By David Futrelle
So the guys who get mad about imaginary tiddies are mad about imaginary tiddies again — or, rather, the lack of them. This time they’re mad about the lack of huge gazongas in Netflix’s reboot of She Ra, the 1980’s He-Man spinoff that none of these dudes ever watched in the first place either because they weren’t born yet or because it was a show for, ick, girls.
But now that the reboot’s showrunner, Noelle Stevenson, has posted art of the new (less busty) She-Ra and her (less busty) Princesses of Power, the He-Babies have suddenly decided that Western Civilization is at stake — and that the original She-Ra’s ample cleavage must be defended at all costs.
Here are the new character designs that have caused all the commotion:
https://twitter.com/Gingerhazing/status/1018926076389556224
(You can see comparisons of the old and new characters here.)
Some critics of the He-Baby movement have suggested that these guys are angry because they won’t be able to fap to a kids’ cartoon any more. But I don’t think that’s it, at least not for most of these guys. (I imagine that most dudes with an 80’s-cartoon-lady fetish would do much better, fap-wise, with Jessica Rabbit or that one gal in the Heavy Metal movie.)
But it’s also not about the art. She-Ra, like He-Man, was pretty shitty, art-wise, with crudely drawn characters and laughably minimal animation; whatever you think of the character design, the art for the new show is a lot more sophisticated.
So what are these dudes mad about? Having read through several hundred comments on the “controversy” posted on Reddit’s KotakuInAction subreddt, it’s pretty clear that for some of them, it really is about the tiddies: the female characters in the reboot, in addition to looking a lot younger than the originals, are also notably less busty.
Some of the complainers were pretty upfront about their boob fetishes. (Click on screenshots to see the comments in context on Reddit.)
Others were slightly less direct, complaining that the female characters in the reboot all “look like men” — with some complainers throwing some open transphobia into the mix.
And there’s the rub. The He-Babies see the smaller breasts less as a problem in themselves — there are plenty of other busty female superheroes to fetishize — than as a symbol of the new showrunner’s “agenda,” which the He-Babies (and their few female allies) see as an distinctly untasty mélange of feminism, trans advocacy, and pro-fat-activism.
Some saw a more specific agenda — an attempt by the lesbian showrunner to fill a cartoon world with characters who look just like her (and that maybe she wants to fuck). Yep: while some of the He-Babies are complaining that the main characters are being desexualized, others are insinuating that they are being re-sexualized in a creepy lesbian pedophile way.
But these dark insinuators aren’t the only ones who think it’s somehow nefarious that the new characters are teenagers. In their mind, it shows that those in charge of this show for children are coming for … our children?
![TheOutsid3r- 37 points 1 day ago In a way it's a necessity for them to do so too. If you look at many of the old left, the 68 student movement, various activists and protestors. Most of them never had children themselves, many of them are outright antinatalist. So they have to recruit other peoples children, have to go into the schools and universities and try to indoctrinate them. permalinkembedunsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]md1957[S] 19 points 1 day ago I get your point. In a sense, it's their way of passing on their ideology and mindsets, creating new "children" in their image. In that way, they seem to be hoping, they could become as gods be immortal.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/cf7r8tf9y7go8po.png?resize=531%2C809&ssl=1)
For others, the real problem isn’t that the show is aimed at kids; it;s that it’s also aimed at adults, as part of an insidious plot to keep them in a perpetual state of arrested development.
One surprisingly large subset of the complainers seemed to be less bothered by the breast-reductions of the female characters than they were about the decision to transform the show’s main male character, Bow, from an overdeveloped, mustachioed white man into a black teenager.
And while I didn’t see any of the commenters on Reddit explicitly calling this “white genocide,” well, it wasn’t hard to tell that some of them sort of wished they could, and were biting their tongues only because Internet Nazis have learned that using the g-word about race-swapped cartoon characters and interracial couples in tv commercials makes them look like the hysterical racists they like to deny that they are.
For some, the fact that the original white character was a redhead made it somehow even more white-genocidey. (Never mind that showrunner Stevenson is herself a ginger.)
