

In the six-and-a-half minute video below, Feminist Frequency‘s Anita Sarkeesian makes the controversial argument that True Grit‘s Mattie Ross is not a feminist character. Her argument revolves around an important distinction: the difference between admiring women for doing masculinity and admiring them.

Our instinct to see Ross as a feminist character comes from her performance of masculinity: she is aggressive, tough, and vengeful. But is the valuing of masculinity feminist? Some say no. Instead, such detractors might argue, a true feminist perspective involves not just valorizing women who do masculinity, but coming to value femininity. In fact, valuing masculinity over femininity might be part of the problem. On this blog, we call this “androcentrism.”

Here’s how Sarkeesian makes the argument: