The Power of Character
Let's talk about character role models, gender, slash, cosplay... and talking vegetables.
I know these topics seem random, but hopefully I'll be able to convince you that they're not. However, to explain what I've been thinking the last two days, I'll be using personal examples that some of you may not be able to directly relate to. For many of the examples I give, I'm sure you'll be able to substitute them with your own experiences.
Thursday night I was doodling Taichi (the main character of Digimon), thinking about how similar his hair is to Sora's (of Kingdom Hearts) who I'd also been doodling earlier that night as I'm currently on a combo kick for the two series. Then I got to thinking about how the two boys have a lot more in common than their hair, and I snickered over the fact that I seem to be rather predictable in the character types I go for.
But then I realized it was more than that. Not only do I go for similar character types, I seem to go for those character types at certain times, and different character types at other times. But most interestingly, I realized... almost all of my favorite characters are boys. "Why?" I wondered. It didn't take very long for me to come up with an answer, as I've thought about this before... though never with the insightful result I stumbled upon last night.
Now I'd like to take a step forward. I'll go back to my personal experience with characters in a minute, but first I'd like to jump right into the thoughts that came from the idea of 'boy characters' and what they mean to me, as a girl.
People, when referring to media and the development of series (more specifically for children or adolescents) like to tote the idea of 'role models'. Organizations will stress the importance of character advocates or role models for certain groups of people. And of course the biggest 'groups' of people thought to need advocacy (possibly excluding race) are the two genders- male and female. We've all heard people talk about the need for 'strong/ good [gender] role models'. In fact, I'm sure we have all at one point or another been a part of similar conversations. I've had my own (slightly looked down upon) views on this subject for some time, but until now have not found the right words to accurately express my feelings on the matter.
I believe that children (and people in general) will seek the 'gender' role they are missing from their life.
What I mean is, a girl is not guaranteed to seek a female role model... just like a boy is not guaranteed to seek a male role model. But this is not a truth that people seem to accept. I always hear people flapping off at the mouth about how girls/ women (or [insert group here]) are severely under-represented in media... which is true, but I don't believe the reasons or ways people seek to remedy this problem are correct.
Let's take a step back to me for a minute. What made me start thinking in this train of thought is the fact that I have always, from the very first character I can ever remember being attached to, sought male 'role models'. The first 'favorite' character I can remember having is Number Johnny 5 the robot from the film Short Circuit, which I have watched obsessively since the age of two. To this day, Johnny 5 remains a personal hero of sorts... but that is not my point. Character after character, from Johnny 5 to Big Bird to Thomas the Tank Engine to Woody the Cowboy doll to Invader Zim to Yuugi, Sora and so many others... it has always been boys in media that I have grown so incredibly attached to. Sure, I've loved girl characters! I could name a ton that I love to death, but not in the same way that I love the boys. I don't mean to say I have fictional crushes on all of my favorite boy characters either (though I have had crushes on quite a few). I mean to say that the boys are just closer to my heart, for some reason I couldn't really pin down before this week.
I said that people seek the gender role they are missing from their life.
My parents divorced when I was four, and I have never felt particularly close to my Father, because my Mother was granted custody. In fact, my Dad scared the pants off me for a number of years and I resented visiting him for the fact that I never felt like his kid, rather just a being he used as aid for his farmhouse chores. I have a younger brother who I have always been at odds with, and have acquired a mass of step brothers over the years and even a younger half brother... but because of my family structure and the random string of events called 'my life', I've just never been very close to the male members of my family. (Funny, because they outnumber the female members of my family almost by seventy percent.)
I think because of this, I have always felt very distanced from boys (physically and emotionally) and so, despite being a bit of a tomboy, I have always had predominantly female friends. In fact, I've never had a close male friend save for my dearly beloved Diego, but something to note about Diego's role in my life is that it has been a mostly online relationship. I can count the amount of times I've seen him in person, not to say our relationship is made less meaningful because of this but just to point out that the physical aspect of a relationship with a boy is still basically missing from my life, and always has been. At least I can say my relationship with Diego is purely platonic (which I think is important to have before trying to develop romance with the opposite sex), as he is gay, but that's another topic I could easily rant on for another few thousand words.
