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6 Ways This Was The Most Feminist Super Bowl Ever

This year, game day was all about girl power.

Although the game itself was as guy-centric as always, featuring scores of beefy dudes beating each other up on the gridiron for possession of a pigskin, Sunday night's Super Bowl was a remarkably feminist television event.

In years past, the Monday after the Super Bowl usually meant looking back and sighing about all the sexist shizz that went down in the commercial breaks between the big game, from run-of-the-mill objectification to depictions of ladies as irrational, demanding harpies (and men as their beaten, downtrodden victims). And that's before we even get to the part where the country once lost its collective mind over a literally split-second nip slip during the halftime show.

But not so this year! While last night still included a little bit of the usual boobs'n'burgers advertising (we see you, Carl's Jr.), there was also a whole lot of girl power happening at Super Bowl XLIX. We've rounded up our top six favorites.

When #LikeAGirl went viral

Although some of the responses on Twitter were de facto demonstrations of Lewis's law (basically: the comments on any internet article on feminism demonstrate the need for feminism), this callout of the language used to devalue girls was a super-cool thing to see during one of the most male-centered events of the year.

When Sarah Silverman was sorry, it's a boy

Leave it to Sarah Silverman to torch a thousand years' worth of sexism, with a single well-placed line that lampooned the historical preference for male heirs over their useless female compatriots.

When domestic violence got a spotlight

After a year when the NFL's problems with violence were a major subject of discussion, this PSA -- the first of its kind ever to air during the Super Bowl -- was a smart and welcome way to keep the conversation going.

When Katy Perry killed it at halftime

NBC/MTV/Gavin Alaoen

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Even before Missy Elliot came out and brought the house down, Katy's halftime performance was pure girl power.

When three lady-centric movies got major promo placement

Not only did Sunday see the debut of a teaser for "Insurgent," in which Shailene Woodley was front and center as the film's gravity-defying heroine, and a trailer for "Pitch Perfect" and its all-star female cast, but we got an extended trailer for "Fifty Shades of Grey," a.k.a. the movie based on a book made popular almost exclusively by female readers. It's almost like advertisers suddenly realized the ladies watch the Super Bowl, too!

When dads were kind of a big deal

Remember when Emma Watson pointed out that feminism is for dudes, too? It looked like advertisers got the message. This year's Super Bowl ads were all about paying tribute to men as caring husbands and fathers in possession of a full spectrum of human feeling -- which is kind of amazing, considering that just a few years ago, guys were depicted as being so emotionally stunted that they had to pull out their own chest hair in clumps to assert manly dominance after an accidental kiss.

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