I really, really like South Park because they so often have a great point to make and/or a social commentary on our world. Last night's episode may have been one of the best so far. The episode, "Eat, Pray, Queef" has the farting show from Terrance and Phillip replaced with the Queef sisters, and the reaction from all of the men and boys is that queefs are gross because "babies come from there."
This clip is the surprisingly deep and meaningful message towards the end of the episode that women just wanted to win something and get their way for once.
I think it's great that a show like this will take on the issue that male genitalia and bodily functions are natural and can be funny, but when it comes to female genitalia, it's considered gross and unnatural.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Feminist message in South Park.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/12859
Awww, I'm sad that I missed it.
In reality, farts are MORE gross than queefs, because farts contain methane gas and they smell bad sometimes. Queefs are just air that got trapped in the vagina, and gets pushed out.
I saw this. Well, I heard it. I was in the next room and my SO was listening to it at a higher volume.
I don't know if it was entirely feminist. I did enjoy some of the humor, "Queefing is disgusting! Babies come from there!" But at the end, the men in South Park passed the legislation that banned queefing. Only after the speech about wanting to get their way for once, do the men decide it's okay to queef and ALLOW women to do it.
I was cool with the episode up until that point.
I can see your concern that the men had to "allow" the women to queef again, but since they had won the court battle I think that was the easiest way to end the story quickly. Also, I think the point was that the men finally got it and understood something about their women that they didn't understand before and so they changed sides to overthrow the ruling.
Overall, it's pretty progressive for South Park.
I guess I agree with you that it was the quickest way to end the show.
I don't know. I guess that after they passed the ban, I was expecting a big revolt and having all the females start queefing (there could have even been a song!) in retaliation. Then, because of the mass rebellion and song, the men realize how stupid it was and why women just wanted to have their own way for once.
Meh. I was disappointed in the ending.
You can watch the episode online at http://www.southparkstudios.com/
Thanks for the link Katy, I put in the embed code for the clip I described, but I guess it didn't take.
yay! I posted about this, too! Feminist social commentary via poop humor. I was really happy that South Park showed the hypocrisy of female bodily functions vs male.
When I watched it in the late 90s it was funny but definitely not feminist. If feminist social commentary is coming from South Park, which if it had any political overtones, was originally a show created by and for young white men to (in part) rebel against the perceived political correctness of the 90s, maybe things really are changing.
This just occured to me, but why is queef the female counterpart to fart? Women can fart. It should be the male counterpart of queef, some sort of penis gas.
The real question:
I have also, in my research, wondered; "Why do all my male friends fart out loud when the pressure is too much, yet my female friends will do everything in their power to prevent any display of that smelly outburst.
What's your research on farts, exactly?
ummm.... i may or may not have teared up during Sharon's speech about why women want to queef...
My husband and I were watching and our jaws pretty much dropped by the time Sharon made her speech, because we couldn't believe how feminist the episode was. Was it perfect? No - I agree that some big queefing revolution (with musical number, of course), would have been much more entertaining than the men simply changing their minds. But it was still impressive, if imperfect, commentary.
I'm glad you posted this up! I loved last night's episode and I liked the message behind it. Plus, god help me, fart jokes and queef jokes are always hilarious. :)