A random thing

[jethrien]

Why is it that on all the kids' shows ARR likes, Smurfette is always the flyer?

Paw Patrol - Skye is the helicopter pilot.
PJ Masks - Owlette had the glider and one of her superpowers is flight.
RescueBots - I guess technically the bots are genderless, but they use male pronouns. All the bots are male, but they have corresponding human partners. Blades the helicopter's pilot? The only girl of the lot.

I mean, flying is badass. Not gonna complain. But why is it always the girl? 

Comments

[mithrigil.livejournal.com]

Because flight gives the excuse to perpetuate the chauvinist bullshit that

1) girls should be at a distance from the fighting (i.e. archers or rangers instead of melee fighters) and

2) girls in their own right can't be superheroes in their own bodies, they require superhuman augmentation that sets them visibly apart from normal girls.

It puts little boys at ease, because they don't see normal girls competing for their superhero fantasies.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

In general, I'd say yes. But in practice, it's not actually playing out like that. Maybe some in Paw Patrol.

But in PJ Masks, Owlette is definitely doing as much hand to hand combat as the boys - the fact that the female villain is also a flyer and the other two villains have a tendency to jump on tall things or ride around in giant robots often means she's the one who actually has the best capability to close to hand-to-hand. And the Owl Wings seems close enough to Catboy's speed and leaping and Gecko's muscles/stickiness/color shifting. They're also getting visible augmentation. (And they get useless tails, while her cape actually does something.)

I can't remember the girl pilot's name because I can't remember literally any of the humans' names, but she's also about as active a character as the boys. The engineer guy certainly isn't moving any dirt without his bulldozer to help. Since most of the point is the robots, most of the humans are pretty useless.

The gender ratios bother me, obviously. And I don't like how often they sideline Skye. But the actual character interactions in the other shows aren't too bad.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I'm currently watching season 2 of seaQuest, and smurfette's the pilot.

Amongst season 2's many problems, it's waaaaay more sexist than season 1. Season 2 does a lot more character stuff and shows everyone hanging out on shore leave all the time, but it's always the men. It's always a group of guys hanging out, usually trying to pick up girls. The two female characters are only ever shown on shore leave if they're on a date.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Ugghh.