AWE.SOME. I would love if clothing catalogues came with cartoon and comic book character's body's. It would be so much easier for those of us with eyes on rotating wheels to have a real idea of what the cloths would look like on us. AMIRITE?
A million days late, but for the record I LOVED Catra and thought she was a spectacular villain. Shame she became a mere henchman when they introduced Hordak to the tv series.
She-Ra was a cornerstone of feminism when I was growing up, those of you too young to remember it were robbed, basically.
When I was a kid I loved Dazzler..she was a mutant (a la X-men) who wanted to be a singer and had the power to produce light from her finger tips. If you look at the comic book work there are a lot of female superheros. Most of the maybe too sexualized for little girls, but they are out there. If I had a little girl I would make it my mission to find comic books with strong female leads. And that includes stuff like the Power Puff girls.
She-Ra is a show I will be buying and giving to my daughters when (if) I have any. It will be a great precurser to Buffy, which they'll get when they're a little older.
I remember seeing She-Ra for the first time on a Saturday morning and I was galvanized. Something happened to me when she stuck her sword up into the air and her voice changed, I remember being totally stunned.
Looking back at it now and realizing how horrendously cheesy it was, how bad the animation was, it's fascinating to me how that just completely sailed over my infant head.
It was the sheer fact that the cartoon existed at all, that the person with the power was a girl and that I was a girl and she was fighting the bad guys on her own that got me.
Oh god. Oh god. I had a lot of She-Ra stuff as a kid. I loved it so much. What I've managed not to lose I still have somewhere at my parent's house: She-Ra, Catra, Bo, She-ra's horse, the Crystal Castle, Castaspella, Double Trouble..... I've been hit with such a yearning now for my kiddie years, I may have to start ebaying for replacements.And as I remember, when I bought out the She-Ra stuff to play with, it was all centered around castle seiges and escapes - Catra would come in to steal the treasure and enslave the castle's residents whilst She-Ra had ducked out the secret escape door and retreated in order to plan her attack to get back the castle. Man I love(d) a good escape story.
Stan Lee visited my school a few years back when he was invited by my class (American Superheroes, Film Studied 150) to come to the school and talk.
I asked him how could American comic books compete with the burgeoning popularity of japanese manga, especially with respect to female readers. He in turn replied that girls already read comic books.
1) that's not what I said
2) Clearly, clearly American comic book sales flag in comparison to their Japanese counterparts
3) missing a sizeable portion of more than half the American population is not something to scoff at either socially or financially
But, it was Stan Lee. Just, well I'll just open it up for discussion.
I met my now-boyfriend on Halloween one year; the night we met (which I don't exactly remember) I was dressed at a composite of my great grandmothers. The next night we hung out again at another costume party, and I knew he was for me when, within minutes of my arrival, he said, "So, are you supposed to be She-Ra or something?" and I was like "YES EXACTLY OH MY GOD." Even though, technically, I was dressed as "Myself, age seven, dressed as She-Ra for Halloween," having pieced together a costume from my parents' basement costume box and re-using my 15 year old costume.
(Later that night he was like "Fuck that patriarchal bullshit!" and I was like "bingo!")
@Cimorene: Keeper!
I also used to run around the house dressed as She-Ra. I would run to get my "outfit" on just in time to jump on the couch for the opening credits.
I'd add the PowerPuff Girls to the list of feminist superheroes. And they're little girls too! Age appropriate, non-sexualised, perfect superheroes for girls.
As for She-Ra, I still have my action figure, but she has two flesh coloured spots on her chest where the white paint was rubbed off. I realised in my teens that this was done by my two older male cousins whenever I would fall asleep after playing He-Man and She-ra. Boys. *eyeroll*
I loved She-Ra (add me to the list of She-Ra Halloween costumes, kindergarten circa 1985) but I loved He-Man more. Now, I want to say it was the campy cheese (or was it cheesy camp) of Prince Adam and his fabulous powers that appealed to me, but I don't think I noticed this as a pre-schooler. It could explain why my mom got a kick out of watching it with me.
10/01/09
10/01/09
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10/01/09
Who could improve on this outfit?
10/01/09
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10/01/09
AWE.SOME. I would love if clothing catalogues came with cartoon and comic book character's body's. It would be so much easier for those of us with eyes on rotating wheels to have a real idea of what the cloths would look like on us. AMIRITE?
10/01/09
08/05/09
She-Ra was a cornerstone of feminism when I was growing up, those of you too young to remember it were robbed, basically.
08/05/09
08/05/09
She was a pretty lame X-man all told.
08/05/09
08/04/09
Looking back at it now and realizing how horrendously cheesy it was, how bad the animation was, it's fascinating to me how that just completely sailed over my infant head.
It was the sheer fact that the cartoon existed at all, that the person with the power was a girl and that I was a girl and she was fighting the bad guys on her own that got me.
08/04/09
08/04/09
I asked him how could American comic books compete with the burgeoning popularity of japanese manga, especially with respect to female readers. He in turn replied that girls already read comic books.
1) that's not what I said
2) Clearly, clearly American comic book sales flag in comparison to their Japanese counterparts
3) missing a sizeable portion of more than half the American population is not something to scoff at either socially or financially
But, it was Stan Lee. Just, well I'll just open it up for discussion.
08/04/09
08/04/09
(Later that night he was like "Fuck that patriarchal bullshit!" and I was like "bingo!")
08/06/09
I also used to run around the house dressed as She-Ra. I would run to get my "outfit" on just in time to jump on the couch for the opening credits.
08/04/09
As for She-Ra, I still have my action figure, but she has two flesh coloured spots on her chest where the white paint was rubbed off. I realised in my teens that this was done by my two older male cousins whenever I would fall asleep after playing He-Man and She-ra. Boys. *eyeroll*
08/04/09