If you ask me what my favorite childhood show is I would
quickly tell you Boy Meets World because, well… duh. It’s a remarkable show
with awesome badass female characters
(Topanga, Angela, Rachel, Morgan- all girls I would love to be friends with).
However, I started thinking- what did I watch before that? Well, after some
deliberation, I’ve come up with the following badass female cartoon characters
to discuss:
Kim Possible- crime fighting cheerleader.
Kim is a cool character because she took part in normal high
school girl activities, such as cheerleading, shopping, dating, etc. but she still
found time to fight crime. Even better, she was always saving her side kick
Ron. This show seemed to have a role reversal of Kim being the knight in shining
armor, while Ron was the damsel in distress.
Overall good show from what I remember, however I do have to
complain about the fact that Kim and Ron ended up dating… does everything have
to end with a love story? Blah.
Uh… everyone in the Rugrats??
-Angelica’s mom always encouraging her to be a strong
independent woman. Although I think everyone had a least a little bit of
negative feelings toward Angelica, we all know that girl could get what she
wanted, and she was not afraid to say what she felt. She herself was a
successful business woman, a CEO I believe. And well there was that one time
she said this…
-Also, Phil and Lil’s mom obviously makes me smile because
she rocks a sweater with a Venus symbol.
-Tommy’s mom was the breadwinner of her household, teaching
children that dad doesn’t always have to be the successful one bringing home
the money.
Obviously there were some negatives to this show too, but I
supposed there’s always some bad that comes along with the good.
Lastly, although I didn’t watch this show as a young child, I do watch it now and I wouldn’t feel right leaving out Lisa Simpson. She is awesome, and I would love to explain all the reasons why, but this article explains her better than I ever could.
Due to lack of toddlers/young children in my life, I haven’t watched any of
the newer cartoons, but I am sure there are some way better examples out there
now. I think for the 90’s though, these were some pretty progressive
characters.
I think the Kim Possible example is a good point. Though in character, she seems a bit too perfect, I know when I was little I looked up to her and felt empowered by her. This was also the time around the Powerpuff Girls was popular, and you saw more shows – cartoons in particular – with female leads, like As Told By Ginger and the Pround Family. The moms on Rugrats are good examples as well; they didn’t fit into the molds of the ideal housewife. One was a CEO, another a feminist, and the other the breadwinner, which was odd for cartoons in the early ninties when girl characters were usually the minority of a cast of usually all male characters (i.e. the Smurfette effect.)
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. Cartoons now a days do not have a strong female character even if she is not the lead. Most of them are wrapped around boys one way or another. I loved Kim Possible because of what she stood for. She was a teenage girl but she was about her business and knew she had to take care of her. Even though later on she did date Ron Stoppable that was later on in the season and that was never her main focus. I also thought Shego (I think it is spelled that way) her arch enemy sidekick was another strong female lead. Yes she was Dr. Drakken sidekick but we all could see who was truly in control. He was just the evil mastermind but Shego was the muscle. I wish we did have more cartoons that allowed the women to act tough and fight besides Steven Universe now.
ReplyDeleteI personally loved Kim Possible because they're my initials. She was one of my favorites growing up because as you said, did it all. She was a moral teenage girl who saved the world, could it get any better? When I was younger I personally liked that Kim and Ron were together, but I was under 13. The Rugrats were also an all time favorite, I never really payed attention to the moms but now that you bring it up it's a great representation of women and the message they sent. Just analyzing the show Kim Possible its cool to see how the used the characteristics of good vs. evil to represent the villains.
ReplyDelete