The Big Picture: Boy's Own Adventure

[Kenjitsuka]

The idiots making a huge deal out of this no doubt saw the PINK outfit and went crazy!
A BOY... in... PINK?!!!!

However, just check the first of this articles' points:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19780_5-gender-stereotypes-that-used-to-be-exact-opposite.html

Pink used to be a very MASCULINE color for a long time!
Take that, every crackpot berating a male from any age for wearing pink.
Take that, and a whole lot more, grrrrr!

 

[DarklordKyo]

I haven't watched the show (yet) but I agree with Bob that representations of gender in the superhero genre are very problematic. One thing that's very cool is how the character of Batwoman has evolved from a bad joke about being a female Batman to one of the coolest characters in DC.

Yet I'm not sure that She-Zow! is quite as helpful to LGBTQA acceptance as Bob made it sound, even with all the qualifiers he put on there. The joke still relies on a strict gender binary, and I can't imagine that it strains itself to teach the kids about the nuances of recognizing your own identity. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

Yeah, I think that ponies and Batman are really the only things currently keeping the Hub humming.

Speaking of, I'd like to thank Bob for taking what I feel is the best stance on the pony fandom, that since he doesn't care too much about the show the fans' existence does not affect him and therefore he doesn't talk about it except where it becomes relevant, and then only in passing. No lectures about how some fans take it too far, no discussions of how it affects the larger culture, he is just aware of it as a thing.

To be fair, there's also Animaniacs.

 

[Vanquishuer]

So its like Kampfer without all the titillation.

 

[Lightknight]

Interesting. I would never have heard about this show without such a fuss being made about it. Maybe we're about to see the streisand effect in action. This definitely isn't what they think it is so it's interesting. Then again, having lived through the ridiculous "Harry Potter will teach your children to summon Satan over your dead cold corpse" era I'm not surprised by and not even listening to that crowd anymore. *sigh*

Great reporting though, thanks for being the counterbalance on the issue. A sane person in a frantic room can make all the difference.

 

[Orekoya]

Spoiler: Clever things

Meanwhile, in the 40s...

And 50s...

And 60s...

And 70s...

And 80s...

And the 90s...

And over at Japan...

And THIS...

Given that the entire show is built around this like it was a throwaway gag that won't be thrown away, I find this post all the more clever and accurate. I mean so far all the jokes in the shown footage was 'Tee-hee, that boy's in a dress.' with varying degrees of subverting that.

 

[Dragonbums]

Honestly, the Hub needs that attention even if it's controversy. No one watches that channel outside of MLP.
On that note however the show seems average.
It's the equivalent of those 90's live action shows where the male cast dresses up as a girl to get into a club or something. Or various skits where it's basically a bunch of men dressed as women having parody conversations about what women supposedly talk about in real life. Nickelodeon was notorious for that.
Yet I didn't hear the media complain.
So what's the difference here exactly?

 

[Nurb]

I came across the whole "poor values for children" argument on another site.

Yea, like teaching kids an invisible sky wizard that killed children by the hundreds of thousands will torture them forever if they step out of line is good values.

Besides, I saw an episode on youtube just to see what the fuss is about, and the worst thing about it is the awful puns that are piled into every minute of it.

OH well, anything that makes the fundies show how horrible they are to the rest of society and lose more support is a good thing.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I guess none of the guys at Fox ever watched Cybersix. Oh wait, that's because the morons banned the show in the US after its first run because of the crossdressing superhero.

Where else do you see an androgynous woman jump between being a male teacher and then fighting Nazi mutants with her "Brother reborn as a Jaguar"?

you know this may not have been my cup of tea.... or I'm not even sure what kind of tea this was..

but I can tell someone really.. really. really tried with this show (It would appear).

Damn this thread delivers.

I'd say give it a shot. Jose is a funny little psychopath villain.

 

[webkilla]

I once briefly dated a girl who's mother watched Fox religiously...

Girl was nice enough - but it didn't last since I was clearly a commie-pinko-hippy-terrorist in the eyes of her mom

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Oh, and gay ninjas broke into my house and made my whole family gay, then destroyed my family.

What, were they sent by Orson Scott Card? (He seriously suggested that being molested as a child would turn people gay)

 

[Lightknight]

Yea, like teaching kids an invisible sky wizard that killed children by the hundreds of thousands will torture them forever if they step out of line is good values.

Actually, the cultural belief in an unseen observer has been linked to stronger societies by reinforcing the individual's actions to do "good or selfless actions" even when no one is looking. You are essentially mocking the notion of there being ramifications for anti-social behavior. So, integrity, basically. It's a fantastic value, but the method of instilling it is what you're questioning. Big difference between the two. But much like this small component of your overall comment, I guess that's besides the point at hand.

