A common trope within most television shows, especially within the realm of the animated, is the battle of the genders. Man and woman pitted against each other in a way that appears to be pointing out the problem with sexism. However, that is all it is: an appearance. That seemingly feminist trope is sending a bad message in a sneaky way.

In The Simpsons episode "Girls Just Want to Have Sums" the local elementary school is split into a girl's school and a boy's school following the principal's faux pas of saying that boys are better at math. At first glance, it looks as though the episode will explore how women are often pushed out of the fields of math and science by sexism, but instead it takes a disappointing turn. The girl's school is shown to be cleaner, artsier and far less effective and teaching. The teacher asks the girls questions similar to "how does math make you feel?" and leads them on an empowerment chant. This lead teacher is also seen making ridiculous claims like how a man using her first name is harassment. All the women in this episode appear as irrational bullies refusing to listen to the men's calm rational explanations. While a female main character pursuing learning after her male principal says her gender couldn't possibly try such a thing may sound feminist, portraying women and especially feminist women as irrational derails that image.

Similarly, in the Rick and Morty episode "Raising Gazorpazorp" women are shown to be the irrational ones. On a planet where males are similar to animals living on the surface and women are an evolved species living above them, somehow the joke is on the women. Of course, with all comedy shows, especially one as forward as this show, you expect little to no political correctness let alone feminism. This doesn't mean it isn't an excellent example of what goes wrong with the Amazon woman warrior planet trope. The women are shown to be needlessly emotional, and superficial enough to punish one woman to the "silent treatment" for bad bangs. Despite their evolved society their best attempt at a death penalty was a boulder they would push off a ledge, a process that the male main character mocks at length until the women are too frustrated to deal with him. Admittedly though this episode is in possession of the fantastic line "so they may head back to their weird planet where women are kind of equal, but not really".

Futurama episode "Neutopia" quite literally puts men and women in each other's shoes with a cis-swap scenario. Despite the opportunity for both genders to learn about each other, it seems the men receive none of the sexism they were dishing out to the women earlier in the episode. The women were earlier forced to pose nude for a fundraising calendar and expect the men to experience similar sexism while in their biologically female bodies. However, the men say that being a woman is fun and easy and that men all laugh and buy them things.

The one common flaw with all these scenarios? The comedy doesn't come from making fun of both genders, making fun of sexism or even making fun of misandrists. It simply frames the women as being ridiculous and irrational. Even if they try to stay feminist the whole episode, it usually ends with the whole thing being laughed off or the sexism being shown to be all in the girls' heads. By throwing this message in under the radar it leads the audience to believe in sexist ideals without even knowing it. Some might say that comedy should not take sensitive audience members into account, but comedy that relies only on sexism, racism or homo/transphobia is lazy. It's easy to make fun of the oppressed and discriminated against, it's hard to actually write a funny show with original jokes. All the shows mentioned above are shown to be capable of original humor, yet fall back on these sexist tropes from time to time. Be aware next time you turn on the television, a show you enjoy might catch you in this "kind of feminist but not really" trap.