Feminism is often thought about as a dangerously misguided movement—one that takes itself too seriously. As Pat Robertson famously said at the 1992 Republican Convention, "Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."

Whatever you think of those outcomes, statements like Robertson's portray feminists as uptight and psychologically unstable.

In reality, feminists are fighting for real equality between men and women—in practice as well as in theory. And for the most part, their methods for achieving that vision are far from the militancy of bra-burning ( which never actually took place). More lighthearted approaches to feminist issues do exist—and they are reaching a lot of people.

"Humor," says Rebecca Hains, professor of Media Studies at Salem State University, is powerful because it "wins people over, makes them
 laugh, and then makes them think."

Here are five popular parodies that are making people laugh, and then—hopefully—making them think about gender inequalities: