…that I got hit with a real live Real Women Never Wear Dresses (warning TV Tropes) bat when I suggested that Batgirls manga and mentioned liking Sailor Moon and thinking there could be comedic elements with friendship and boys and homework…

(You know, I wouldn’t also mind stuff about how Babs is totally bi (think of her getting sparkly and heart-eyed whenever Canary is around) and Cass hasn’t quite figured out what she is yet. Steph, I read as pretty straight most of the time, so all her “girly” elements would mostly be with boys. I totally would love a Batgirls manga to explore stuff other than the heteronormative junk)

…and therefore I obviously wanted a Batgirls manga to be shallow and stereotypical and not kickass at all. D: Because that’s all girliness is. Not like, you know, adding comedy and depth and relatable stuff and relationships to go with the asskicking.

It’s pretty amazing that I of all people, non-dress-wearing superhero comic geek who enjoys kungfu and facekicking and is generally lukewarm on romance and has has never had a boyfriend in her life gets blindsided by that because I made a simple post implying girliness is not the most awful thing ever and therefore got stereotyped with the girliness=shallowness shit, but I think it’s made me realize how prevalent and harmful the trope is. Not attacking the poster, who may have just misunderstood me, but it really opened my eyes.

PS, there is an awesome entry on Sailor Moon in the TV Tropes…trope.

• This review of Sailor Moon eventually shrieks out “god dammit this show struck down basic feminism so hard that it still hurts!” Entirely because the main character is a teenage girl that likes to go shopping, likes boys, and fails at school. Nevermind that the series shows many different kinds of girls and makes a point of noting that Usagi is the only one like this. Nevermind even that Usagi actually grows up and matures quite past this (which is lampshaded more than once in the storyline, and once by Usagi herself). No, let’s just enjoy the irony of a series created by a woman that provided strong and varied female role models in a setting that actually placed women as the central power in the universe and showed all dominant powers as matriarchies… being attacked for killing feminism.
  • Shadowjack on rpg.net commented on how Sailor Moon averted this trope:
  What I find fascinating about the series is that it really is girl power in action. It does not take traditionally “masculine” action tropes and simply gender swap them, no, and it does not deny or condemn the attraction of the pretty princess fantasy. Instead, it takes all the “feminine” girly stuff like frilly princess dresses and pink unicorns and makes them into implements of power. The hypothetical girl in the audience is being told that she can be as girly as she likes and still dream of growing up into power and responsibility. Feminine articles are not shackles or playthings to be eschewed, or tools good only for obtaining the approval of men — they are treated as cool and desirable things, in and of themselves. Boy craziness is even part of this, in the way they make the knightly romance fantasy an active one. The girls wanna be swept off their feet by a handsome knight, and, damn it, they’re gonna go out there and find that handsome knight and make sure he does it.
  • In-universe Sailor Moon example: the infamous Stay In The Kitchen remarks by Jadeite in the first season, where he takes Tuxedo Kamen out of the fight and then mocks the girls. Moon, Mercury and Mars responded with a Shut Up Hannibal and an awesome Three Plane Fu.
  Jadeite: Can’t you do anything without the help of a man? Women are such foolish creatures in the end!
•  Mars: Hah! Only old men think that they’re better than women in these days! 
• Mercury: That’s right! Scorning women is positively feudalistic! 
• Moon: Down with sexual discrimination! 
• The three: We must fight against Jadeite, that arrogant man!

(That part in the anime always cracks me up. “Postively feudalistic!” “Down with sexual discrimination!” “That arrogant man!” The fact it’s so cheesy and over the top makes it all the more awesome.)