Archive for the ‘gender’ Category

From the archives: A Response to Sexual Ambiguity in The Brave Little Toaster

June 6, 2008

This article was originally written as a response to Sexual Ambiguity in The Brave Little Toaster. Alas, the name of the original author has been lost to the mists of time. And my poor organizational skills of ten years ago. Also: we apologize for the lack of updates this week. We take our update schedule very seriously.

I hope you were referring to The Brave Little Toaster (a 1987 Disney-affiliated cartoon movie) and not its parody, “The Brave Little Trailer” (a 1994 ten minute short on Animaniacs). The latter I know for sure starred a male cartoon character because at the end you see the Trailer as a grandparent with a white beard and the Pooh-bear voice of cartoon vocal-master Jim Cummings. But at any rate the first film does fail to meet your criteria for deducing the gender on cartoons for a number of reasons.

First off, you’re talking about appliances here. They have no clothes either way. In fact, going over the movie several more times I found no instance where the animators hinted of clothing on any of those characters; possibly to keep them subliminally apart from the human characters. And supporting my theory. (Yes there was that Hawaiian projection scene during that song but I’m talking about hints of clothing that was actually fused onto the characters kind of like Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast.)

Then you’d probably like to discuss color coding. Alas, it holds all too true for the stereotypically (hot pink) female examples, but remember- out of a million billion cartoons, I’m only evaluating the Toaster. Subliminally, I didn’t notice gender because the Toaster has chrome silver and black (those aren’t even really colors) which are exactly what all classic toasters are like. Hence, this character has passed the color coding test by avoiding it altogether.

Let’s see, the Toaster is seen dutifully and enthusiastically tidying up the cottage and minutes later is replacing burnt fuses and hot-wiring a car battery for a chair. Two opposing stereotypes=nothing.

The eye-detail doesn’t lead you much in any direction here. The Toaster has got the dinner plates thing but that’s because, being a toaster, it’s whole face is also it’s body (it’s sort of a verbal to visual pun). Absent are the eyelashes and that ever-alluring white glare found endlessly in Japanimation. To top it off, the Toaster has dark brown irises which not only transcends gender-specifications but ethnicity as well.

In dealing with the voice-issue, that one is totally arbitrary. In my case, I sit next to this student in my Algebra 2 class I would’ve sworn, for the rest of my like, was a full-fledged tomboy had I not heard someone speak his name.

Moving onto emotional status, examples grow increasingly murkier (as I would expect). The Toaster does briefly display what could be conceived as maternal instincts toward Blankie halfway into the movie- though by the end doesn’t mind sitting flat on him like a frat boy on a beanbag chair. Personally, I think that electric blanket is gay for several obscure reasons as well as those flagrant one (a scene where Curby “unloads” his bag of dirt, the Toaster wants Blankie not to gawk- my take on it is the Toaster also has a form of “unloading” like with breadcrumbs on the real appliance and since Blankie has none, he isn’t allowed to intrude this sacred act- it’s almost like a third gender! But now I’m really going off).

How about suggestive hints? If you want to think dirty you could say the Toaster has those slots on its head suggesting female genitalia (and the bread to toast process as pregnancy) but you will also notice the Toaster is the one with the inserting mechanism for those baked goods and, most obviously, it has a nice long power cord sticking out. Do you suppose that represents male genitalia? But rather than go off on a tangent rant of why this cartoon is suggesting of a hermaphrodite, it would be far better to just say “Hey, it’s toaster that happens to talk, okay?”

There was one scene that really, really had my gears turning and that was the otherwise meaningless encounter the Toaster has with a flower in a secluded, almost romantic setting. Well, my thoughts (as I’m writing this) are that the flower softly throwing itself at the Toaster symbolizes someone giving away their virginity- often associated with girls. But, then the flower seems to go into despair and wilt when it is told it was looking at a reflection (the Toaster clearly doesn’t want to get involved in anything here). Does this mean the flower was basically trapped in this romantic setting all alone and believed it found true love in the form of a reflection… or just a companion at all? Comments are welcome- either way, it still keeps the intrigue of my claim alive and well.

