Feminist Ryan Gosling

About

Feminist Ryan Gosling is a single topic Tumblr showcasing a series of image macros based on stillshots of the actor seemingly submerged in thought and various excerpts from feminist literature works. The character of Feminist Ryan Gosling can be interpreted as the sensitive counterpart of the FuckYeahRyanGosling image macro series.

Origin

The Feminist Ryan Gosling^[1] Tumblr blog was launched by writer Danielle Henderson on October 8th, 2011, featuring “feminist theory flashcards from your favorite sensitive movie dude-turned-meme.” According to the blogger’s FAQ page, Henderson started the Tumblr as a humorous way to keep track of the feminism and gender study theorists she was studying at the University of Wisconsin. The series was inspired by the fanmade Tumblr site FuckYeahRyanGosling^[10], one of the earliest “Fuck Yeah” Tumblrs that has been curating images of the actor captioned with innocent “Hey Girl” pick up lines since 2008.

Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine

In 2010, after three years of hiatus from acting, Canadian heartthrob actor Ryan Gosling returned to the screen as the lead role in the 2010 drama film Blue Valentine. Shortly before its release, the film was given an NC-17 rating by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) due to a scene involving Gosling’s character giving oral pleasure to the female protagonist. Gosling publicly criticized MPAA’s decision by saying it is a sexist to give films with scenes depicting women performing oral sex R ratings while his scene in Blue Valentine was given a NC-17 rating. The actor’s bold statement received praises from women’s blogosphere, most notably a column post on Ms. Magazine blog in November 2010.

Spread

Jezebel^[2] posted an article about the single topic Tumblr on the same day it launched and a number of similar articles followed on celebrity blogs like Huffington Post Women^[3], Perez Hilton^[4] and BuzzFeed^[12], as well as news media outlets including TIME Magazine^[5], CBS^[6] and The Guardian.^[7] The blog also enjoyed significant coverage from the women’s fashion magazines and blogs, including Marie Claire, Stylist and Vogue among others. Since the onset of mainstream news coverage, the image macro series has continued to circulate on Tumblr^[8] as well as TwoXChromosomes subreddit.^[9]

Notable Examples

Ryan Gosling Tumblr Blogs

The popularity of Feminist Ryan Gosling and the media obsession with the actor soon led to an extensive series of spin-off blogs centered around the phrasal template “Hey Girl, X,” covering a wide variety of academic and topical subjects including typography, film studies, medieval history, Shakespearean literature, biostatistics, feminism, international development and political science among others. In December 2011, Tumblr user Radioon released a graph illustrating the impressive growth rate of Ryan Gosling-related blogs in the community and dubbed it the “Gosling Bubble.” Meanwhile, The Daily Dot began the single topic Tumblr Gosblr^[13] to compile a directory list of Ryan Gosling-themed blogs.

Book Publication

In December 2011, it was announced that a book based on the Feminist Ryan Gosling blog is in progress. The book, featuring 100 pictures of Ryan Gosling captioned with feminist theory references, went on pre-order sale on April 25th, 2012 is planned to be released on August 10th, 2012.

Search Interest

External References