Carry on, good sir or madame, or the sky wizard will get you.

Oh, and gay ninjas broke into my house and made my whole family gay, then destroyed my family.

*GASP* And there's nothing scarier than gay ninjas! They're so good at sneaking up on you from behind and by the time you notice it's too late... they've already corrected you on what belt you should have worn with those shoes...

 

[ConanThe3rd]

When mentioned on the Something Awful cartoon thread all I could think that it was "a disaster just looking for a place to happen."

Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be what's happened here.

 

[Drauger]

Hey a gender bender cartoon ? XD seems funny porbably gonna watch it, hey fox we kind of forget Bugs Bunny loves to drag don't we?

 

[Seydaman]

The only popular TV show I can think of that has actually done this right is Star Trek TNG (and sometimes Futurama referencing Star Trek when they aren't making fun of how ridiculous Zapp looks). In the first episode there's a dude just walking around in a minidress uniform and nobody bats a goddamn eyelash. That's how you break down barriers.

Telling people, especially kids, that it's weird for guys to wear "girl clothes" just teaches them to think that way. Even if it's overall intended to make them question why that is the case, it still reinforces the wrongheaded notion that gender as it's applied to bodies is inflexible and that any deviation from social norms makes you wrong.

There are enough irrational bigots in real life. Fictional cartoon universes don't need them too.

You know, I don't think I considered that, and it does make a lot of sense.

But I suppose changing masses often requires more transitional works to satisfy the already grown up generation that already has those beliefs, even if the show is geared towards children. So while in theory if the show was only being viewed by children such an approach of not giving a fuck about gender roles or whatever would be great, parents would probably throw a hissy fit.

Think long term changes and gradual generational changes, X is any social taboo

X Thing is horrible > X Thing is unacceptable/shameful > X Thing isn't talked about > X Thing is whispered about > X Thing is joked about > X Thing is taken seriously > People stop caring about X

Granted that's just something I thought up in a few minutes, but I feel like that's the general idea.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Boy's Own Adventure

MovieBob hops into the kiddie pool this week.

Watch Video

Bob, dear silly Bob, My Little Pony isn't the ONLY reason to watch the Hub, unless it's been moved to another channel in the last week

still exists, and is WAY BETTER then MLP; FiM, hell >.> better then a lot of other shows on TV to, not that that takes much.

 

[Elate]

The only popular TV show I can think of that has actually done this right is Star Trek TNG (and sometimes Futurama referencing Star Trek when they aren't making fun of how ridiculous Zapp looks). In the first episode there's a dude just walking around in a minidress uniform and nobody bats a goddamn eyelash. That's how you break down barriers.

Telling people, especially kids, that it's weird for guys to wear "girl clothes" just teaches them to think that way. Even if it's overall intended to make them question why that is the case, it still reinforces the wrongheaded notion that gender as it's applied to bodies is inflexible and that any deviation from social norms makes you wrong.

There are enough irrational bigots in real life. Fictional cartoon universes don't need them too.

I never noticed that TNG scene, thank you very much for pointing it out. Now I love Star Trek even harder.

As someone that cross dresses, not for humour and not because I'm trans gender, the fact that it's only treated as a comedy topic greatly pisses me off.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Dear god i did not know this was even an issue. Thank the lord i don't watch the "news" this is beyond asinine.

 

[linforcer]

Bob, why are you always so damn interesting?

 

[saintdane05]

MLP the Only reason to watch the Hub? Have you seen any of their other awesomeness?

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<youtube=H2fstlGyZNI>

OT: You know, I had a dream about something like this. Only the hero/ine was 18. And I was the hero/ine. And I ended up fucking the villain in the end.

 

[Rad Party God]

Spoiler: Clicky Snip.

Oh shit, this takes me back to the days when Ranma 1/2 was being aired in public TV (we had no fancy cable back then), I thought the show was hilarious, but having a mom that's even afraid of her own shadow wasn't easy, but I still managed to watch many animes back then, heck, we got the uncensored versions of many animes (that's why it always pisses me off to watch the US version of Dragon Ball Z).

Try Dragonball Z Kai (because the original Japanese track is a crime against humanity, it is the 4kids dub of original language tracks). Edited out the filler and re-inserted the violence and good stuff.

I already watched DBZ Kai a few times and it's still massively censored compared to the original. It has the original japanese music, wich it's an improvement, but I still like our own version better (mexican dub, uncut).

Fun fact, in the mexican dub of DBZ Kai, we still retain many of the original japanese words, for example, Mr. Hercule is still Mr. Satan for us (we never censored the 666 number), Sayan is still "Sayayin", Namek is still "Namekusein", Piccolo is still "Piccoro" and so forth