What I'm trying to make clear is that males have always been missing from my life. Sure they've been around, but they've never been close. I've never had personal relationships with them. I've never been able to be 'one of the guys' and run around playing in the dirt or fool around like young boys do. The 'boy' world has always been a peculiar mystery to me. Even as an older sister to four younger siblings, I was always treated as The Girl because I was the only one, and my family decided to treat me special for that reason. My step Mom specifically always wanted to do the 'Girl' things with me, because it gave her a break from raising so many rambunctious boys. My grandparents did the same, insisting on throwing me tea parties when honestly, I just wanted to play Dinosaurs in the sandbox. But even then, my brothers always wanted me to play a motherly role and I ended up as the nesting Long Neck while Jesse (my younger 'full blood' brother, older than the step and half brothers Jordan and Jonathan I grew up playing with) got to be the Big Tooth or Velociraptor.
My escape was in cartoons.
Cartoons gave me boy characters, and put them in situations I could admire and relate to. Cartoons allowed me to see things from a boy's perspective, and when a boy hero went through a mass of trials that I was emotionally invested in, I felt close to that boy hero.
The girl heroes? Pah, they were scarce, but even when I saw them I didn't really care. I was a girl, I knew girls, I couldn't really care less about 'Life from a girl's perspective!' Honestly, the only cartoon with a female hero I can remember being very attached to is As Told By Ginger, which came into my life during puberty and obviously provided valuable female insight that I was definitely interested in (Lizzie McGuire is worth mentioning too). But still, I couldn't get enough of the boy characters... because they were different, and exciting, and they did crazy boy things that I never felt like I could do because I was The Girl. And it is a good point to make here that perhaps if there were more girl heroes doing the same things that boys do in media, I may not have needed the boys as much. But honestly, I don't think that's much of a point. While we do need more girls in media, it's not that we necessarily need them for girls and it's not a bad thing that I grew attached to so many boys.
My point is that we all look for mirrors (characters that emulate things we can specifically relate to and understand), but as curious and imaginative creatures we also look for our opposites to try and and understand the world from different perspectives. I have always been more of an opposites-seeking gal.
But everyone is different. There are girls out there who lack mothers, or sisters, or other females in their lives. There are boys out there who are looking to understand the feminine world. And for them, we need more female characters.
But we don't just need 'more female characters'. We need an equal balance of of boys and girls that are just good characters. Because the gender of the characters I grew attached to is just as notable as their personalties.
Returning to the boys I began this entry with... Taichi and Sora. These two boy characters are eternally courageous optimists that are nothing if not honest, with boundless energy and love for their comrades. It was never that I was simply lacking male roles in my life, it was always that I was lacking affection and love in my life. Yuugi is another prominent male character that harbors many if not all of the same traits as Tai and Sora, and he was my first fictional crush in a time that I had no friends or self worth. Those of you who are familiar with the series can probably see why that is significant. I crushed even harder on Sora, and I think the reason for that stems from the fact that I eventually realized I related more to Yuugi as a personal reflection, rather than an opposite I admired. I have traits in common with Sora but he is less of a personal totem, if that makes sense. Anyway... what I loved about these boys is that they never gave up, and could always rely on their friends to help them through life's challenges. I wanted to be like these heroic boys... and subconsciously I knew that if I could emulate those traits, I would find great friends just like Sora, Yuugi, and the Digimon boys.
The focus in media to adequately represent the genders (or other groups) should not be put on creating 'boy characters for boys' or 'girl characters for girls' or 'Chinese characters for Chinese people'. It is also important not to create characters intended to be 'good role models'. There is no such thing as a singularly 'good' role model. A good role model is determined by every different person's situation, and what I mean by that is even a 'villain' can be a good role model. Children will find their own role models, because contrary to popular belief children are not stupid, or mindless, and their curiosity and desire for pure, untainted understanding of the world will lead them to the 'right' models for their circumstances, provided good characters exist. And by good characters, I mean good characters in general. Not 'good Black characters', not 'good female characters', not even 'good gay characters'. The stereotype never leads to a good character and if people try to ensure that a stereotype makes it into every series just to appeal to that target audience, we will only end up with a mass of hallow, spiritless characters that clog up the media with shallowness and misunderstanding.
People seem to live in this fear that children or people ('disturbed individuals') will gravitate to 'bad' characters and villains, and so many people in charge of media aim to censor characters deemed to have 'wrong' motivations.
