![]() If you were a girl who simply didn’t care for girl stuff and didn’t care who didn’t like it…Buttercup was not only for you, but you likely had her posters on your wall.īuttercup’s appeal also stems from her ability to give young girls a different version of femininity to muse over, one that dares to celebrate all that makes her different. If you were a rebellious girl, Buttercup was for you. If you were a girl who liked martial arts, Buttercup was for you. But something about Buttercup felt safe if you were a girl whose personality got overlooked if it didn’t have some other title like cheerleader or homecoming queen attached to it. Sure, there were plenty for us to choose from, with varying skin tones and hair types and ages. She was a heroine whose main character flaws were her temper and disinterest in conformity, but she was a breath of fresh air for so many young girls who didn’t have much to look to by way of aspiration. She knocked half of Townsville’s teeth out all in the name of coins. She dated one of the bad guys and kept it a secret. In fact, I believe her to be one of the most important cartoon characters of the 1990s because of what she represents: superior strength, a willingness to be different, and a version of femininity that so many of us fringe girls needed to see in the late 1990s and early 2000s.Įvery single one of the Powerpuff Girls was important, but Blossom and Bubbles represented safe female character types that other animated females had done before, whereas Buttercup’s characterization broke barriers. ![]() And nobody had as much fight as Buttercup. The Powerpuff Girls gave us a wealth of female characters with three main protagonists and a host of female villains for them to fight. The Tai Frasiers that balanced out the Cher Horowitzes, much in the same way Daria’s appeal comes from being so different from her mainstream, bubbly sister Quinn. But of course, there were the outlying characters. In episodes about not doing drugs, not bullying, and looking out for friends and family, “good girls” were often celebrated as girls who followed the rules, girls who were pretty but not promiscuous, girls who worked hard, were popular, talented, and well-liked. Of course, the 1990s weren’t perfect – though representation was diverse, many of the messages the shows delivered were one-dimensional with happy conclusions at the end of the half hour. Little girls during this time were also being introduced to more female protagonists with more dimension than simply being love interests or accessories to boy characters. ![]() A Tarot Reader Predicts What Each Zodiac Should Expect Before 8/7/23.4 Zodiacs Who Are Getting A Wake Up Call This Week.Historians and feminists alike will point to the 1990s as encasing the infamous Third Wave of feminism, where women began not only speaking up for their right to equitable treatment as their male counterparts but began witnessing a plethora of new versions of womanhood that were possible for them, thanks to television programming that showed women proud of their sexuality, getting educated, choosing careers, families, or both, and defining themselves by more specific terms in what would be the start of an intersectionality barrage for the next three decades. But in the comics, this Powerpuff Girls win is predicated on their own unique genetics, an odd advantage that they should be able to exploit whenever they see fit.The 1990s were big for women and girls in the United States. Buttercup obviously can't use her powers if she's not in her own body because that's where her powers originate, and it's not like Buttercup will ever end up in Professor Utonium's body again. ![]() ![]() The only thing that the scene from the TV show accomplishes is to prove that Buttercup can't do what she normally does in another person's body, and that's not really news. But because she's in the professor's body and now has hands, this no longer works, as she's now required to use the professor's fingers to pick up the phone.Īside from this one small humorous jab at his own design, Powerpuff Girls creator Craig McCracken never tackled this phenomenon in a more dynamic way that would actually affect the plot or how the girls could win battles. In one instance, Buttercup finds herself trapped in Utonium's body, and when the Powerpuff Hotline starts ringing, Buttercup tries to pick up the phone the same way she always has by just touching the receiver with the tip of her handless nub. The Powerpuff Girls TV episode Freaky Friday once tackled this discrepancy when one of Professor Utonium's experiments accidentally causes everyone in Townsville to switch bodies. Because they actually don't have any hands, Buttercup could get away with pretending that Bubbles tried to make a certain shape with her fingers when she actually didn't. Although not stated directly, Bubbles' confusion proves that she and her sisters were able to cheat. ![]()
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