[Eirykr]

Just as it says in the subject, SheZow, a young boy who is granted powers by a ring that also turns him into a female superhero. Here is the opening for the show:

And Salon has already predicted our "conservative" outrage:

http://www.salon.com/2013/05/29/a_transg..._for_kids/

[Sonsowey]

Do people think that watching a cartoon about transgendered people will make kids grow up transgendered?

Do you believe that if your upbringing featured more non-heteronormative influences, that you would not be straight today?

I don't see what there is to be outraged about, unless you just can't deal with people that aren't exactly like you being depicted on TV. In which case, I don't know what to say to you.

[2Wycked]

LOL is that light saber symbolism for the fact she/he's got a dick? I will watch the episode where she gets a boyfriend - or girlfriend? Don't want to be transphobic

[Eirykr]

(05-29-2013 09:54 PM)Sonsowey Wrote:  

Do people think that watching a cartoon about transgendered people will make kids grow up transgendered?

No, actually I'm probably one of the more moderate viewpoints on this subject here. I have no problem with transgendered people because I trust in the science that says their brains are legitimately wired to be the gender they feel they are. If anything I really pity them, as I would a crippled person or a retarded person, for being shafted by nature.

But, I do have to wonder if these kinds of cartoons have an affect on the gender identities of normal-functioning boys. It seems like our society is making a legitimate effort to downplay masculinity and encourage femininity in males.

[Timoteo]

Quote:

"GLAAD’s Rich Ferraro, meanwhile, has called the outraged reaction “laughable.” Oh, it’s beyond laughable. We live in a country in which we make blockbuster movie franchises around a boy who becomes part arachnid and nobody blinks an eye. When I was growing up, we had the Wonder Twins. And did anybody protest whenever Zan turned into an ice unicycle? Not once. But put a male in a dress and it’s all, oooh, they’re going to indoctrinate our children."

I think it's a bit sad that she can't see the difference between a boy getting bitten by a spider and taking on certain powers (he doesn't become "part" arachnid), and a boy actually turning into a girl. Stupid bitch.

Quote:

"Think about the implications here: Conservatives would rather a boy turn into a bucket of water than be any way effeminate."

It's silly to point the finger at conservatives alone, and believe that somehow everyone that doesn't view issues from a strictly conservative prism won't take issue with this cartoon. They may not be as loud in their opposition, but won't be letting their kids watch this either.

[Gmac]

Next story, "Mommy, I wanna dress like SheZow for Halloween!"

Yeah it's a problem. The programming you watch absolutely has an affect on your views. Look at what the goddamn news has done to adults!

[Screwston]

I remember this video and guy causing a lot of controversy. Things have changed pretty quick. I hate how these people are so quick to label you if you don't view things eye to eye with them.

[EisenBarde]

They can make the show, but will anybody watch it?

[Therapsid]

The media and entertainment industry is blatantly trolling America. It's a game of one-sided brinkmanship, in which media elites in NY, LA, and DC try to see how far and how quickly they can push the boundaries of the socially acceptable.

I mean, the way homosexual and now transgendered thinly veiled propaganda has been rolled out in the last decade shows that the big media corporations have an agenda beyond mere profits. They're playing us all for fools and laughing at us at their private parties.

[Lights]

flashback to when i was seven eating fishsticks on my great-grandmothers recliner this show would most def be on my agenda.

[R Smoov]

And I thought Green Lantern was gay.

[soup]

The worst part about this isn't that tranny thing.

Pandering is lame whether or not you are a feminist or a redpill.

[WanderingSoul]

(05-29-2013 10:13 PM)Gmac Wrote:  

Next story, "Mommy, I wanna dress like SheZow for Halloween!"

Yeah it's a problem. The programming you watch absolutely has an affect on your views. Look at what the goddamn news has done to adults!

My thoughts exactly.

No, I don't think this show will turn boys into transgendered. However, little kids emulate what they see. They will watch this, and think "Oh, I want to be a super hero too!" and then go throw on their sisters dress.

When I was a little kid, I was a fucking Ninja. You couldn't tell me any different. All I watched was Ninja Turtles, and low budget 80's Ninja movies. I was a killer by age 6.

One time, when I was about 7, my older cousin was across the street at the park and half a dozen 4th/5th grade boys were picking on her. I started marching over there and was dead set on whooping their asses, you know, since I was a Ninja. Luckily, my mom saw and stopped me before I get the dogshit beatin out of me by these older kids.

The point is, I watched Ninjas on TV, and thought I was a Ninja so I was going to go save my cousin. Had I watched this show on TV, I would have ran into her bedroom, threw on the first pink dress I could find, and raced across the street to get my ass whooped by a bunch of older boys while I wore a pink dress.