Let me bring up a little alien named Invader Zim.
He's a villain of sorts. He hates humans and he's on Earth to destroy it.
Hmm. Do we really want our kids watching this guy's angry rants about the disgusting 'pig smellies' and various plans on how to smite them with the awesome power of his iron fist?
Frankly... yes, we do.
Invader Zim was a radical cartoon because although it was heavily censored in many aspects (created by a guy whose other works include Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and I Feel Sick)... it was also obnoxiously belligerent and appealed to kids who before Zim, had been watching a lot of fluffy Disney cartoons. As you all know I am very pro-Disney, but to appreciate what Disney does for the world we must also appreciate what 'darker' media does for the world. Kids especially need to be able to explore the darker nature of life, because as the old saying goes, there is no light without dark... and to overcome our darker urges, we must first understand them. Without giving a child space in which to healthily explore negative feelings and desires, they will never learn how to overcome those desires in order to focus on the positive. There are a lot of kids out there who need to see characters who push and bully, not so that they can learn to do the same, but so that they can try to understand the similar motivations of those characters. It is not enough to hand a kid a show spouting moral values if the child does not first learn why the moral values are important. If they see that negative characters are treated negatively in return, they will begin to understand why the positive characters are rewarded.
Invader Zim appealed to me as a frustrated Christian girl who felt trapped by censorship and sheltering. My parents were the kind of Christians that never let me read the books I wanted or watch the shows I liked. My step Mother even banned me from watching the most positive cartoon I can think of- Spongebob Squarepants- for arbitrary 'Church' reasons. What many Christian parents do not understand is that they cannot manufacture faith for their children. They cannot shove a Bible in a child's face and expect that the child inherently understand why the Bible's values are considered 'good'. Ironically, the Bible itself speaks against censorship but that, again, is a rant for another day. What Christian (and other religious) parents refuse to acknowledge is that human beings have both dark and light natures, and life is not balanced for individuals who are deprived of one of those aspects. Children need to be allowed to make mistakes and 'wrong choices' for themselves so that they can make better decisions in the future.
Invader Zim is a very negative character. He's angry, he's loud, he's hateful, he's rude, and he doesn't care what people think of him. He's a failure in every way and yet he trudges on because he believes in himself, and although it seems twisted and loopy, Invader Zim inspired me. Sure, he inspired me to be a right little jerk. But bad as it sounds, in 7th grade I needed to be a jerk. I needed to be loud and angry because I had never been allowed to be either of those things before in my life. Zim allowed me to explore the negative whilst also inspiring me to do positive things. Because of Zim, I further pursued cartooning. Because of Zim, I shed a fear of people disliking my personal appearance. Because of Zim, I strengthened a bond with a friend who has stuck by me ever since. One of Zim's greatest character strengths is that he didn't listen to any of the insults people pelted at him, and he still aimed to accomplish his wildly ambitious goal of destroying Earth despite being the shortest and possibly most hated Irken of his race. Honestly, Zim is amazing.
My family didn't think so, and they tried to stem my exposure to his 'negative' influence on my life, but thankfully my best buddy Squeedge had a pretty chill Mom who let us 'Zim it up' on the weekends. And what could my parents do to stop me from drawing Zim and acting out Zim and thinking about Zim at school?
The more parents try to censor their children, the more their children will seek negativity in an attempt to understand what they have been deprived of learning naturally.
My generation's parents grew up watching cartoons that shot each other, drank booze and smoked their brains out... and yes, many of said parents did the same things themselves, but very doubtfully because of the cartoons... and obviously they turned out 'fine' enough to try and keep their children from seeing the same 'negative' things in media, which is completely ridiculous. These parents turned out 'fine' because they experienced both the good and the bad, and depriving the child of one in favor of the other is horrible whether you are depriving the child of the positive OR the negative.
I do believe there is value in censorship. I don't think we should hand porn and M-rated video games over to our children to 'explore' motivations to rape and murder. No, of course not. But I also believe in the value of cartoons like Invader Zim, that are by no means perfect or recommended media for children... but are at least relatively safe cartoons for children to explore themselves in. I believe censorship should be kept to a very careful minimum, because children are resilient and even if they experience horrible tragedy, they are able to bounce back in ways adults have lost the ability to do the same.
