Blogging Molly
The “Jessie Spano” Effect: Why We’re Still Afraid of Feminism in 2010
By Molly Knefel

If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent much of your adulthood recovering from the disappointment that life is not like Saved by the Bell said it would be. Nerds aren’t best friends with cool kids, caffeine pills don’t get you high, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s hair isn’t even blonde. But I was born in the 80s and grew up watching the show after school, and I was too young to know any better.

Recently, thanks to the miraculous series of tubes that is the Internet, I went back and watched the show again for the first time since childhood. Despite the fact that SBTB got it wrong on a few things (caffeine pills, especially), I still think it’s a fantastic show. But there was one aspect that stood out to me this time around. In the 15 years since I last watched, I have learned a lot. One of the things I’ve learned (besides caffeine pills don’t get you high) is this wacky idea called Feminism, which is basically just the idea that all people should be treated equally regardless of gender, race, or class. And there is something more important than caffeine pills that Saved by the Bell got wrong. Her name is Jessie Spano.

Jessie, as you may remember, was a feminist. She was also an egghead, a sometimes-cheerleader, and Slater’s girlfriend. Jessie was a relatively progressive character; she used words like “chauvinist,” she thought women should be valued for intelligence rather than looks, and she cared about the environment. This reminds me of how, in high school, any time I would advocate human rights I would be called a “tree-hugger”– anyone crazy enough to love humans or women must REALLY love trees, too. But, I digress: my point is, Jessie was pretty right-on, and it’s cool that the writers of the show were willing to articulate such issues. Right? Right… except for one problem. Slater.

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