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• Maddy @ at 12:51 pm, July 8th, 2009
  

  I agree with this. It seems like every stereotype ABC Family attempts to portray, they take it way too far. I watched the premiere of 10 Things last night and I was pretty much horrified with how they portrayed Kat. They made her not a feminist, not an activist, but passive-agressive and a bit scary, to be honest.

  And the way they showed Bianca, obsessed with popularity to the point of stalking a girl? That might be funny to some, but to others it is a sad reality of what today’s society is teaching girls it is okay to behave like. I have so much more to say about this topic, but I guess I’ll save it for my own time because this has turned from a comment to me ranting about a television show. I apologize for this, feel free to delete my crazy criticisms.

• Katie @ at 11:45 pm, July 13th, 2009
  

  I completely agree. I am not a fan of ABC Family at all, and the fact that they took an admittedly flawed but overall wonderful teen flick and replaced it with this ridiculousness is very upsetting. I think the entire channel should be boycotted. I’m tired of them disguising disgusting stereotypes and played out plot lines as classy family programming.

• Alexa @ at 11:56 am, July 14th, 2009
  

  I completely agree with this. It’s great that the show displays strong female characters, but it seems like Kat (the “feminist” girl) is almost cartoon-ish in her ways. The show is perpetuating the stereotype that all feminists are angry, cold, pissed off Nazis. Bianca is just downright irritating as well. It IS refreshing to see that the antagonist of the show isn’t some dumbed down air headed blond, though…Don’t even get me STARTED on “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.”

• francesca @ at 5:34 am, July 15th, 2009
  

  I have to say my main criticism isn’t the representation of feminism but the fact that they took a genuinely funny movie, with great one liners and turned it into a mediocre teen drama that captures none of the greatness that was this movie. plus there is no heath ledger smile to dwell on.

• Layla @ at 10:13 am, July 15th, 2009
  

  I actually hate the original film… i used to love it and then i started thinking about it more and then i ended up studying it for a lengthy paper in college and i came to the conclusion that it was profoundly and viciously anti-feminist.

  Not only is Kat initially portrayed in terms of every single negative stereotype of feminism you can think of, but she’s then ‘tamed’, it turns out all she needs is a man!

  that said, this tv thing looks WAY worse!

• sri @ at 11:41 am, July 16th, 2009
  

  Layla’s right. It’s al stereotype and they’re making fun of them. but it does introduces feminism to some people in popular culture…………..?

  the tv is waaaaaaay worse. kat’s sister… bianca? well the actress playing her sang that horrible song in camp rock. and the love interest for kat is horrible and is NOT HEATH LEDGER! but i do respect the actress playing Kat. She was in ned desclasified school survivor guide and she was the tomboy/hard hitting girl.
  i know these because i am their target audience :S

• Sam @ at 2:18 pm, August 17th, 2009
  

  I agree that the whole “needing a man to complete you” is a total load of crap. They pretty much do that to every movie/tv show. In this show, though, you don’t see it as much… at least, that’s what I think… This show actually inspired me to be a feminist (more from the Mandella character, than from Kat), and I really like the way Patrick is portrayed… but I do also agree that ABC family takes stereotypes too far. That’s just annoying.

• RebJ @ at 5:27 pm, August 21st, 2009
  

  I like the original 10 Things I Hate About You. Yeah, it has some flaws from a feminist perspective. But for a teen movie–in the same category as movies like “John Tucker Must Die”–you have to admit it is quite good.

  However, Kat in the new series is a horribly forced, one dimensional caricature of a feminist. It just reinforces the (wrong) idea that feminists are a “categorized” and labeled type of person in our society, instead of reminding us that feminists can be anyone (your next door neighbor, your English teacher, or even *gasp* a MAN). So now there is one more high school stereotype on the list–nerds, preps, punks, and hyper-opinionated feminists. And that feminists are out of control freaks who need to be “handled” and “tamed”, because they are too stuck up in their idealistic notions of a matriarchal world to live in this one.

• KS @ at 5:39 pm, October 13th, 2009
  

  Maybe it’s because I really liked the original film.. but this show is horrible…

• Toongrrl @ at 1:00 pm, October 21st, 2009
  

  ABC Family…gahhh…I watched “Step by Step” and liked it. I grew up. And never again SBS!!!

• marta1 @ at 11:51 am, January 26th, 2010
  

  apparently the film/show is based on shakespeare’s ‘the taming of the shrew’ (everything you need to know about it’s in the title), which is very sexist and anti-feminist… but then, he lived in the elizebethan times so i can forgive that, obviously.
  But the fact that abc family would base a modern day programme on something written 400 years ago, with 400-year-old morals, shows how pathetic the channel is, and it seriously needs some new writers.

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