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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023

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I know, that tendency is grating. I remember watching season 2 of the boys where they actually made fun of the whole obligated feminism thing. In universe, they were filming what was basically a Justice League Movie with all their superheroes working together. Their not-Wonder Woman was given the line 'Girls get it done!' at one point and it's so obviously stilted and fake. Outside the context of that film, we the audience know she's in an incredibly vulnerable position with regard to Homelander, the vaguely psychopathic not-Superman who's weirdly possessive of her.

But then we get to the last episode of the season. The unpowered male characters and 2 powered women are working together to kill Stormfront, this Nazi super with the powers of manipulating lightning, flight and healing very quickly. The men decide to rig up a bunch of RPGs hoping to get around her healing factor. That doesn't actually work but at least they tried to make a plan.

The women decide to charge right in and hit her really hard! They start losing, only to be saved by a third powered woman who then joins in on their strategy of kicking Stormfront on the ground. Eventually one of the unpowered males says 'I guess girls really do get it done'.

Two supposedly well trained superheroines don't try to grapple her or anything to stop her flying away. Nobody bothered to bring so much as a sword to decapitate. They don't even try to rip her head off with their bare hands (something the show would love given how gory it already is). They just punch and kick. So eventually Stormfront gets up, flies away and they can't follow. They've decisively lost the battle since she could heal in a few hours, come back and hunt them down piecemeal.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=SgAEexDFhV8

Everyone in the comments is saying 'oh this is such a good cringe-free example of girlpower' but they completely failed in their objective, solely due to their incompetence. Unlike the men, they had the raw power to win head-on but squandered it by failing to use any tactics at all. Even if you can't grapple someone with lightning powers, at least try? Bring rubber gloves (hey maybe they could dig out some 1970s style skintight suit and justify its usefulness)? Or a big hammer, something to get some mechanical advantage? Or if swords are too metallic, get an obsidian or glass blade?