Thank fucking god this show wasn't on TV when I was a kid.

[Screwston]

(05-30-2013 03:40 AM)RioNomad Wrote:  

(05-29-2013 10:13 PM)Gmac Wrote:  

Next story, "Mommy, I wanna dress like SheZow for Halloween!"

Yeah it's a problem. The programming you watch absolutely has an affect on your views. Look at what the goddamn news has done to adults!

My thoughts exactly.

No, I don't think this show will turn boys into transgendered. However, little kids emulate what they see. They will watch this, and think "Oh, I want to be a super hero too!" and then go throw on their sisters dress.

When I was a little kid, I was a fucking Ninja. You couldn't tell me any different. All I watched was Ninja Turtles, and low budget 80's Ninja movies. I was a killer by age 6.

One time, when I was about 7, my older cousin was across the street at the park and half a dozen 4th/5th grade boys were picking on her. I started marching over there and was dead set on whooping their asses, you know, since I was a Ninja. Luckily, my mom saw and stopped me before I get the dogshit beatin out of me by these older kids.

The point is, I watched Ninjas on TV, and thought I was a Ninja so I was going to go save my cousin. Had I watched this show on TV, I would have ran into her bedroom, threw on the first pink dress I could find, and raced across the street to get my ass whooped by a bunch of older boys while I wore a pink dress.

Thank fucking god this show wasn't on TV when I was a kid.

You're obviously a closed minded, homophobic, trannyphobic, conservative bigot.

[Ziltoid]

The boys of this generation aren't faggoty enough as is?

[scorpion]

(05-29-2013 09:54 PM)Sonsowey Wrote:  

Do people think that watching a cartoon about transgendered people will make kids grow up transgendered?

Do you believe that if your upbringing featured more non-heteronormative influences, that you would not be straight today?

I don't see what there is to be outraged about, unless you just can't deal with people that aren't exactly like you being depicted on TV. In which case, I don't know what to say to you.

So you don't care about the gradual destruction and absolute mockery of your traditional culture?

For countless generations, boys were taught to look up to men. Girls were taught to look up to women. Now we tell kids that you can be both a boy and girl at the same time.

This degrades both the masculine and the feminine, and both terms gradually lose their meaning as men become more feminine and women become more masculine.

The thing is that YOU, as an adult, may find something like this totally innocuous, but children are much more sensitive to cultural influences. There is a reason for this - the childhood years are when children learn the language and the cultural rules and norms that allow them to function in society. They are much more vulnerable to outside influences which can shape their development than adults are.

So yes, I absolutely believe that watching cartoons like this will make more kids grow up to be transgendered. Not because they actually are transgendered, but simply because they might just be a weird or awkward kid going through a phase and latch on to this as some kind of comforting identity. Shows like this are an attempt to normalize something that is completely abnormal, and when children think something is normal or desirable in society they will emulate it.

[Blaster]

What I see doesn't seem to be remotely about transgender issues. Note that gender-switching fantasies are common and have nothing to do with any real desire to change gender or even think about the issue of people who do. It seems to me there are several more important angles. I would need more time to think and research this but:

Foremost is the classic idea that super powers correspond with weaknesses, aka Power At A Price. Cyclops eye weapon can't be controlled without technology. Rogue can't touch people. Iron Man has a synthetic heart and is basically operating a machine. It seems the basic appeal of this show is that the "price" for the power is that you have to become a girl to use it. Which means a boy gets to experience the world through the eyes of a girl while he's in superhero mode. That's the high concept. This show could have been made decades ago and no one would be flipping out about how it's promoting transgenderism or anything like that. It would have garnered plenty of criticism sure, but cross-dressing in entertainment has been going on for hundreds of years.

Cynically, this means not only does the show have an appealing hook, but it'll attract both boys and girls because the main character is a boy but the superhero appears as a girl. Both genders watching means more viewers and ultimately cash money for the producers.

The problem of course is that appearing to be a girl is actually not much of a weakness at all if the character retains his original personality and has super-human powers. It seems the only thing he has to overcome is his own discomfort about appearing as a girl or coping with how people treat him.

I expect that if I were to have a problem with the show, it'll be if they play up unrealistic discrimination against Shezow for being female.

[Blaster]

(05-30-2013 08:08 PM)houston Wrote:  

(05-30-2013 03:40 AM)RioNomad Wrote:  

(05-29-2013 10:13 PM)Gmac Wrote:  

Next story, "Mommy, I wanna dress like SheZow for Halloween!"

Yeah it's a problem. The programming you watch absolutely has an affect on your views. Look at what the goddamn news has done to adults!