Yes, the person who refers to switching a character from white to black as “blacktarring” is accusing others of racism.
It’s no coincidence that the most vehement complaints about the new She-Ra can be found on KotakuInAction, the former GamerGate hub on Reddit that has kept on with its defacto GamerGating despite the original movement’s disappearance from the headlines, with its focus widening to comics and movies and TV shows as well as games.
But even by KotakuInAction standards this reaction is extreme. The standard GamerGate/KotakuInAction complaint is that eeeevil females and other so-called SJWs are invading the sacred male spaces of video games, comic books, Ghostbuster movies. (Granted, none of these spaces actually “belong” to men, but these guys have convinced themselves they do.)
But She-Ra? This was a show from the 80s aimed at girls, and watched by girls. These guys can’t even pretend it “belongs” to them. So they come up with other excuses to get mad about it. Hence the talk about female “role models” and supposedly insidious SJW/feminist/lesbian/trans agendas. Because god forbid a female superhero not be shaped like Barbie.
So why do these guys care about She-Ra’s cartoon boobs so much? Because it’s not about cartoon women; it’s about real women. As one game designer put it on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/why_wolf/status/1019453220224040960
Yep. GamerGate — and the amorphous cultural backlash that followed it — was always about reinforcing traditional gender roles and restricting the range of what is considered appropriately feminine. The girls in the She-Ra reboot are feminine; they’re just a different kind of feminine, one that doesn’t cater to the male gaze. These are characters that a lot of girls can identify with, not idealized versions of one narrow and conventional kind of femininity.
Angry He-Babies: this show is mot for you. It never was for you. Leave it the hell alone.
@Surplus to Requirements – I think the idea was that women don’t NEED to have big breasts to be role models, since one of the complainers, kingcheezit, said melodramatically, “Young girls are being stripped of more and more positive role models to aspire to.”
I must admit I saw “young girls” and “being stripped” at first and thought of something worse, which shows either that 1) I’m morbid, or 2) I don’t expect misogynists to be non-creepy. (Probably both.)
Oh yes, and about the red hair thing: what?? How are black characters replacing white red-haired characters en masse? The only other time I remember that happening was in the latest Annie movie. And why is that a bad thing, unless you’re racist?
Also, red-haired people tend to have pale skin, but not exclusively. As an example, my cousin had a friend with dark skin and auburn hair – one of her parents was white and the other black. (I haven’t seen the girl since she was a kid, so her hair might have darkened.)
As a girl who grew up in the 80s and watched a lot of both He-Man and She-Ra, I don’t really care for the new character designs for reasons that have nothing to do with breasts. Art style aside…
The thing that gets me is both shows were heavy on morality themes. I won’t go into the reasons behind this, but the end result was the heroes in the shows had a lot of positive progressive traits and ideals. They helped people who needed it. They had integrity and inner strength. They put others before themselves, protected the weak, and some of the episodes had pro-environmental plots which was not really a thing back in the 80s. A line that stuck with me is He-Man telling Skeletor that true power comes from inside, from things like honor and courage.
These entitled shits probably couldn’t put another before themselves if their lives depended on it. How is it possible to miss the point so badly?
At the risk of sounding like a gatekeeper It would not surprise me to learn that most of them never watched the show(or are too young.) *Turns to face camera* Even though all of Season one is on NETFLIX right now!
It’s been hugely entertaining watching the tantrums over the last few days, I must say. A nice distraction from the sheer awfulness everywhere else.
Speaking of nice distractions, I have two for you all:
1. If you’re not already, follow Paris Zarcilla on Twitter (or just google if you hate Twitter; the story’s been picked up a lot). Last month he found a cat under his bed who’d had kittens and he’s now become the world’s most wonderful cat dad. His regular updates truly restore one’s faith in human nature.
