Anyway. what I’ve been wondering is whether I’m dim, insensitive or just a bad feminist, because I’m prepared to dismiss it as – admittedly poor - “schoolboy humour” rather than deliberate sexism.
It certainly doesn't make you a bad feminist, but what I will say is that so much misogynistic (or homophobic/transphobic etc etc) stuff is DISMISSED as 'boys will be boys'. That's the problem - it's so pervasive that it just gets dismissed and ignored rather than challenged. It's one thing for an actual schoolboy to be making those jokes, it's another for an adult to be perpetuating those attitudes and 'jokes' via a much loved family sitcom watched by boys and girls, young and old, around the country.
I don't think, any more than you do, that it's intentional. It's not like game makers set out to alienate women deliberately by the way they treat their female characters either, but it's what happens because men=default audience and 'women fans' are perceived in a certain way.
no subject
It certainly doesn't make you a bad feminist, but what I will say is that so much misogynistic (or homophobic/transphobic etc etc) stuff is DISMISSED as 'boys will be boys'. That's the problem - it's so pervasive that it just gets dismissed and ignored rather than challenged. It's one thing for an actual schoolboy to be making those jokes, it's another for an adult to be perpetuating those attitudes and 'jokes' via a much loved family sitcom watched by boys and girls, young and old, around the country.
I don't think, any more than you do, that it's intentional. It's not like game makers set out to alienate women deliberately by the way they treat their female characters either, but it's what happens because men=default audience and 'women fans' are perceived in a certain way.