How much does this Feminist Icon TRULY slay - the she-quel

By Clara Ding and Shriyaa Madan Gopal (Feronia Ding cameo)

1) Zendaya 

Pros: Fashion icon (ily Law Roach), amazing actor with great diversity, so so so beautiful, we all used to be obsessed with KC undercover, multi-talented diva, vocal advocate for equality, feminism and black women around the globe, attended George Floyd protests in 2020 and my dream guest on Drag Race!! 

Cons: Literally none she’s perfect.

2) Agrippina the Younger 

Pros: Rome’s first empress, refused to let her evil son Nero overpower her and SWAM back to shore after Nero tried to drown her in a faulty ship.

Cons: Married her uncle then proceeded to poison him to gain power (kinda iconic if you ask me) and gave birth to Nero - though this was thrust upon her.

3) Gladys Berejiklian 

Pros: Woman in politics, her ‘scandal’ exposed the substantial misogyny existing within the Australian Government and I think about her a lot.

Cons: Didn’t really do much and got replaced by flop Dominic Perrottet.

4) Callum Jan 

Pros: Works in women’s education, loves his job and his students, proudly honours himself as a feminist and plays saxophone.

Cons: NONE!

5) Princess Diana 

Pros: Allegedly dressed up in male drag to sneak into gay bars with Freddy Mercury (slay?), overcame traditional roles and stereotypes placed upon women, notable advocate for raising awareness around mental health and stigma around HIV/AIDS, landmine bans and homelessness.

Cons: Married King Charles - I’m not really a fan.

6) Ethel Cain 

Pros: Faithful Christian, amazing music, represents trans women in the music industry and tremendously excited for ‘Willoughby Tucker, I’ll always love you” - out august!! 

Cons: Didn’t add Australia to her tour list. :(

7) Rachel Zegler 

Pros: Beautiful voice, was on broadway, focused on empowerment in her adaptation of Snow White rather than central themes of love and dependence on the prince, very vocal about her political views and said she hoped that “Trump voters and Trump himself never knows peace,” but later apologised for this statement.

Cons: In turn she received a lot of backlash for this and was accused of pushing political stances into a children's movie (imo VERY unfair, she was just defending her work).

8) Fiona Apple 

Pros: Famous 1997 acceptance speech! Idk much about her but love her music and fashion icon.

Cons: ?

(I requested assistance from my Fiona Apple obsessed sister, so the rating is Feronia Ding approved) ((past editor in chief so it’s legit))

9) Bikini Kill 

Pros: Riot grrrl! Good music.

Cons: Riot grrrl was often problematic as they excluded poc and transwomen.

10) RuPaul 

Pros: Bald, made immense progress for LGBTQ+ community in the 90s and he was in my Spotify wrapped.

Cons: moderately transphobic/”doesn’t take gender seriously,” “oh, the fracking?” (iykyk)

11) Chappell Roan 

Pros: Fashion icon, amazing makeup, good music and my 3000 word article/debrief was on her.

Cons: White feminism, VERY problematic takes on recent podcast and IMO needs to learn to be more respectful in public to a certain degree.

12) Kamala Harris

Pros: African-Asian representative in politics, woman in politics - significant contender, I voted for her in spirit and met with my queen and mother, Sasha Colby.

Cons: Could’ve done more for the immense suffering in Palestine (especially Gaza).

13) Lady Gaga 

Pros: Proud advocate for feminism, mental health awareness, LGBTQIA rights, has her own my little pony character (countess coloratura) and produces great music.

Cons: Ignored Zendaya in that one interview at the American Music Awards 12 years ago and controversial rumours.

14) Finland heads of Government from a few years ago (Li Andersson, Katri Kulmuni, Sanna Marin, Maria Ohisal)

Pros: All women, Finland has achieved great world rankings because of them e.g. happiest country in the world and Finland is renowned for having one of the best education systems in the world.

Cons: None that I know of.

15) Trisha Paytas 

Pros: Meme queen, spreads positivity about mental health, open about her own struggles with body image and identity, her confidence truly uplifts women and always makes me laugh.

Cons: Mocked multiple cultures, religions and communities - “And I’m not racist because I eat rice!” - became transgender for a week, started beefing with Loosey LaDuca for some reason? 

16) JK Rowling (requested redo from original article)

Pros: 

Cons: Incredibly transphobic, diabolical tweets, we completely disavow this woman and her hateful, bigoted views.

https://www.glamour.com/story/a-complete-breakdown-of-the-jk-rowling-transgender-comments-controversy

On a more serious note, this proliferating epidemic of embedded transphobia within society which has evolved into unwarranted physical and emotional violence, abuse and discrimination must come to a halt. These past few years, trans people have become victims to hateful words and actions, stemming from unfair, dated and bigoted views. Individuals such as JK Rowling, who feel the need to project their insecurities and hateful ideals onto global platforms like social media, do not care about women’s rights. With such a successful career and large platform, this woman has enormous potential to spread/raise awareness about women’s issues -  abortion bans, the Afghan women losing their right to speak, or the women in Gaza or Ukraine. Yet she has not, and continues to remain silent, until it comes to trans people. In fact, she has been named in a criminal complaint, along with Elon Musk, over acts of aggravated cyberbullying against the boxing champion, Imane Khelif, perpetuating harmful, stereotypical beliefs that biological women cannot possess muscular physiques, and if they do, we must come to the conclusion that they are transgender (read more about this here: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/author-jk-rowlings-courts-controversy-after-comment-on-algerian-boxer-imane-khelif-6246094, https://www.out.com/gay-athletes/jk-rowling-still-tweeting-transphobia-imane-khelif#rebelltitem1). It is so important to call out offensive behaviour especially during upsetting periods of political and social upheaval. Our progress has the effect of being ‘reset’ due to factors such as regressive supreme court rulings, the rise of far right extremism and supremacist ideologies. Protect the dolls!

Here’s the link to the original article which we based this off of!! (Thank you Feronia and Chiara)

https://www.themaryword.com/post/how-much-does-this-feminist-icon-truly-slay