Thursday, March 19, 2009

Mini Rant: Dora is a Cartoon. She Doesn't Have to be Practical

I'm still Dora, damn it!

Is it me, or is there a lot of needless pearl-clutching over the new look for Dora the Explorer? What surprises me most are the comments about Dora's outfit. Veronica at Viva la Feminista says, "Yes, they are cute, but they are not adventurous shoes." Alex Alvarez of Gunabee predicts, "Her Limited Too tunic is totally going to get caught on a fence mid-environmental rally." Both commentators make some good points about Dora's revamping, so why mention the clothes? She looks like the average 11 or 12 year old of today.

But she's also a cartoon. Why does she have to be practical? Maybe we should ask Boots, her talking blue monkey friend, what's sensible for a 12-year-old to wear while she's going on adventures in the Amazon. The whole show is a fantasy. That's the point! She's a cartoon. Are people seriously going to worry about girls learning that they can go exploring with ribbons on their tunics on a show that could be teaching our kids (keep in mind, our really dumb kids) that befriending wild animals is totally safe? Give me a break, people.

4 comments:

Jeff said...

My daughter's two favorite shows involve a) a bunch of talking animals who live in suburbia, and b) two puppets of indeterminate species who play in a rock band with a dog as their drummer, so maybe realism isn't what anyone's going for in this genre.

And since when was Dora 12? I always thought she was 5 or 6...

FEMily! said...

The new Dora is supposed to be 12, and it's targeting the first generation of Dora fans. This new Dora is only being used in a computer game. The whole cartoon isn't changing, so she'll still be 5 or 6 in the TV show.

Jeff said...

Ah, so Dora's growing up with her fans... which I guess means that in four/five years we get some sort of bizarre "Dora"-meets-"Saved by the Bell" hybrid? Hopefully with the talking monkey as Screech?

FEMily! said...

Dora explores her Medicare options!


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