I was so convinced of my theory that I decided to view that sequel The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars. I shuddered when I heard it existed and I shuddered more at each passing minute of seeing it- this is the marriage of mediocrity and bribery at its worst, folks. But in the end, I got just what I wanted- more proof the Toaster has no gender. There is yet again a scene where they were supposed to refer to it by third person (by some gigantic refrigerator?) but it could have very well also been referring to the Radio or Lampey. I know it gets rather cumbersome to dissect a movie so thoroughly but to me, it’s increasingly obvious that the animators took great lengths to avoid the issue (and possibly the children’s book this was all based on). The simple fact of the issue is they refuse to give the audience any definite truth on the Toaster. However another totally different possibility is they’re letting you chose the specific gender of this utterly neutral character with an utterly flawless design. I choose neither side for all those reasons stated above. Of course, you can still choose male… if you want to believe that.

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Posted in Animaniacs, Beauty and the Beast, The Brave Little Toaster, ethnicity, from the archives, gender, homosexuality, stereotypes, the female gender, the male gender | No Comments »

Mini-Analyzations

May 13, 2008

  • Here’s a theory you might have missed behind “Casper the Friendly Ghost”.  It goes that Casper is symbolism of homosexuality and the struggle for gays in society.  Casper is a boy ghost or male who constantly seeks the company of other boys or other males.  The boys seem to think Casper is a nice fellow and find nothing wrong with his company. After a short while of cute playing, the friendship is ruined when grown ups, who represent the more “traditional” views of society, intervene. More than frowning on such relationships, they fear it terribly and steal the innocent boy and run away from poor Casper, who is left to seek out the next relationship.
    -Contributed by Dave R.
  • In Tex Avery’s “King Size Canary,” a cat and canary compete by “growing” larger with the use a vitamin serum; the bigger one has the edge on the other.  It goes back and forth with no resolution other than running out of serum as they stand on a basketball sized earth.  This is all a metaphor for the US vs. USSR nuclear arms race!
    -Contributed by Dave R.
  • There has been a great deal of speculation regarding the fact that Smurfette is the only female Smurf in the entire village. People automatically assume that Smurfette is responsible for the propagation of the entire Smurf population. This is an erroneous assumption, because this theory postulates that Smurfs reproduce sexually. I offer forth the idea that Smurfs reproduce asexually, much like amoebas. I believe that when a Smurf takes off his little white hat, the hat grows a new Smurf, and the old Smurf grows a new hat. In the case of Smurfette, well, there is at least one obviously homosexual Smurf in the village (that being Vanity), so why not two? I submit the idea that Smurfette is simply a cross-dressing male Smurf, and there are no real females in the village. No real female acts that over-the-top feminine. I have converted many unbelievers to this theory, based on the simple logic that it puts forth.
    -Contributed by Natalie.
  • For me, the show that brought the whole anthropomorphic vs. realistic animals debate home for me was none other than The Get Along Gang. It struck me as weird to begin with; you stick a moose on his hind legs and he looses something fundamental about being a moose. And Montgomery has antlers, which brings up the issue of whether they could be considered a weapon in his society. But the episode that sealed it was the one in which the Gang ends up in a snowy town where they must search for an escaped elephant. A non-anthropomorphic elephant. From the zoo! I always thought that if you’re going to create a world of humanoid animals, you might as well go all out and populate your zoo with humans.
    -Contributed by Farnie6.

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Posted in Casper, Mini-Analyzations, Smurfs, Tex Avery, The Get Along Gang, anthropomorphica, cross-dressing, gender, homosexuality, politics, stereotypes, the female gender, the male gender | 5 Comments »

From the archives: Bestial Sexuality in He-Man and She-Ra

May 8, 2008

Contributed by Lady Bast.

