Feminists in cartoon form

By checking the BBC News site as I usually do, I found today a fun one concerning cartoons that are part of history and part of our imaginary:
“ Seventy-five years before the “Spice Girls coined the term girl power, Betty Boop struck a blow for just such a cause. Ever since, cartoons and animations have challenged our traditional perceptions of feminity.”
It is curious in fact, to realise how much cartoons reflect(ed) society’s evolution, through colours, shapes, political contents and urban little tells. Moreover, and regarding the subject exposed, women have transformed and radically imposed social habits and values.
Let’s just think one hundred years ago how blocked was the woman’s role, how dependant was she from her relatives, her father first, her husband then. Life, was a daily routine with not to much options and bringing up children, housekeeping, God and the others was part of a natural gift imposed from the very beginning. Her home was her work place as well where she had to remain, pretending the world outside was not such a big deal, and making an effort to accept that probably nobody would notice her presence.
Cartoons reproduce part of an influence that has deeply altered woman’s presence in society. For instance, make-up, short fashion hair cuts, jewellery, skirts, dresses, body care, professional options, freedom to think and act, independence to make choices…
All this happened so suddenly that we hardly imagine how diverse was being a woman and how was this feminist term started to make part of our current dialect.
So, if a century ago, women’s worries concerned her freedom and the will to break up with traditional ties, nowadays their fears are mostly the prison where they seem to find, as a consequence of the selection they have being made through years so far.
What is this prison about? It is about being a mother, professional, being elegant, beautiful, powerful, well dressed, nice, kind, efficient, sexy, sensual, intelligent and in sum…perfect!
How far has feminism changed? At the beginning, aims were different and were related to personal and social affirmation which causes so many battles, challenges and scandals as women started to claim for rights: the right to vote, to be single, to be paid, to participate in political matters.
What has changed so far? A lot have been changed in the way women have projected their image in society. Although certain things remain and still need to be adjusted as most of the women are less paid than men and still have less influence in politics. The biggest change however, is how fashion has been imposing in such a violent way, the values that (wo)men seem to care about. And that is also reflected in cartoon characters such as Betty Boop, Jessica Rabbit and most recently, Lara Croft.
What do they have in common? They are physically perfects: beautiful, athletic, independent and exotic girls.
Women’s independence became in a certain way, a serious social problem regarding family basis. Nowadays, since women have so much to do and to discover, they seemed incapable of having a family, or if they do, it seems they are always running out of time to be a woman, a mother and a friend.
So, don’t you think that is some how, there’s a need to return back in time and to recover some of the lost values we’ve buried?





Filipa