I recently got the complete Powerpuff Girls series for myself, and have been watching through it from beginning to end. I’m a big fan of it, though before now, I hadn’t seen as much of it as I thought I had.
And of course, its turning out to be much less fat-happy than I thought it was.
Now, in general, I find the series pretty empowering. The main characters are three created girls who were never intended to be boys, with a single male parent who does the domestic work and doesn’t claim it should be a woman’s job. When they do get a “stepmom” figure, everything goes awry. They all have their own distinct personalities, and while they have their stereotypically girly moments, they definitely possess more boyish traits too. And they’re smart (well, mostly), and use that to their advantage. Heck, the fact that the city is run behind-the-scenes by a woman who’s name is a play on words for “brain” is also made blatantly apparent.
All this is well and good and awesometacular, but when you look at how they treat size…well…things get a little disappointing.
The word “fat” is often used as an insult, especially by Bubbles. Some of the one-episode bad guys, like Roach Coach and the lazy cop and the scary fanboy, are also depicted as “obese.”
However, what gets me the most is how they treat Mary.
Mary is one of their classmates at Pokey Oaks kindergarten. She is a very nice girl. But she’s drawn much fatter than the other kids, and most of her characterization centers around her size. In the episode where Blossom gets her ice breath, the kids all end up outside for recess, and its unbelievably hot out. They’re all miserable, but of course the only one who freaks out about it – all nearly-passed-out on the ground and having trouble breathing and such – is Mary, the fat girl. In an episode where Princess Morebucks becomes Mayor, the Gangreen Gang attacks and takes over the kindergarten, and Little Arturo can be seen riding Mary like a large pig or something. Then, in a later episode where Mojo Jojo tricks some of the classmates into helping him by giving them superpowers, Mary is among the group. The others want specific things, like ice breath or flight or lazer eyes. But when Mary gets the superpowers, she uses her newly heightened sense of smell to find an ice cream stand, flies there, and consumes at least two full cones of ice cream (which she might have even stolen).
WTF????
I’m only in season 3 right now, so hopefully it gets better. But as it is, how they talk about fat, and especially how Mary is depicted, really disappoints me as a fan of the show. I still like it, but I have to take it with a grain of salt (just like with X-men, god). And I’m rethinking showing the cartoon to my future children.
I may edit this entry if anything else applicable happens in the episodes I haven’t watched yet. As usual, we’ll see.
