Girl Writes What - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Shot on location in the Patriarchal Concentration Camp (kitchen)."

"Now, we still expect men to put women first, and we still expect society to put women first, and we still expect men to not complain about coming in dead last every damn time. But men don't even get our admiration anymore. All they get in return is to hear about what assholes they are. Is it any wonder they�re starting to get pissed off?"

—Girl Writes What, in her video Feminism and the Disposable Male.

Karen Straughan (better known by her screen name, girlwriteswhat) is a Canadian men's rights activist, and divorced mother of three, who is most famous for her videos on YouTube. She also hosts a blog called Owning Your Shit

. The primary focus of her work is how she thinks feminism has failed to address the discrimination faced by men in society (and, occasionally, has created new problems, or exacerbated existing problems) and therefore cannot be about equality. In short, she believes the current world we live in treats women like children and men like assholes. Her channel can be found here

. Transcriptions of her videos and other articles by her can also be found here.

Tropes that apply to her or her videos:

Ad Hominem: Men's rights activists are regularly dismissed as crazy, delusional, and misogynist simply by virtue of being men's rights activists. She started making videos instead of writing, because she was being called a guy who's mad at women because he can't get laid; and/or a fat, ugly woman desperate to hold onto the only man that would be in a relationship with her by pandering to him.
Animated Credits Opening: A butterfly flies over a pink and white title, and shortly bursts into flames and dies.
The Lad-ette: She claims to smoke like a chimney and drink like a fish, has short hair, and isn't afraid of using offensive language.
Non-Indicative Name: She's a middle-aged woman, not a girl, and she posts videos where she talks instead of writing (unless you count her blog).^note However, she titles her videos with exactly what she'll be talking about.
Precision F-Strike: Often used for emphasis on subjects she considers particularly jarring. Most notable in a video she made dealing with youtube users who unjustly flagged her videos, which she titled "You F***ing Cowards".
Pretty Butterflies: Used and subverted. The butterfly burns to death in the title credits.
Shout Out: A National Coalition For Men sticker is prominently displayed on her fridge in most of her videos. More generally, she mentions and make videos in reply/connection to other men's rights vloggers.
Stay in the Kitchen: Several commentators apparently have the need to point out that most of her videos take place in her kitchen. She is aware of this, naturally.
Take That: She does this, too. A lot.
Title Only Opening

Tropes that she deals with:

Abomination Accusation Attack: has regularly discussed the mainstream's perception of the men's rights movement. She lists examples of the charges made against men's rights activists in this video.
All Abusers Are Male: Examined and rejected in many of her videos, especially "Systemic Gendered Violence?"
All Men Are Rapists: See previous bullet.
Conscription: "Why Do MRAs Bring Up the Draft?"
The Baby Trap: Played straight.
Black Comedy Rape: She believes that rape is not off limits.
But We Used a Condom: Mentioned in her series of videos about legal paternal surrender.[1][2][3][4]
Circumcision Angst: Averted.
Comes Great Responsibility: She says that feminists and feminist organizations have abused their position of power, especially with regard to men's rights and maintains that this has created new gender inequalities and exacerbated existing problems that men face. She even provides examples of feminist organizations that she believes actively preventing others from attempting to solve problems that men face. The overarching theme of her very first video.
Date Rape: Deconstructed. She discusses the unfortunate legal situation that currently exists in some countries, where men - even though they, too, may be inebriated - are occasionally legally responsible for sex initiated during inebriation. She believes that both parties should be held accountable, and that both the man and the woman should be held individually responsible for their own sobriety and state of mind.
Depraved Homosexual: Lampshaded in this video.
Double Standard: Rape�Female on Male: Deconstructed, and thereby averted.
Double Standard: Rape�Male on Male: See previous bullet.
Dogged Nice Guy: In "Look out! It's a nice guy! DESTROY HIM!" she analyses the most common accusations leveled at Nice Guys (like that they are entitled jerkasses pretending to be nice only because they are after sex), and delivers a deconstruction of the mentality behind these accusations.
False Rape Accusation: Played straight in her video about Judith Grossman, as well as many other examples.
Fate Worse Than Death: Deconstructed and averted, specifically as it relates to rape.
Gendercide: She states that some radical feminists believe this is a positive thing.
Fetus Terrible: In "Those privileged blue bundles of joy", she lambastes a pregnant woman who worries that her fetus will be a boy who grows up to be a violent rapist.
Financial Abuse: She believes this to be a repercussion of current divorce and child support laws.
Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Played with, as she sees feminism as treating women in this way.
Just Fine Without You: Averted. It is an important premise of hers that men are vital to the functioning of society, and that if they are not commensurately rewarded for their service to that society they will abandon it. A society of only women will not last long.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics: She believes feminists and feminist organizations have cherry-picked and otherwise twisted statistics to their own benefit.
- She does not believe in the "1-in-4" rape myth and offers her evidence as to why she doesn't think it's a real statistic
- Ditto for the "77 cents to every dollar" myth
- She explains her domestic violence statistics
Logic Bomb: Lampshaded by her in this video in which a group of people tear down men's rights posters (an act of censorship) and then proceed to claim that preventing them from tearing down posters constitutes an act of censorship.
These people believe that preventing them from doing censorship is doing censorship against them... (dumbfound silence) Up is Down. Black is White. Inside is Outside. Left is Right. And Censorship equals Free Speech.
Macho Masochism: Deconstructed.
Man Child: Discussed in a specific context in "Men not marrying. How deep does 'the problem' go?" She deconstructs the idea that men who don't want to marry are immature, and lays the blame instead at society's perception of men, divorce law, gender roles, and the power imbalance in modern relationships.
Mars and Venus Gender Contrast: She subscribes to this theory, after a fashion. Although she believes men and women are generally inherently different, she recognizes that gender is a spectrum and not a switch and that there are outliers.
Men Act, Women Are: "The Tyranny of Female Hypoagency".
Men Are Generic, Women Are Special: Deconstructed.
Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty: see the previous two bullets.
Men Are the Expendable Gender: Discussed in many of her videos, but probably the most well known is "Feminism and the Disposable Male".
Men Don't Cry: Deconstructed. Mentions how men are always expected to suppress their feelings and receive no sympathy, unlike women in many situations.
P�do Hunt: See Would Hurt a Child below.
Political Correctness Gone Mad: Her take at the March 2013 "Donglegate" affair, as well as several other examples.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Deconstructed and averted.
Rated M for Manly: Deconstructed.
Straw Feminist: She has been accused of constructing straw feminists to argue against.
No True Scotsman: a.k.a. NAFALT (Not All Feminists Are Like That). Directly addressed here.
The Unfair Sex: Whoo boy...
Woman Child: One of her main concerns is that she perceives society in general to treat women like children. This trope is the topic of "Neoteny!".
Would Hurt a Child: Deconstructed, especially the unfortunate gender-specificity of the perpetrators.
Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Deconstructed, especially the bias in favour of women in the trope.
Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Deconstructed.
You Keep Using That Word: In "Look out! It's a nice guy! DESTROY HIM!" she points out the dictionary definition of the word "entitlement" to argue that it cannot be used as an insult and is not applicable to the case of so called Nice Guys