But I've gone on a bit of a tangent now.
The point is, it is impossible to predict which characters will speak to whom, because not all girls grew up desiring a feminine lifestyle, not all boys grew up wanting to play Baseball, and not all black children want to be the next Beyonce'. People are characters, they are not stereotypes... and although the nature of media and cartoons is to create 'characatures' or simplified versions of complicated characters, it is still important to treat those characatures as natural evolutions of real humans, whose lives are not defined by simple terms like 'girl' or 'boy' or 'works in an office'. Media should not focus on creating boys or girls, men or women, and rather on creating realistic, interesting characters that sometimes happen to be boys and sometimes happen to be girls. And the gender is important; it just isn't the most important. It as important to a character's profile as the fact that they are blond or that they have a birthmark on their left butt cheek. We are all born with different circumstances, and gender is just one of those many circumstances. It should not be made to be of such importance.
Now, I have more to say in this thought bubble, but because this entry has become quite long I'll save the other topics for a 'Part II' that I'll begin writing immediately. So get up, take a break, check your inbox... go to sleep or don't, and come back if you want to read what I have to say about how gender exploration applies to slash and how character role models translate to cosplay, and how much I'd like for some of you to read the book Me, Myself, & Bob.
In conclusion for the moment, I absolutely adore interesting characters in a way I cannot adequately express with words, because that is like asking that someone understand how much you care for them simply by hearing the words "I love you." Words are not enough; it is so much deeper than that. Despite cartoon and written characters being fictional, in many ways some of them have become more real to me than humans, because I have grown attached to them in ways I have not always grown attached to 'real' people. No, cartoons cannot love me back. But they can inspire me to seek true comfort from people I may never have approached were it not for the fact that certain characters, who are unlike me in so many ways, let me see life through their perspective and learn how fun it can be to see how another experiences the world; encouraging me to expand my horizons and open up to those who are 'different' than me.
(EDIT) Alright I lied. It's 2 AM and I'm tired so I'm going to postpone my thoughts for Part II until tomorrow, and possibly late tomorrow as I have to get cracking on chores and homework... but rest assured these thoughts are not finished and I have a lot more to say! Expect a follow up by the end of the weekend (if all goes well).
I know these topics seem random, but hopefully I'll be able to convince you that they're not. However, to explain what I've been thinking the last two days, I'll be using personal examples that some of you may not be able to directly relate to. For many of the examples I give, I'm sure you'll be able to substitute them with your own experiences.
Thursday night I was doodling Taichi (the main character of Digimon), thinking about how similar his hair is to Sora's (of Kingdom Hearts) who I'd also been doodling earlier that night as I'm currently on a combo kick for the two series. Then I got to thinking about how the two boys have a lot more in common than their hair, and I snickered over the fact that I seem to be rather predictable in the character types I go for.
But then I realized it was more than that. Not only do I go for similar character types, I seem to go for those character types at certain times, and different character types at other times. But most interestingly, I realized... almost all of my favorite characters are boys. "Why?" I wondered. It didn't take very long for me to come up with an answer, as I've thought about this before... though never with the insightful result I stumbled upon last night.
Now I'd like to take a step forward. I'll go back to my personal experience with characters in a minute, but first I'd like to jump right into the thoughts that came from the idea of 'boy characters' and what they mean to me, as a girl.
People, when referring to media and the development of series (more specifically for children or adolescents) like to tote the idea of 'role models'. Organizations will stress the importance of character advocates or role models for certain groups of people. And of course the biggest 'groups' of people thought to need advocacy (possibly excluding race) are the two genders- male and female. We've all heard people talk about the need for 'strong/ good [gender] role models'. In fact, I'm sure we have all at one point or another been a part of similar conversations. I've had my own (slightly looked down upon) views on this subject for some time, but until now have not found the right words to accurately express my feelings on the matter.
I believe that children (and people in general) will seek the 'gender' role they are missing from their life.
What I mean is, a girl is not guaranteed to seek a female role model... just like a boy is not guaranteed to seek a male role model. But this is not a truth that people seem to accept. I always hear people flapping off at the mouth about how girls/ women (or [insert group here]) are severely under-represented in media... which is true, but I don't believe the reasons or ways people seek to remedy this problem are correct.