He-Man revolves mostly around bestial relationships rather than sexuality (although it’s there), hence all the human/animal crossovers (e.g. Beastor, King Hiss, Cobra Khan, even the Sorceress). Some are even cybernetic, brandishing nasty little built-in devices (e.g. Trap-jaw and Hordak if you want to cross into She-Ra). Most of these are the bad guys because we want to underline their bestial natures, but some, like the Sorceress, are good guys. The difference is that good guys get to “bond” with animals that are admired and not feared.

Again, this is a Medieval-type society even though technology also seems to be at a high. Most people seem to have mechanical equipment of sorts and many use blasters though He-Man uses a sword to underline his sexuality. Skeletor also uses a sword (it is supposedly the “other half” of He-Man’s) to mirror the hero, but this happens rarely. Usually, Skeletor uses a magical staff with a ram’s skull on it. This is probably meant to represent evil (i.e. horns of the devil - bestiality).

In keeping with this theme, He-Man (as He-Man) is a big, hulking, Mr. Universe kind of guy with a California tan and blond hair (really big with the girls at this time). Adam, though pale, is also a big, hulking, Mr. Universe kinda guy. The difference is that He-man wears reds and browns and golds (and no shirt) because he’s a manly man whereas Adam wears pink and lavender. In the 80s, He-Man equalled a “real” man. Adam was a pasty-faced, pastel-wearing pansy.

He-man rides this big cat, right? Looks like a tiger. Green. Why doesn’t he ride a lion? Only male lions are really associated with masculinity, most other cats are associated with the female persuasion, as is the colour green which is usually a symbol of fertility. This one’s tough to prove, because the colour might just have looked good on the background. And tigers are rather ambiguous sexually: they are not directly associated with the male, but they are muscularly powerful and this one does have a male voice, and they’re not directly associated with the female, though most cats are by default. The nitty gritty details are just something else to think about. Male or female, a cat was used because the cat symbolism was big in the 80s. Especially the big cats because they had the power of the beast and the sleekness of the sexual.

And She-Ra rides a horse. The unicorn horn had nothing to do with She-Ra’s sexuality (or lack thereof), it was there because unicorns would sell. The key here is that She-Ra rode a male horse and we all know what a woman riding a mustang represents, yes?

A word on stereotypes: women are always wimps and/or ditzes in He-Man. Teela is supposed to be this great fighter, right?, but she’s always the one who gets to sound like a total idiot with that whiny “Adam, where’s He-Man?” (or vice versa) thing that she does. And if the Sorceress is so powerful, how come she spends so much time moaning and groaning about this and that and needing He-man to rescue or “help” her (as in he does all the work)?

The only exception to this, as far as I can tell, is Evilyn. She’s one of Skeletor’s lackeys and I can’t remember a single sucky thing she might have done. Mind you, I may be wrong. I don’t remember too much about her because they didn’t use her nearly enough, probably because the presence of a female in the bad guys’ camp removes their illusion of “sexlessness” (i.e. they’re all beast).

This applies to She-Ra as well. The “evil Adora” was much more effective than the “good Adora”. When she was working for evil, Adora was respected as a general in Hordak’s army. As a good guy, she’s a wimp and needs to transform into She-ra to do anything effectively. Notice that She-Ra’s voice is deeper than Adora’s, probably to make her sound more masculine. Female heroes (I don’t use the word “heroine”, a hero is a hero no matter what the sex) are often portrayed as “men with breasts,” a sad affliction that still surfaces occasionally. In fact, the only way to make her seem feminine is to give her these empathic/telepathic animal communication and healing powers. Like a woman absolutely has to be nurturing and healing. I think that all these extra powers succeeded in doing was to make her look weaker than her brother (she needs more power to do the same job). Although I’ve often thought that He-man got the short end of the stick because his sword doesn’t change into other things (Sword to Shield!). That’s like the ultimate Swiss Army Knife.

Other aspects of this stereotype manipulation are all the supposedly strong females in She-Ra who swoon over the male ones (as Glimmer did with He-man in “Secret of the Sword”) and let them take over, or who surrender/run away when confronted with a male opponent (e.g. Catra of the Horde who wimps out every time she loses her mask). Again, only Shadoweaver is of any interest although why she doesn’t just kill off Hordak (who’s too stupid to have been Skeletor’s mentor, I don’t care what the movie says) and take over is a mystery to me. The only really great female characters Filmation comes up with are almost never used… such a pity.

