Will’s Unpopular Opinion – So Simple, Even a Ninja Can Do It! – 8-31-16
On Monday night, Jessie Graff became the first woman to complete a Stage One Final on the NBC show, ‘American Ninja Warrior’. For those of you who don’t know, Jessie is a professional Hollywood stunt woman, who’s credits boast major motion picture franchises like: Die Hard, Transformers, X-men, Super-girl, etc etc. She reached some mild notoriety when she became the first woman to reach past a certain point on the obstacle course on ANW back in July of 2016. (her run ended 8 minutes in, when she dropped into a pool of water) She has since garnered the fans collective eye as a favorite for the finals, and on the latest episode, she finished the entire course. I saw the episode. They interview her throughout the show, build up the hype, then wait to air her run until the end of the show. It’s typical TV hype, and it’s to be expected. The next day, you couldn’t scroll down your Facebook page without seeing her spot posted and reposted ad nauseum. The headlines read: “Check out Jesse Graff’s Awesome Run in the ANW Finals!” or “How ‘SuperGirl’ Stuntwoman Jessie Graff just made ‘Ninja Warrior’ History!” The fan’s went nuts, and honestly, after seeing it, I thought it was insulting to my intelligence.
Why? How could I be so upset with such an incredible achievement? Well let’s start with the obvious point of misrepresentation. I saw this post all day, and purposefully avoided it. I wanted to wait until I could watch it later that night on Hulu. I sat through the entire episode as they continually cut back to Graff and promoted her, while I anxiously waited with bated breath to see this olympian lay waste to the plexiglass and steel construct. Finally she did her thing, and finished the course. She took her time, and “achieved greatness”. However there was nothing overtly special about the effort. It was typical, and labored. She ended up coming in 4th overall for time. It then slowly began to dawn on me why this was getting so much publicity. As the announcers went ape-shit, I started to realize that the only reason they had promoted her and built up any attention to this episode, wasn’t because of some incredibly overachieving fantastical run, but rather simply because she’s a woman.
“I then felt a great disturbance in the Feminist movemnt, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out: “You sexist Fuck!”
Let me explain.
Placating to audiences and celebrating her only because she’s a woman, actually keeps woman from achieving equality rather than stamping out sexism. The idea of “she can do it, AND she’s a woman” is not the same sentiment as “She can do it”. It has to be more thoughtful than that. By drawing attention to the issue, it sets the entire feminist movement back, or at the very least, keeps it from moving forward. Is it great that she’s a woman? Sure. Is it great that she’s the first woman? Absolutely. Do I need to be told that and have that point pandered to me as a reason to watch? God, I hope not. That should be a point that viewers recognize themselves and feel pride in, or that an op-ed article notices and makes a point of, but to sell something like that to the public, insults their intelligence. Suggesting that: “Girls can do it too!”, honestly, shouldn’t be the case. If you want to promote true equality, you need to be able to avoid sexism by not mentioning it. All that does is create a perpetual ongoing stigma that woman are finally achieving what men can do, but the real argument needs to be: It doesn’t matter if you’re a woman.
I understand how this sounds; 
as if I don’t want to give credit where credit is due. But as a society that strives for betterment, it is incumbent upon us to set the standard higher than: “as good as” instead of “we’re the same”. A little girl who watches this isn’t actually being empowered. She’s being told, quite systematically, that men are better, and if you work really really hard, you can be as good as them. (or 4th as good.) I feel like that’s a backwards and deliberate mindset, perpetuated to actually keep the sexes separate. Achieving a goal in spite of a setback, (whatever that setback may be) is only as big of a goal as the social norms deem it be. Who and how it’s done almost shouldn’t matter. Whatever a perceived handicap or setback is, (outside of actual limitations, like not having legs…) it becomes immaterial when regarding the actual accomplishment at hand.
‘SELF’ Magazine was quoted as saying: “Graff, you’re incredible. We wish you luck as you continue your American Ninja Warrior journey. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the first woman to achieve “Total Victory,” as well.” The fact that she’s a woman should not be the go-to da jour for journalists or news outlets alike. It’s lazy writing, and subtly creeps on the notion that she actually shouldn’t be able to do it to begin with. It harkens back to the 50’s omnipresent advertising mindset of: “even a woman can do it!” If you can’t see that, you may need to reevaluate just what the definition of feminism is. Stating it’s impressive simply because she’s a woman, lessens her accomplishment. Nobody is saying Jessie Graff isn’t incredible for doing what she did, but she shouldn’t be celebrated as a female, but rather as a person first.
-Will Valle
