said another. You have seen Spring Breakdown, haven't you?) This one is called Wild Girls Gone, and it comes out on iTunes tomorrow. (Somehow I doubt it will see the inside of a movie theater unless you decide to watch it on your iPhone when you get bored during Avatar.)

The general consensus at the end of Parks and Recreation last season was that the show was a sometimes funny, sometimes not, could be better Office knockoff (which was itself a knockoff). Well, times have changed.

It's a new season for Parks and Recreation, and if you haven't been tuning in yet you are missing out on a giant feminist treat: Deputy Director Leslie Knope. Knope, played by Amy Poehler, has really found her feminist (and hilarious) stride this season, and it is awesome. Check out this clip from last week's episode, wherein Knope judged a local beauty pageant and tried, in vain, to champion a "not hot" candidate:

From her television appearance as a phone sex operator to her penchant for night cheese, 30 Rock's Liz Lemon has provided a lot of laughs this season. Since the season finale of 30 Rock airs tonight on NBC, this seems like as good of a time as any to revisit some of Lemon's more memorable third-season moments. Since this is Bitch, this also seems like as good of a time as any to ask the question that is burning a hole in all of our minds: Is Liz Lemon a feminist? And does that matter?

Let's start this retrospective way back at the beginning of season three. Here is a recap of the season premiere (sorry about the annoying NBC promo stuff):



So... Liz Lemon is baby crazy and (sadly) not the victim of sexual harassment. Yeah, I guess that might not be overly feminist. Is it wrong then that I laughed out loud (especially at all of the Will Arnett parts)?

Let's watch a few more videos after the jump, shall we?