did kimberly's feminist rantings annoy anyone else?

[brownie87]

i love this show. its one of my alltime faves and wish BET would stop pre-empting it. but one thing about this show always bothered me. not that i have anything against women's right, or anyone's rights, but did kimberly's constant feminist rants get on anyone else's nerves? the reason i ask is because for example...when the dad talks to her about celebrating some kind of victory and he wanted to take willis and arnold out to dinner as a father/son thing and she's like, "that male cheauvinism"...yet it's okay for women to have a "girls night out", we don't call that "female cheauvinism". then when she accuses her father's health club of being sexist because it's men only...apparently she wasn't aware of all the health clubs out there that are for women only and totally prohibit men. and that's been going on for decades. even more so now. how come women are allowed to have women only health clubs, yet men aren't allowed to have men only health clubs? the one i agree with was when kimberly was angry because the school she went to cut the girls' swimming course but kept the boys' swimming course, so in protest, she attempted to join the boys' swimming. then later the course became intergrated. that was awesome. however i heard a number of schools have been cutting several male physical fitness courses for years now because of budjet cuts and only keeping female physical fitness courses. and men have never been allowed to join...to this day, these courses are still not inter-mixed. anyway, i got away from the topic a little bit there...but even though i believe in equal right for both women AND men, doesn't it seem a little one-sided to fight for equality for women, yet when men face the same type of daily discrimination just fluff it off? i guess the point i'm trying to make is that kimberly was more about females being totally superior to males, rather than females being equal to males. maybe i'm a tad off base here. just an observation.

[LondonBRIDGES]

Yeah she comes off like the character Jessie from the sitcom Saved By the Bell

Remember during the episode The Slumber Party when they started to argue, Willis yelled "You male chauvenist Lady! Male chauvenist woman!" LOL

But I loved the Senior Class Queen episode...

[brownie87]

yeah, that one was funny. but for the most part, as much as i like(d) dana plato, that aspect of her character got on my nerves. it was like she was coming off as a know-it-all almost. jessie on "saved by the bell" was really annoying. she had to turn EVERYTHING into a feminist/anti-man issue.

[KurtfromPitts]

I didn't care for Kimberly's making up the word "girlcott", replacing the word "boy" when "boycott", from what I once read, was named after someone named Charles Boycott. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[desilu #1]

Yeah she always got on my nerves with that stuff too. Like you said, nothing against the rights of either sex, but she is very hypocritical in thinking that it's okay for women to have their clubs, but when it's men that have their clubs she calls it chauvinstic.

[Maddison]

I can't believe you are all picking on Kimberly! I loved Kimberly, in fact she was my favorite character on the show because she stood up for what she believed in. Back when the show was originally on the air, alot of teens considered her to be a great role model for girls, because she didn't take any crap from anybody and she fought for women's rights. It's ironic (and sad) that the actress who played Kimberly, Dana Plato, wound up doing porn movies, which are the ultimate in female degridation. As far as there being women only health clubs and gyms, that's because men tend to make fun of women's bodies, therefore women feel uncomfortable having men around while exercising. Also, men sneaking into women's locker rooms and other more serious stuff, like sexual harassment...even sexual assault. And we live in a very male-dominated society, and there are still alot of clubs that discriminate against women. Not to mention all the misoginy in the world and all the reality shows on TV that exploit women on a daily basis and all the young female celebrities going into rehab and being exploited in the media. Also health care favors men, still, which is why we have so many women dying of breast and ovarian cancer. Getting back to Kimberly, she was a great character that lots of girls looked up to and still should look up to. She wasn't a typical Marcia Brady who got all giggly about boys and her hair. She liked boys, but she was also independent and thought for herself.

[WaterLoo]

Kimberly was pretty annoying, especially when she did her pseudo-feminist rants over every little thing and in that shrilly, operetic voice of hers. I guess at the time they were trying to make her feminist because there weren't alot of strong feminist female teenage characters back then and TV viewers were getting fed up with seeing the typical bubbly blonde tight-sweater-wearing teenage girl who only cared about boys.
But, yeah, it did get annoying because Kimberly turned just about everything into a women's rights issue. I actually remember when Mr. Drummond wanted to take Arnold and Willis out to celebrate I think Father's Day, or something having to do with fathers and sons and Kimberly, in her shrilly voice, whines, "But, daddy, that's MALE CHEAVINIST!!" Then he says something like, "I know it is!", like he was kindly trying to shut her up. Then she says that she's meeting her girlfriends for a girls' night out, or something. Mothers take their daughters out for dinner all the time, yet nobody calls that "female cheavinism".
The health club thing annoyed me, too. At the time, almost all health clubs were gender-specific. Even now...and I don't see any protesters swarming these places.
I agree, feminism is about establishing equal rights for both men and women and I do believe women still have to be heard and fight hard, as I myself am a woman. But I don't believe that feminism should be about placing one gender ahead of the other, nor do I find male-bashing, or man-hating in any way ethical, just as I don't think woman-hating is ethical. In fact, I prefer to think of myself as a humanist rather than a feminist, because in recent years that term and what it stands for has become very one-sided. And I am a firm believer in equal rights for all people of any race, gender, background, ect.
In all honesty, nothing against Dana Plato, but the Kimberly character, to me, seemed a bit spoiled at times and sort of contradicted her "cause" by crying to her daddy everytime he wouldn't let her do something that he felt was not in her best interest.
Interesting you should bring up the Jesse character from "Saved by the Bell", because she was annoying also. As was Topanga from "Boy Meets World" and Kelly from "90210", these were all pseudo-"feminists" who saw feminism as a way to start a gender war over every little thing.
To me, the best teen feminist was Laurie Partridge, because she was strong and assertive and fought for women's rights, but didn't turn every little thing into a gender issue.

[ThomasE]

I thought that Kimberly went too far from time to time. I was glad that she always won but wanting to join the letterman's club was a little too much. There is nothing wrong with having some clubs for guys. The swimming episode is one that I totally stood behind Kimberly on because the girls had a right to swim as well. I was glad that Willis, the cocky student and Willis fell into the pool.

[catlover79]

I think she was much less annoying in that regard than FOL's Molly. Thank goodness that character was dropped after the first season. Who would've guessed that Molly Ringwald would become one of the industry's biggest movie stars by the time the decade was out?

[MrRetro_08]

It was annoying at times, but then again Willis got on my nerves thinking he was a bad ass every now and again.