My thoughts exactly.
[...]

Thank fucking god this show wasn't on TV when I was a kid.

You're obviously a closed minded, homophobic, trannyphobic, conservative bigot.

Actually I think you guys aren't giving enough credit to young boys. There's an internet full of ninjas if they want it.

scorpion Wrote:

This degrades both the masculine and the feminine, and both terms gradually lose their meaning as men become more feminine and women become more masculine.

The thing is, in order for the concept like this to work there has to be some tacit assumptions about gender differences. If a boy turning into a girl did not mean anything, then there would be no point to the show. There almost have to be some presumptions about masculinity and femininity, the question is: what are those presumptions? How do they play out? I would have to see more of the show than just the few trailers I've seen to really judge.

[Eirykr]

(05-30-2013 09:08 PM)Blaster Wrote:  

The thing is, in order for the concept like this to work there has to be some tacit assumptions about gender differences. If a boy turning into a girl did not mean anything, then there would be no point to the show. There almost have to be some presumptions about masculinity and femininity, the question is: what are those presumptions? How do they play out? I would have to see more of the show than just the few trailers I've seen to really judge.

I was thinking about this more as I reflected on the show's opener above. Aside from the pink in everything and the lipstick lightsaber there is also the explicitly outlined powers: a super slap and a super scream. I can easily see feminists saying this is a sexist portrayal exploiting harmful female stereotypes.

[Jazzman92]

if it was a girl who wore a ring to become a male superhero there would be so much outrage from feminists across the world. "why does she have to become a man to be powerful" etc. but a feminized male is totally acceptable and a "step in the right direction"

90's and early 2000's was a good time to grow up as a male. Dragonball Z>>>>>>>>Shezow

[greensteelhead]

Gayest damn thing I have ever seen. God help us. 75% of this show is going to be about how awkward this asshat superhero girl is while dodging the advances of best friend (who is a guy and wants to shag the superhero) and running from the actual girlfriend while in superhero stage.

It is all about showing gayness as being normal and cool. We have mainstreamed it on almost every freaking show on network tv these days, so why not roll it out to the kiddies? We must get complete acceptance, tolerance and compliance.

BTW, the best cartoons: GI Joe, Robotech, Original Transformers, Original Looney Tunes. Of course I wanted to be a super soldier or be a robot that kicked everyone's ass. Who wouldn't want to be one?

[Lights]

when i was like six i put on my moms mascara and was mortified I just saw my mom putting makeup all the time and was like i wanna try it. when i saw what it did to my eyelashes i freaked out but if i was watching this show it would not have been a big deal. i prob would have dressed in full drag regalia and pretended to be a shitty ass superhero

[Lemmo]

(05-29-2013 09:54 PM)Sonsowey Wrote:  

Do people think that watching a cartoon about transgendered people will make kids grow up transgendered?

Do you believe that if your upbringing featured more non-heteronormative influences, that you would not be straight today?

I don't see what there is to be outraged about, unless you just can't deal with people that aren't exactly like you being depicted on TV. In which case, I don't know what to say to you.

Ridiculous opinion. The issue is that children's entertainment is being used to pursue adult sexual agendas and have conversations about fringe sexual identities, not that it is going to change sex identities.

[Sonsowey]

(05-30-2013 11:36 PM)Lemmo Wrote:  

(05-29-2013 09:54 PM)Sonsowey Wrote:  

Do people think that watching a cartoon about transgendered people will make kids grow up transgendered?

Do you believe that if your upbringing featured more non-heteronormative influences, that you would not be straight today?

I don't see what there is to be outraged about, unless you just can't deal with people that aren't exactly like you being depicted on TV. In which case, I don't know what to say to you.

Ridiculous opinion. The issue is that children's entertainment is being used to pursue adult sexual agendas and have conversations about fringe sexual identities, not that it is going to change sex identities.

Read the above posts. It seems that many people do indeed think that this show will make more kids turn transgendered.

(05-30-2013 11:31 PM)Lights Wrote:  

but if i was watching this show it would not have been a big deal. i prob would have dressed in full drag regalia

(05-30-2013 08:53 PM)scorpion Wrote:  

So yes, I absolutely believe that watching cartoons like this will make more kids grow up to be transgendered.

[Sonsowey]

Besides the fact that, yes, many people do think that this will turn kids away from being straight...

The point is that any kids show is already discussing adult issues. It usually goes over the kids' heads, just like most things do, but they absorb the message subliminally.

Watch any kid's cartoons. There are jokes and inuendos written by the adult writers that kids will have absolutely no idea what they mean. Cartoons are sexualized.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2yJ-VaMDYs