Let's take a step back to me for a minute. What made me start thinking in this train of thought is the fact that I have always, from the very first character I can ever remember being attached to, sought male 'role models'. The first 'favorite' character I can remember having is Number Johnny 5 the robot from the film Short Circuit, which I have watched obsessively since the age of two. To this day, Johnny 5 remains a personal hero of sorts... but that is not my point. Character after character, from Johnny 5 to Big Bird to Thomas the Tank Engine to Woody the Cowboy doll to Invader Zim to Yuugi, Sora and so many others... it has always been boys in media that I have grown so incredibly attached to. Sure, I've loved girl characters! I could name a ton that I love to death, but not in the same way that I love the boys. I don't mean to say I have fictional crushes on all of my favorite boy characters either (though I have had crushes on quite a few). I mean to say that the boys are just closer to my heart, for some reason I couldn't really pin down before this week.
I said that people seek the gender role they are missing from their life.
My parents divorced when I was four, and I have never felt particularly close to my Father, because my Mother was granted custody. In fact, my Dad scared the pants off me for a number of years and I resented visiting him for the fact that I never felt like his kid, rather just a being he used as aid for his farmhouse chores. I have a younger brother who I have always been at odds with, and have acquired a mass of step brothers over the years and even a younger half brother... but because of my family structure and the random string of events called 'my life', I've just never been very close to the male members of my family. (Funny, because they outnumber the female members of my family almost by seventy percent.)
I think because of this, I have always felt very distanced from boys (physically and emotionally) and so, despite being a bit of a tomboy, I have always had predominantly female friends. In fact, I've never had a close male friend save for my dearly beloved Diego, but something to note about Diego's role in my life is that it has been a mostly online relationship. I can count the amount of times I've seen him in person, not to say our relationship is made less meaningful because of this but just to point out that the physical aspect of a relationship with a boy is still basically missing from my life, and always has been. At least I can say my relationship with Diego is purely platonic (which I think is important to have before trying to develop romance with the opposite sex), as he is gay, but that's another topic I could easily rant on for another few thousand words.
What I'm trying to make clear is that males have always been missing from my life. Sure they've been around, but they've never been close. I've never had personal relationships with them. I've never been able to be 'one of the guys' and run around playing in the dirt or fool around like young boys do. The 'boy' world has always been a peculiar mystery to me. Even as an older sister to four younger siblings, I was always treated as The Girl because I was the only one, and my family decided to treat me special for that reason. My step Mom specifically always wanted to do the 'Girl' things with me, because it gave her a break from raising so many rambunctious boys. My grandparents did the same, insisting on throwing me tea parties when honestly, I just wanted to play Dinosaurs in the sandbox. But even then, my brothers always wanted me to play a motherly role and I ended up as the nesting Long Neck while Jesse (my younger 'full blood' brother, older than the step and half brothers Jordan and Jonathan I grew up playing with) got to be the Big Tooth or Velociraptor.
My escape was in cartoons.
Cartoons gave me boy characters, and put them in situations I could admire and relate to. Cartoons allowed me to see things from a boy's perspective, and when a boy hero went through a mass of trials that I was emotionally invested in, I felt close to that boy hero.
The girl heroes? Pah, they were scarce, but even when I saw them I didn't really care. I was a girl, I knew girls, I couldn't really care less about 'Life from a girl's perspective!' Honestly, the only cartoon with a female hero I can remember being very attached to is As Told By Ginger, which came into my life during puberty and obviously provided valuable female insight that I was definitely interested in (Lizzie McGuire is worth mentioning too). But still, I couldn't get enough of the boy characters... because they were different, and exciting, and they did crazy boy things that I never felt like I could do because I was The Girl. And it is a good point to make here that perhaps if there were more girl heroes doing the same things that boys do in media, I may not have needed the boys as much. But honestly, I don't think that's much of a point. While we do need more girls in media, it's not that we necessarily need them for girls and it's not a bad thing that I grew attached to so many boys.
My point is that we all look for mirrors (characters that emulate things we can specifically relate to and understand), but as curious and imaginative creatures we also look for our opposites to try and and understand the world from different perspectives. I have always been more of an opposites-seeking gal.
But everyone is different. There are girls out there who lack mothers, or sisters, or other females in their lives. There are boys out there who are looking to understand the feminine world. And for them, we need more female characters.
