Pleasurable critiques: feminist viewership and criticism in Feminist Frequency,Jezebel, and Rosie Recaps

In an introduction to her webseries Tropes vs Women in Video Games, critic Anita Sarkeesian makes a disclaimer: “This series will include critical analysis of many beloved games and characters,” she says “but remember that it’s both possible, and even necessary, to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects.” Sarkeesian’s statement pre-empts a common complaint made of feminist criticism: namely, that it inhibits the consumer’s pleasure in her or his favourite texts. In this paper, I argue that feminist criticism is in fact intrinsic to many viewers’ enjoyment in popular culture. Surveying texts such as Feminist Frequency, Jezebel, and the television recap series Rosie Recaps, I develop the concept of pleasurable criticism as a way of describing the increasingly visible modes of feminist enjoyment discernible in the broader culture. By identifying pleasurable criticism as a viewing practice, this paper demonstrates how feminist criticism can be constitutive of rather than extrinsic to pleasure.