As you can see, He-Man and She-Ra don’t walk the sexual/bestial barrier that Thundercats does. It does use a greater amount of stereotypes, though I’m sure they thought they were quite advanced in using female fighters and lead characters.

Again, I don’t want to imply that the animation companies were trying to project these messages or used such symbols on purpose because they didn’t. And it certainly isn’t what us children picked up on either. The creators of these shows just used the images that were popular at the time, symbols that were created and used by advertisers/designers to represent the facts that already existed and those facts were that people in the 80s really, really wanted sex and bestial imagery and that, in this case, we haven’t yet obliterated all the stereotypes.

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Posted in He-Man, She-Ra, Thundercats, from the archives, gender, homosexuality, stereotypes, the female gender, the male gender, villains | 5 Comments »

Alchemical Symbolism in Smurfs

March 14, 2008

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Contributed by Talia.

papasmurf.jpgI know that the generally accepted theory is that The Smurfs are Communists, but another possibility recently occurred to me. Could the Smurfs possibly be philosophers stones? That would explain a few things, for example, why Gargamel variously wants to eat them or to transform them into gold. When eaten, the philosophers stone is an elixir of life, but it can also be mixed with other elements to turn them into gold or silver. It is interesting that there are actually two colors of philosophers stone: white and red. The white stones were used to make silver, but only the red could make gold. Apparently, though, both could be eaten and produce similar effects. That explains the colors of the Smurfs’ clothes.

Papa Smurf is the only truly perfect one (gold being the perfect balance of all elements) and spends his time trying to perfect the other elements. The most obvious time he did this was when Smurfette was created by Gargamel to lure the others to him, and (if memory serves) once she decided to stay with the Smurfs, Papa Smurf replaced her heart, which was made of stone, with one of gold. Unless he actually cut her open and took out the old one, it was probably his ability to change one element to another that changed the substance. In changing that element, he also accidentally changed her hair to gold as well. Also of interest is the fact that Alchemy was not just the science of changing elements to perfection, but also of the Alchemist changing himself. Smurfette was already changing of her own will before Papa Smurf allowed her the gold heart. Gargamel, meanwhile, still has a long way to go, and this is why he has not been able to successfully obtain the stone(s) for his own use. He must balance all elements within himself before he can obtain them.

Back to Smurfette. She is still not perfect, shown by the fact that she still must wear white. It is because she is still unable to perfect the elements around her-in fact, at times, she actually corrupts them (like the episode where, suddenly, one day, all the other Smurfs are asking her to marry them. While I think it was partly due to outside forces, she made her suitors fight each other.) Additionally, she lacks the required balance of male and female elements-she’s far too feminine, as shown by her lifestyle.

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Posted in Smurfs, gender | 5 Comments »

From the archives: Chromatic Sexism and Animated Felines

March 8, 2008

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Contributed by Fawzi.

catsdontdance_1997.jpgDid you ever notice that patterns emerge in the fur colors of major protagonist characters of the domestic feline species portrayed in popular, secular, post modern children’s media? Female feline protagonist tend to have white fur, a reoccurring characteristic for the heroines in a significant number of films involving cats, examples include female characters from The Aristocats, Cats Don’t Dance, The Rescuers (she’s a mouse, but the concept still stands). On the other hand, the male feline protagonists have orange fur, examples include male characters from Garfield, Heathcliff, The Aristocats, An American Tail, Cats Don’t Dance, etc. Furthermore, leading males that have dark or cold colors as oppose to the traditional orange fur are sadistically tormented on a regular basis as in the case of the black furred Sylvester (he speaks with a lisp, indicating homosexuality, further “justifying” violence and bodily harm on him) or the blue furred Tom.