But we don't just need 'more female characters'. We need an equal balance of of boys and girls that are just good characters. Because the gender of the characters I grew attached to is just as notable as their personalties.
Returning to the boys I began this entry with... Taichi and Sora. These two boy characters are eternally courageous optimists that are nothing if not honest, with boundless energy and love for their comrades. It was never that I was simply lacking male roles in my life, it was always that I was lacking affection and love in my life. Yuugi is another prominent male character that harbors many if not all of the same traits as Tai and Sora, and he was my first fictional crush in a time that I had no friends or self worth. Those of you who are familiar with the series can probably see why that is significant. I crushed even harder on Sora, and I think the reason for that stems from the fact that I eventually realized I related more to Yuugi as a personal reflection, rather than an opposite I admired. I have traits in common with Sora but he is less of a personal totem, if that makes sense. Anyway... what I loved about these boys is that they never gave up, and could always rely on their friends to help them through life's challenges. I wanted to be like these heroic boys... and subconsciously I knew that if I could emulate those traits, I would find great friends just like Sora, Yuugi, and the Digimon boys.
The focus in media to adequately represent the genders (or other groups) should not be put on creating 'boy characters for boys' or 'girl characters for girls' or 'Chinese characters for Chinese people'. It is also important not to create characters intended to be 'good role models'. There is no such thing as a singularly 'good' role model. A good role model is determined by every different person's situation, and what I mean by that is even a 'villain' can be a good role model. Children will find their own role models, because contrary to popular belief children are not stupid, or mindless, and their curiosity and desire for pure, untainted understanding of the world will lead them to the 'right' models for their circumstances, provided good characters exist. And by good characters, I mean good characters in general. Not 'good Black characters', not 'good female characters', not even 'good gay characters'. The stereotype never leads to a good character and if people try to ensure that a stereotype makes it into every series just to appeal to that target audience, we will only end up with a mass of hallow, spiritless characters that clog up the media with shallowness and misunderstanding.
People seem to live in this fear that children or people ('disturbed individuals') will gravitate to 'bad' characters and villains, and so many people in charge of media aim to censor characters deemed to have 'wrong' motivations.
Let me bring up a little alien named Invader Zim.
He's a villain of sorts. He hates humans and he's on Earth to destroy it.
Hmm. Do we really want our kids watching this guy's angry rants about the disgusting 'pig smellies' and various plans on how to smite them with the awesome power of his iron fist?
Frankly... yes, we do.
Invader Zim was a radical cartoon because although it was heavily censored in many aspects (created by a guy whose other works include Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and I Feel Sick)... it was also obnoxiously belligerent and appealed to kids who before Zim, had been watching a lot of fluffy Disney cartoons. As you all know I am very pro-Disney, but to appreciate what Disney does for the world we must also appreciate what 'darker' media does for the world. Kids especially need to be able to explore the darker nature of life, because as the old saying goes, there is no light without dark... and to overcome our darker urges, we must first understand them. Without giving a child space in which to healthily explore negative feelings and desires, they will never learn how to overcome those desires in order to focus on the positive. There are a lot of kids out there who need to see characters who push and bully, not so that they can learn to do the same, but so that they can try to understand the similar motivations of those characters. It is not enough to hand a kid a show spouting moral values if the child does not first learn why the moral values are important. If they see that negative characters are treated negatively in return, they will begin to understand why the positive characters are rewarded.
Invader Zim appealed to me as a frustrated Christian girl who felt trapped by censorship and sheltering. My parents were the kind of Christians that never let me read the books I wanted or watch the shows I liked. My step Mother even banned me from watching the most positive cartoon I can think of- Spongebob Squarepants- for arbitrary 'Church' reasons. What many Christian parents do not understand is that they cannot manufacture faith for their children. They cannot shove a Bible in a child's face and expect that the child inherently understand why the Bible's values are considered 'good'. Ironically, the Bible itself speaks against censorship but that, again, is a rant for another day. What Christian (and other religious) parents refuse to acknowledge is that human beings have both dark and light natures, and life is not balanced for individuals who are deprived of one of those aspects. Children need to be allowed to make mistakes and 'wrong choices' for themselves so that they can make better decisions in the future.
