South Park Takes On... Feminism?
by Elisabeth Garber-Paul, RH Reality Check
April 2, 2009 - 4:19pm (Print)
Matt Stone and Trey Parker brought the battle between men and women to the forefront of South Park last night—or more importantly, the battle between farts and queefs.
The particularly brilliant episode of the show’s 13th season began with the boys discovering that Terrence and Phillip, the beloved farting Canadian television duo that have had a hold on South Park Elementary since season one, have been replaced. By girls. To make matters worse, the Queef Sisters, their replacements on the Canada Network, are “two Canadian girls who love shooting air out of their vaginas!”
Needless to say, the boys are disgusted. And in true Matt and Trey style, the split between the boys and girls at South Park Elementary quickly escalates into a divide between all the men and women of the town—and eventually to Congress. The repeated question--What makes queefing worse than farting?—is put to the senate. And so, because it’s something only women can do, queefing is banned in America.
Seriously. Brilliant. What could gross out a man more than a bodily function they’re not able to perform?
Randy, Stan’s father, rubs it in his wife Shannon’s face with a victor’s glee—just before she shoots him down.
"This isn’t about queefing, says Shannon. “This has been about women having a little bit of fun at your expense. For just this one time, we could be the immature ones to make you feel uncomfortable. But no, you just couldn't let us have that one little thing, could you? Because even though things are getting better for women, you still think of us as lesser people sometimes, and we always have to prove ourselves twice as hard. Congratulations, guys, for getting your way. Again."
And that’s all the debate over queefing and farting actually came down to—a ridiculous metaphor for what men can get away with, and women can’t. Using crude humor, South Park got to the same issue that we’ve been trying to tackle for so long: Feminism will never be fully realized until we all hold each other to the same standards. Here’s to day when all our gasses can be passed, in harmony. Â
first queefing is not funny, second, it was banned in colorado
Thanks for keeping it entertaining! I just laughed aloud.
The level that you mention that women's bodies are viewed as a variation on the male norm is brilliant. Our bodies are seen as dirty and disgusting in a misogynistic society. How would a queef ever be worse than a fart? Bleh. I doubt the South Park dudes knew this episode would be so ripe for analysis.
I usually trust Trey Parker and Matt Stone when they portray any social commentary. They always show two sides building into a battle representative of what's actually happening. I give them big Kudos for representing sexism with humor because humor is definitely something we need. On a nerdy note, comedy as a genre exists to present ideas we might be uncomfortable with. The laughter helps us accept those truths, so this episode isn't just funny, it's helping equality to look like common sense. And some people think feminists don't have a sense of humor...
Well, you know, men aren't the only ones who can fart. Somehow I don't think society would be very accepting if dudes started showing off spontaneous erections or voluntarily ejaculating as they pleased.
I'm not saying this episode doesn't have a point (near the end), but the fart-queef thing is meant to be a loose analogy, not a legitimate point in and of itself
anything that comes from the genitals (male or female) is on a higher plane than anything that comes out of the anus. Though, my nose probably wouldn't like either one.
Why I recommend flavored lube for anyone giving oral. It might initially rub your partner the wrong way, but believe me, they'll thank you for it!
loved the episode .. and the article.
i thought the martha stewart bit.. was a bit too much.. but i was rolling on the floor none the less.
any way i stumbled on this site selling t-shirts withe designs that were taken from this episode..
funny ones too... BABIES COME FROM THERE
http://www.cafepress.com/Megdania/6561585
lol at the guys in South Park who'd hold their noses at queefs but not at farts. Farts are expulsions of waste gases, queefs are expulsions of just air. Farts can have a smell (waste gases, after all), queefs shouldn't smell like a damn thing!
Anyone who paid close attention to So.Park during the Dem. primaries had to know how threatened the South Park boys were--- their comments of Hillary's 'fat ass' alone should have clued in even as backward a boy as the one that wrote that episode.....
The boys would never have dared make a comment about Barack's Mad Mag. ears for example. Too scared of a possible backlash, but had no problems attacking personal characteristics of Hillary. since she was only a woman.
THE ACCEPTABILITY OF SEXISM AND MISOGYNY SHOULD BE A REAL CONCERN, BUT AS LONG AS BOYS RULE THE AIRWAVES, IT WILL JUST BE IGNORED.....
When has anyone on South Park ever made a comment about Hillary's "fat ass"?
