Can we recommend each other books/films/TV that don't inspire Feminist Rage?

[BertieBotts]

Off the back of the TBBT thread and some of the recent "Argh I've got the constant rage!" threads. They don't have to be feminist, just to not inspire feminist rage. Tell us a little bit about them too.

I'll do some TV shows that I've enjoyed recently.

Fringe - Brilliant sci-fi type investigation drama thing. Quite a few gory scenes but no gratitious nudity etc.

Community - comedy about a group of misfits at a community college. The main character is kind of a douche, but that's sort of the point, it doesn't pretend he's a great person. It's funny but sort of niche geek humour.

Orange is the new black - Drama set in a women's prison. Love this, can't wait for the next series.

Parenthood - Based off the 1980s(?) film with Steve Martin. Basically follows four adult children, their parents, spouses and children, normal family drama stuff but nice, not too cliched.

Oooh, gosh, I'm going to have to go home and trawl through my books for good recommendations.

Just so I'm not simply place-marking, here are two offerings to start with;

Books - Tamora Pierce's Lioness quartet. It's a young adult series, and a precursor to her Provost's Dog trilogy (Amazon search Beka Cooper) In the set I've linked there are afterwords by Pierce where she talks about being a feminist in the seventies.

TV Series - I've not given a lot of thought to this, but have had a few small moments of awareness that the current season of Agents of SHIELD has a lot of female-positive messages. The strongest members of the team are the women, whereas the men are much more flawed.

Oh how I adored those Tamora Pierce books! Read them over and over as a kid

I've only just read them (despite being practically 30) I read and loved the Provost's Dog series first, and now feel the need to seek out every other Tortall book!

Marian Keyes if you like chicklit but want something feministy with some meat and wisdom to it. (Most MN FWR posters probably know about her by now, but just in case anyone doesn't!)

Fresh Meat for a sitcom with a good mix of characters and fun poked at sexist attitudes rather than feminist ones.

Scott and Bailey- finally a tv series that does not revolve around men!

I hate TBBT though haven't read that thread. For US sitcoms at the less sexist end of the spectrum, Community is indeed ace and so are Parks and Rec, The American Office and 30 Rock. One of the female leads in Happy Endings was a car saleswoman. Was also a big fan of The sadly cancelled Don't Trust the B is also very silly and had a refreshingly unsympathetic main female character.

I love Dinnerladies, Nighty Night and Gavin and Stacey for great non stereotyped women characters in UK sitcoms.

Orphan Black. I may slightly be a Tatiana Maslany fan. It's Canadian sci fi. I also liked Being Erica. Also Canadian.

Utopia - sci fi. 2 series. Series 1 is better. Balanced characters.

I really loved East of Midnight by Tanith Lee when I was a teenager.

www.amazon.co.uk/East-Midnight-Tanith-Lee-ebook/dp/B00LM9FA4E

Slightly tragic, isn't it, that so many of the books on this thread are sci-fi?

Chick-lit wise, I agree Marian Keyes is fab, but I also love Mhairi MacFarlane, Pippa Wright and Rosie Fiore.

Oh I want to watch Parks and Rec, good to know that doesn't set off the rageometer

I'm enjoying The Office. I think Pam and Jim have a healthy relationship and it's been nice watching it grow.

Pam is witty and kind, I really like her.

Parks and Rec has a lot of sexist male characters/attitudes in it - but they are consistently ridiculed and called out on them. The women are all relative high achievers - Wendy the surgeon, Leslie's powerful mum, the Library committee (!) in addition to the main characters. The women have a lot more complexity.

I like Modern Family. It's not feminist but it's not sexist either. It's also really funny. (Probably someone will come along and point out all the ways it is actually sexist but I hope not!)

It's funny how hard it is to come up with things tho, am sitting here scratching my head...

I like Modern Family too but I feel it promotes stereotypical and traditional gender roles

I really love Hayley's character - she is joyous and naughty

Nurse Jackie, Weeds, Mad Men all have flawed but great female characters. Agree with Parks and Rec and OITNB - both ace. Veep is good too, really funny.

These books are lighthearted, non-ragey reads:

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life by Nina Stibbe

TV: American Horror Story. All of them really as the female characters dominate but especially Season 3 Coven. My favourite line is when a man asks Jessica Lang's character "Are you in charge here?" She replies with "I'm in charge everywhere"

Film: The Descent. Ok, apart from the two main leads not liking each other because of some twatish man, the rest of the film is good old fashioned horror but with non-screamy girls who give the monsters a hell of a fight.

TV: DD & I are currently working our way through the first series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and also Outnumbered. No feminist rage in either, so far, not sure they need describing as we're probably the only people on the planet who haven't seen them

40d is good for this sort of stuff.

I spent a happy few days watching 'Big Women' (drama from 1998) about the setting up of a feminist publishing house in the 1970s.

Also a drama with Judi Dench in it from 1989, called Behaving Badly. She is the perfect housewife until her husband leaves her and she takes the opportunity to rediscover who she is and what she wants. It has a fantastic and unexpected ending.

Oh that sounds fun. I've added lots to my Netflix list I'm abroad so 4od/iplayer only work intermittently, until they figure out they're being proxied and then they stop.

I have just finished reading "The Bad Mother" which is no great feat of literature but was enjoyable and didn't give me the rage.

Life after Life is an interesting book, about a woman's experiences during the first and second world wars ( has a slightly strange time scale as it offers lots of different alternate realities but if you can get past that, it's a good read and def not sexist )

I'm watching "The Fall" and "Homeland" at the moment. Gillian Anderson's character in "The Fall" is overtly feminist, although frequently compared to the serial killer and Claire Dane's character in "Homeland" behaves like a man, by abandoning her baby and using sex to turn an "asset", but I think they are both great.

Am also catching up on The Fall. Yes, there's pornified violence but at least it's acknowledged as that being the killer's purpose and many key characters are women (ie not just one main woman, everyone else men)