Invader Zim is a very negative character. He's angry, he's loud, he's hateful, he's rude, and he doesn't care what people think of him. He's a failure in every way and yet he trudges on because he believes in himself, and although it seems twisted and loopy, Invader Zim inspired me. Sure, he inspired me to be a right little jerk. But bad as it sounds, in 7th grade I needed to be a jerk. I needed to be loud and angry because I had never been allowed to be either of those things before in my life. Zim allowed me to explore the negative whilst also inspiring me to do positive things. Because of Zim, I further pursued cartooning. Because of Zim, I shed a fear of people disliking my personal appearance. Because of Zim, I strengthened a bond with a friend who has stuck by me ever since. One of Zim's greatest character strengths is that he didn't listen to any of the insults people pelted at him, and he still aimed to accomplish his wildly ambitious goal of destroying Earth despite being the shortest and possibly most hated Irken of his race. Honestly, Zim is amazing.
My family didn't think so, and they tried to stem my exposure to his 'negative' influence on my life, but thankfully my best buddy Squeedge had a pretty chill Mom who let us 'Zim it up' on the weekends. And what could my parents do to stop me from drawing Zim and acting out Zim and thinking about Zim at school?
The more parents try to censor their children, the more their children will seek negativity in an attempt to understand what they have been deprived of learning naturally.
My generation's parents grew up watching cartoons that shot each other, drank booze and smoked their brains out... and yes, many of said parents did the same things themselves, but very doubtfully because of the cartoons... and obviously they turned out 'fine' enough to try and keep their children from seeing the same 'negative' things in media, which is completely ridiculous. These parents turned out 'fine' because they experienced both the good and the bad, and depriving the child of one in favor of the other is horrible whether you are depriving the child of the positive OR the negative.
I do believe there is value in censorship. I don't think we should hand porn and M-rated video games over to our children to 'explore' motivations to rape and murder. No, of course not. But I also believe in the value of cartoons like Invader Zim, that are by no means perfect or recommended media for children... but are at least relatively safe cartoons for children to explore themselves in. I believe censorship should be kept to a very careful minimum, because children are resilient and even if they experience horrible tragedy, they are able to bounce back in ways adults have lost the ability to do the same.
But I've gone on a bit of a tangent now.
The point is, it is impossible to predict which characters will speak to whom, because not all girls grew up desiring a feminine lifestyle, not all boys grew up wanting to play Baseball, and not all black children want to be the next Beyonce'. People are characters, they are not stereotypes... and although the nature of media and cartoons is to create 'characatures' or simplified versions of complicated characters, it is still important to treat those characatures as natural evolutions of real humans, whose lives are not defined by simple terms like 'girl' or 'boy' or 'works in an office'. Media should not focus on creating boys or girls, men or women, and rather on creating realistic, interesting characters that sometimes happen to be boys and sometimes happen to be girls. And the gender is important; it just isn't the most important. It as important to a character's profile as the fact that they are blond or that they have a birthmark on their left butt cheek. We are all born with different circumstances, and gender is just one of those many circumstances. It should not be made to be of such importance.
Now, I have more to say in this thought bubble, but because this entry has become quite long I'll save the other topics for a 'Part II' that I'll begin writing immediately. So get up, take a break, check your inbox... go to sleep or don't, and come back if you want to read what I have to say about how gender exploration applies to slash and how character role models translate to cosplay, and how much I'd like for some of you to read the book Me, Myself, & Bob.
In conclusion for the moment, I absolutely adore interesting characters in a way I cannot adequately express with words, because that is like asking that someone understand how much you care for them simply by hearing the words "I love you." Words are not enough; it is so much deeper than that. Despite cartoon and written characters being fictional, in many ways some of them have become more real to me than humans, because I have grown attached to them in ways I have not always grown attached to 'real' people. No, cartoons cannot love me back. But they can inspire me to seek true comfort from people I may never have approached were it not for the fact that certain characters, who are unlike me in so many ways, let me see life through their perspective and learn how fun it can be to see how another experiences the world; encouraging me to expand my horizons and open up to those who are 'different' than me.
(EDIT) Alright I lied. It's 2 AM and I'm tired so I'm going to postpone my thoughts for Part II until tomorrow, and possibly late tomorrow as I have to get cracking on chores and homework... but rest assured these thoughts are not finished and I have a lot more to say! Expect a follow up by the end of the weekend (if all goes well).