I caught a glimpse earlier of the new Dora the Explorer via one of my favorite blogs. Check it out:
Dora the Explorer
The image shows a departure from the earlier Dora, age 6-ish, to an older Dora, age 10 or so. Claims have been made by all sides that the new Dora is “too sexy”. Frankly, I don’t get it. I think the new Dora is very sensible. Yes, the new Dora is fashion-conscious. Yes, she has dropped the androgynous bowl-cut style ‘do for longer, more feminine looking hair. Some propose that this more feminine-appearing Dora will become “boy crazy” and dense, which is a very troubling idea. The fact that Dora’s femininity makes her subject to be ditzy shows, in my opinion, profoundly internalized sexism. Why should a female have to emulate typically male or androgynous characteristics to be taken seriously? Why does femininity combined with intelligence trigger defensiveness?
Thoughts on this?
Hey, it’s Alex/solvent/Alejo from the currently sunny south here.
This is definitely a really important point. I know that in the Women’s Studies department where I work and study, all of the faculty are queer women and/or genderqueer people, some of whom identify specifically as butch or femme. I’ve definitely seen situations where visiting speakers and students & faculty from other departments and campuses displayed a lot more respect for the intellectual skills of the more masculine professors than for the more feminine professors, for absolutely no valid reason. So it’s pretty clear to me that there are a lot of cultural practices and discourses that promote the devaluation of the intellectual and even the personal legitimacy of femme people.
At the same time, I think there’s also a really common discourse that says to some women/girls: “Well, you can be smart as long as that doesn’t keep you from being a real woman/girl” – ‘real’ here generally meaning feminine, het, etc. Think of all the movies with the nerd-to-princess plot line (Miss Congeniality, The Princess Diaries). The smart-but-slovenly-and-single woman/girl somehow gets a makeover – she stays smart and sassy, but now she’s a real woman/girl – and that buys her a man to love her, as well as a bunch of new friends in the form of other ‘normal’ women. I suspect a lot of people are worried that this is what might happen to Dora; that kids will be sent the message that the only acceptable way to be both a 10-year-old girl and an intelligent person is to prove that even though you’re smart, you’re still a real girl ‘underneath’ – and that it’s that gender realness that will buy you friends and love and happiness.
I definitely think that the intelligence and personal worth of women and girls is generally disparaged in a lot of ways in a lot of places; sometimes in contradictory ways. Being told that you’re stupid if you identify and/or present as feminine sucks and hurts. Being told you’re weird and that no one will like you if you don’t identify/present that way also sucks and also hurts …
Gender oppression: it’s really, really big =/