The Venture Bros and The Feminist
I'm an outspoken feminist. So why is my favorite comfort show one that is exclusively male?
I, Grace Michaud, am known to be a passionate person. Some may call that an understatement. When I truly have strong feelings for something, you’re going to hear about it. After seeing Phantom Menace in theaters at age 5, I infamously fell in love with Anakin Skywalker to the point that I slept with a Pepsi bottle featuring his face on it.
When I dislike something, it also very much gets me into trouble. Since age 15 I’ve harbored a strong distaste for Taylor Swift and her music, which has lead to screaming matches. I am banned about talking politics at family functions. I have been involved in hostile tensions in the classroom. To make it short: I am known to cause a scene.
Feminism has stirred a passion in me my whole life both good and bad. Since childhood I have always noticed when I was not being equally treated the same as boys. I credit my family for that, who have always welcomed a balanced environment and never made me feel different for my gender. I would not stand for not being able to do something simply because I was a girl. Throughout my conscious life I have demanded to be equal.
My feminism has allowed me to question the environment around me. Why can’t I play a male sport? Why am I getting heat for expressing my ideas passionately, but no one is saying anything to the boys who are equally passionate about the same topic? Why is there only one woman in The Dark Knight?
Coming out of Oppenheimer the other day, I was instantly struck by how women are barely in it, and when they are they’re just…there. Director Christopher Nolan tried with Kitty Oppenheimer, but they barely touch on the fact that the woman was a scientist in her own right. I always seem to notice when something is very male driven and made by men. It sometimes affects how I enjoy things. After coming up with my critiques of Oppenheimer, it hit me:
As someone who is so quick to point out the lack of women in something, why is my favorite show one that is dominantly male?
That show is the Adult Swim cartoon The Venture Bros. I became obsessed with The Venture Bros in July 2021, when remembering it briefly from a class I took in college, decided to put it on as background noise. I didn’t start to fully pay attention until I got to season 3, when suddenly, I became extremely invested. The show had been straying away from parody to more world and character building lore. I’m a sucker for good characters, and tough guy bodyguard’s genuine love for teenagers Dean and Hank Venture peaked my interest. I’ve rewatched the show multiple times since and along with Parks and Rec, Seinfeld and Avatar the Last Airbender, it has landed on the list of comfort television.
But The Venture Bros is written by two men: Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. There are barely any women in the show, except for one, and she’s voiced by a man. Much like Christopher Nolan, women really only appear in relation to men: female heroes and villains are usually romantically connected to a man. The show is unabashedly from a male perspective.
By all means, based on my past criticisms of other works, why do I enjoy this show to the point of obsession?
The answer I’ve come up with is because it’s from the male perspective. It’s from a raw and honest male perspective. Jackson Public and Doc Hammer were ahead of Greta Gerwig perhaps: they were unapologetic about men’s flaws when they aren’t putting on an act for women (Like Ken in Barbie). What we’re seeing in the show are the real characters. Brock lets himself have motherly instincts towards his wards, and to see a male character not fight or be the punchline for feelings that would otherwise be seen as “weak,” feels refreshing.
When women are featured in the show, it is usually at the downfall of the men. The men usually screw things up when they let their male ego get in the way of the women around them. For Brock, he lets a super assassin get away multiple times because of his feelings for her, Dean alienates his friend Triana because he can’t see her as anything other than a love interest, and Dr. Venture lets his ego not only insult the female scientist he was pursuing and burning down her entire experiment. Even the main antagonist of the series, The Monarch, who ironically has the best relationship with women, let’s his possessiveness of his girlfriend lead him to getting himself arrested and losing his henchmen. The list can go on. None of the main male character find the one woman who “isn’t like other women” (eyeroll) and magically becomes a better man. Venture Bros is very clear: These men are the way they are because they don’t have women in their lives.
The show also goes full in on the silliness of boyhood too. Hank and Dean tend to cling to childhood fantasies so earnestly that you can’t help love them. They want to impress their Dad, they want to do stupid things like jump off the roof in a Batman costume, and they want to create a band. It’s all done through an innocent lens. Watching the show, you get a genuine feel from the writing. Jackson and Doc are writing from the perspectives of themselves, not from the perspective of men overall.
A lot of the times, when male filmmakers and TV show creators try to show the faults of men, they usually end up romanticizing it. Look at how so many men latched onto the personality of the Joker, completely missing the point that the Joker was the result of toxic masculinity. Using the example of Oppenheimer again, the film is told from entirely the male perspective, and of course it touches on the faults of men: violence, war, pride, etc. But the film sentimentalizes these traits, like “oh woah is man, we created the most significant scientific discovery in the history of mankind, we created the power to end humanity. We are now infamous. Whoa is me.” It’s so over the top. It’s a humble brag.
Comparing adult cartoons with a male target audience, Rick and Morty can be argued to dealing with the uglier side of men. While the show does have female writers and does a somewhat good job with their women characters (at least in the later seasons), their “male are flawed” perspective comes off as more pretentious. The nihilistic overtones make me want to roll my eyes. We get it: Rick is a terrible person. Dan Harmon and co. try to approach it with an intellectual way. Once is enough, but by taking itself so seriously it defeats the purpose.
For me, I don’t like when make take themselves so damn seriously. That includes when they’re self-deprecating. I feel I can tell the genuine difference when a man is actually hard on themselves, or when they’re just looking for attention. For me, I find myself drawn to men who are innocently themselves. Nothing gives me the ick more when I can tell a guy is trying to play a certain part with me. Venture Bros plays that line well. I never get the feeling that Jackson and Doc are writing the show to glorify anything.
That’s why The Venture Bros feels so refreshing. They don’t overdramatize. They certainly do not take themselves seriously. It feels real. The men I find most attractive are men like Ryan Gosling, those who act like themselves and embrace their individuality. They do not let being a man define them, nor do they let women define them. I like to think that while my own womanhood defines me, it doesn’t entirely define me. At the end of the day, I’m just Grace.
I love being a woman. I love women. I find myself saying “women” like Saoirse Ronan in Little Women. I love the way women think, I love the sense of humor women share. I love our passion. And I love how we as women understand that womanhood is so complex and individual. I think that’s why the Barbie movie resonated with so many of us, because it wasn’t just about “female empowerment” but instead that being a woman is an individual choice and looks different on everyone.
The Venture Bros and Barbie are similar in that way because eventually they show who we are behind the mask. By playing into too much gender stereotypes, we see what actually connects us. For Team Venture that’s fear of failure, fear of losing people, and discovering who we are beyond the expectations the past has set for us. Jackson and Doc say through the show: This is how men deal honestly deal with the problems we all have. The Venture Bros adds another perspective to something we all face.
The quote from Venture Bros character Dr. Orpheus from the Halloween Special says it best in what I’m trying to convey:
"Halloween is the night we discover who we are. Are we people who make zombie armies? Are we those who condemn others? Or are we beautiful children in resplendent costumes collecting candy? Are our choices in costumes provocative? Do we dress up as our ideal self, or are we not ready to decide what to be? Do you see it now? We use this one enchanted night to perform the greatest feat of magic there is. We become ourselves. Halloween is the true magic. It is the night we discover who we really are."
I think that’s what Jackson and Doc created here. A show that lets you in. The show is so familiar that it feels like a weighted blanket in a snowy Vermont cabin. A show that connects to the part inside of us that knows who we are, regardless of gender.