Body image gets animated: What The Simpsons and Family Guy say about beauty
For a long time, I have believed in the power of empathizing with a fictional character to transform the way we feel about ourselves. But how does this relationship play out when that character is not human, but cartoon?
Lisa from The Simpsons
In The Simpsons, Lisa Simpson stands out as a character very different to the rest of her family. She is intellectual, self-reflective and idealistic. So it should come as no surprise when she, just like any other real-life female, experiences body image problems. Continue reading
Tween Dora inspires girls to explore…the mall
She looks empty inside.
Dora the Explorer’s new “tween” look has caused quite a stir. The new Dora seems to be telling little girls that looks are, in fact, very important. She is also suggesting that girls should be more interested in styling their hair than in having adventures.
Luckily, the original, adventurous young Dora will live on in her television show. The tween Dora is being marketed as a doll that can hook up to computers to interact with her web site, doralinks.com. The site and doll will officially launch on September 29th, but until then, visitors to the teaser site can watch the Dora links commercial, which you might have seen on television: Continue reading
Strawberry Tall-Thinner-and-Straight-Haired Cake?
I don’t know about you, but it really annoys me when ’80s cartoon characters are revamped using today’s technology. Take Alvin and the Chipmunks the movie. Modern day technology took the “cuteness” out of Alvin, Simon and Theodore and made them look all real and chipmunk-like. Yah yah, maybe its more “realistic” but I prefer them the 80′s way.
Of course nothing — and I mean nothing — takes the cake (pun intended) after what I saw yesterday. Continue reading