Constructing a feminist icon through erotic friend fiction: millennial feminism on Bob’s Burgers

ABSTRACT

This study engages in current scholarly debates regarding third-wave versus postfeminist media icons through an analysis of Tina Belcher, the eldest daughter in the animated series Bob’s Burgers and a paragon of what I coin “millennial feminism.” In it, I argue that Tina rejects popular postfeminist discourses and experiences a politicized feminist awakening. While Tina is significant in her own right, most remarkable is the way millennial audiences have utilized the internet to position Tina as a feminist folk hero. Ultimately, I trace how popular critics use Tina to theorize a millennial feminism that reflects the values and characteristics of the millennial generation. Revisiting Sarah Banet-Weiser’s (2004. “Girls rule! Gender, feminism, and Nickelodeon.” Critical Studies in Media Communication, 21, pp. 119–139) argument that Nickelodeon’s girl power programming demonstrated third-wave feminist politics for its audiences, I argue that adult-oriented animated sitcoms lend themselves to an absurdity and disregard for hegemonic gender ideologies which have the potential to unsettle dominant ideologies of gender and sexuality and can define contemporary feminist politics for viewers.

KEYWORDS:

• Third-wave feminism
• animation
• postfeminism
• Bob’s Burgers
• millennial feminism

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Rob Brookey, the anonymous reviewers, and the editing team for their generous feedback.

Notes on contributor

Meg Tully is a doctoral candidate at the University of Iowa. She wishes to thank Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz, Isaac West, Jeff Bennett, Tim Havens, and Glen Stamp for their helpful edits of previous versions of this manuscript. And for listening to her rants about Bob’s Burgers.

Notes

1 Tina, 201, “The Belchies.”

2 Tina, 306, “The deepening.”

3 Tina, 208, “Bad Tina.”