The question is: why? As in the case of females the trend of white fur can be explained in terms of color symbolism. White represents purity and virginity, which in itself raises questions as to why would somebody care if the leading female cat is a virgin? A healthy human mind shouldn’t be concerned with the sexual characteristics of an animal. This can be linked to the themes of zoophilia that are apparent in children’s media. The orange color typical in heroic male domestic feline characters has significance, personally I don’t know what it is, (I can’t provide anything more than weak allusions to the Orange Party of the 19th century, which may have something to do with the early American working class on which the nation was built.)

An anomaly in the white female trend would have to be Garfield’s Arlene, she’s pink(which again could be explained in terms of identifying gender with color) the obvious implication of her not having white fur: she’s not a virgin.

Other implications of the white furred female felines in The Aristrocats, the leading female has white fur, indicating virginity, yet she has children with her, what is she? She’s a Virgin Mother! She’s being escorted to some safe paradise by a humble (orange) male, fleeing from an oppressive empire, the references to Roman society (aristocrats, hence the title.) Three children can represent almost anything, the number three is of significance to Christianity: the Trinity, the three Mages, the three Archangels, etc. All this has significance.

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Posted in An American Tail, Cats Don't Dance, Garfield and Friends, Heathcliff, Sylvester and Tweety, The Aristocats, The Rescuers, Tom and Jerry, from the archives, gender, homosexuality | 3 Comments »

From the archives: Sexual Ambiguity in The Brave Little Toaster

February 27, 2008

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Contributed by Alejandro L.

blt-10.jpgI saw that cute cartoon The Brave Little Toaster for the seventieth time but the protagonist, for which the title is named after, still comes across as lacking a definite gender, unlike the others. Here are some supporting analyses: every other appliance is undeniably masculine, there are (as far as I’ve counted) 4.5 exceptions of effeminate appliances (an old recorder, a sewing machine, a toaster oven, and one of the cars that was executed by the compactor) who rely on extreme stereotyping to get that point across. It has become customary to make a concept cartoon (such as talking appliances, talking animals, goofy-looking video game characters, etc.) male first as some sort of template for later additions to its world. Of course, this all leads back to Toaster’s gender. The animators and screenwriters took great lengths to avoid having to reveal that issue. The four other appliances in the Faithful Five have been fully defined (in regards to Blankie, Curby points out “he’s just stuck in a tree”). In fact, the only time Toaster was referred to by a pronoun was during the waterfall/rescue sequence, over the blaring rapids and music, Lampey screams “(he/she) sank”. That’s it. It could have been a gigantic Japanese to American transition fluke but I remained unconvinced.

The most likely reason why we never learn Toaster’s sex is to let everyone feel a sense of equality, so to speak. This plucky appliance is always in charge, tries to keep the rest of the gang in line (just wondering, were ya ever been reminded of a real person who has said “Knock it off you guys” like that?), suffers fear of inadequacy, and eventually makes the biggest sacrifice to save the Master. Why should someone of those characteristics have to been specified? Perhaps for one brief moment, cartoonists realized how much of an influence they were to children and decisively broke tradition. With a strange mixture of a placid yet heart-warming appearance, voice, and behavior, Toaster proves to be a role model for all. (I’m aware there is a sequel out there on videocassette, but I haven’t seen it.)

Posted in The Brave Little Toaster, from the archives, gender, the female gender, the male gender | 4 Comments »

From the archives: Mulan: A Modern Rescripting of the Classic Romance

January 29, 2008

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This is one of the finest (and longest) submissions from the old archives. And we are not just saying that because it was written by the Editor’s wife way back when they were still dating.

Contributed by Rachel M.

mulan_box.jpgMulan may at first glance appear to be quite revolutionary in comparison to the traditional formula for romantic tales which Disney has been known to employ. After all, it is the heroine of this film who ends up saving the lives of all the major male characters, including not only her love interest but also her father and the emperor, not to mention the whole of China. Mulan is not one to pass out from a prick of a spinning wheel spindle or a bite of a poison apple, into a sleep from which only a kiss from a handsome prince can wake her; she grabs a sword and joins the army. Clearly, this is far from just another Cinderella story. (more…)

Posted in Mulan, from the archives, gender, the female gender | 2 Comments »