Feminist Reflection on Zooey Deschanel

I have been thinking about my investments in actress Zooey Deschanel every since I read this post from Tiger Beatdown, especially the comments. There was a big outcry in the comments because Sady referred to Deschanel as "a women who only plays hollow, personality-free fantasy objects, and is your imaginary girlfriend." I'm personally a big fan of Zooey Deschanel, so Sady's comments on her really called me out on that. I was forced to think about why I like her as an actress and a singer so much.

In the comments of her post, Sady had this to say about Zooey...

If you can't see that Zooey Deschanel has been positioned as the acceptable, "cool" fantasy girlfriend, and that this is based on lifestyle accessories and marketing and is no more inherently subversive than getting a boner over a Victoria's Secret model, I don't know what I can do for you. I will say, though, that I've never seen the girl play anything other than appropriately quirky saucer-eyed waifs, and that the positioning of this as an "alternative" to any other commodification of women as sex objects makes me want to claw my eyes out.

I understand that her popularity is largely due to marketing towards white, middle class hipsters. I'm not going to argue with that. But I think Zooey Deschanel's characters (at least in some of the movies of hers that I've seen) are more nuanced than Sady claims.

Take Tin Man, for example. This is the first movie (ok, mini-series) of hers that I lvoes and was the leading factor in my love of her. Yes, DG (Deschanel's character) is pretty naive. But, I see her journey in this movie as a transformation from a naive girl to a strong woman in her transition into adulthood. She has to start out as naive to show this transformation.

Then there was her portrayal of Summer in 500 Days of Summer (my other favorite movie of hers). Even though the movie was told solely from the perspective of a man, I don't think she was portrayed as a "personality-free fantasy object." She had a mind of her own, knew what she wanted, and wasn't afraid to express that. Her love interest (who is the one whose perspective the movie is told through) might have had some unrealistic expectations and memories of her, but I don't think thtat makes her a fanstasy object. Especially because it was clear in the movie that these were unrealistic expectations and memories.

One of the other reasons that I'm such a big fan of hers is because of the music that her band, She & Him, makes. I'm a big fan of their music and I plan on writing a "Sing-Along Saturday" post on them, so I won't go too in depth about them here. I just wanted to through that out there.

At least some of the characters Zooey Deschanel plays could be considered pro-feminist. In Tin Man, I think that the transition into adulthood and into a strong woman are important parts of the feminist's journey. Being able to fend for yourself and standing up to injustices are part of what makes a feminist. Also, not being afraid to express your own desires instead of always succumbing to the desires of others is something that all feminists should be able to do.

While not all of Deschanel's characters are like this, I think it is unfair to write her of as always playing the same, naive character. I do think that Zooey Deschanel is marketed towards the white, middle class, hipster crowd. But does that automatically make her not worth feminist consideration? Just because she isn't a totally "alternative" actress does not mean that her work is not valuable to society in some ways. But she is marketed to people like me, so maybe I'm just too "hipster" (more on this later) for my own good. But at least I think about my investments.

What do you think of Zooey Deschanel? Quality actress or "fantasy object"? Are there movies of hers that fit into my analysis that maybe I haven't seen? Are there movies of hers that completely contradict my argument? I'm interested in your opinion.