2. I have started taking Mei-Mei out for walks, in her lil harness. Yesterday we took an evening stroll which was hugely exciting for her. Here’s a pic 🙂
http://i63.tinypic.com/2upzqti.jpg
It happens even with newer stuff, though. Emmett from the Lego Movie is clueless, but also kind, self-sacrificing and always tries to do the right thing because it is the right thing. The sequel trailer where a line hinted his female co-star didn’t get the credit she deserved sure brought out the MRAs in the YouTube comments. They’re like the Negaverse anti-Emmett.
I very much doubt that He-Man and She-Ra would approve of these people. They would be fighting against them. As for the closet Nazis, they wouldn’t have liked the original shows either since they had episodes that specifically focused on anti-racism and held up tolerance for and cooperation with those different from you.
And that comment that mentions April O’Neill is particularly moronic considering the TMNT cartoon was guilty of some pretty egregious whitewashing. The original April had frizzy afro-style black hair. The comic was B&W so it was hard to tell if she was African American or not, but it would not surprise me at all if she was mixed race. The original Baxter Stockman was definitely a black guy.
These man-sized poop-babies are mad because a cartoon character no longer has mega-cleavage, and they think it’s being done to keep the audiences in a state of arrested development?
Dude. You’re obsessing over a cartoon you watched as a kid. GET A FUCKING GRIP.
And look up the meaning of irony, too.
It’s probably the fact that I really liked the old She-Ra cartoon when I was little, but these designs seriously don’t do it for me. It kinda reminds me of the Masters of the Universe reboot in the 2010s where suddenly Adam and Teela were teenagers and it was really awkward, because the latter was supposed to be captain of the guard. Instead of being a badass lady-fighter, it suddenly felt like her dad got her the job…
Here, She-Ra kinda looks like a generic magical girl (and yes, she looked like a generic amazon in the old show, I realize that. But you know… why switch one generic for the other) and I especially dislike the new Panthra.
So yes, I have some criticism and that will now be used to bolster the shit that the asshole brigade lob. So much for discourse… I feel sad.
@Freemage: Less lines and detail means more animation.
Watch any of the old Filmation cartoons, you’ll see the same stock run cycle traced over again and again. Reused animation constantly, limited action sequences. The simpler line art is what allows modern cartoons to have the kind of action scenes you see in Avatar and Voltron.
@Passagère clandestine: Wow, Michelangelo’s eve is shredded! I’m a little jealous, not gonna lie.
Something I found while googling said women:
It’s called manual labour you ignorant dipshit. I don’t even want to listen to the accompanying podcast that I just KNOW will be full of mansplaining biotruphushths and presentism (something historians lament about yet have a surprising blindspot for when it comes to reinforcing heteronormativity).
I’ve met many, many farmer women who spend their entire lives in shame because of how engaging in intense daily physical exercise since before puberty literally changed the way their bodies developed. It really makes you wonder if the way women are indoctrinated nowadays into treating their bodies as kids and teens, and pushed into pursuing the thin, frail, supple body shape is even remotely natural (that is, since being mostly sedentary long-term is unhealthy/unnatural for humans). Of course, not to say that being thin or small is bad either, everyone is different and humans are amazingly, crazily, wildly diverse and wonderful.
But yeah, a bunch of sexist dudes deliberately propagating the concept that women should be forced into an infinitesimally narrow definition of acceptable body type, well, yeah, pretty hum-drum for the internet.
On the other hand, this new show sounds exciting. Netflix has been doing pretty good recently at making decent western cartoons (Hollow and Voltron are not bad), which has been a good band-aid for a former anime fan that’s been burned one too many times by the sexism and objectification drenched in almost every single show.
@JaneDone
It’s a bit different in Michaelangelo’s case as he literally used male models and put boobs on them. We even know the names of some of the models, eg. Antonio Mini, his apprentice and model for Leda and the Swan.
Women couldn’t model without a lot of social stigma, but the tragedy is due to Michaelangelo mostly being interested in the male body, wanting to eroticize the male body, and living in a time when he was only allowed to create mythological scenes and only women could be represented as sexual objects. So he makes a lovely sculpture of his lover and then has to jam a pair of ill fitting boobs on it and pretend its got something to do with Zeus
Ah, so close, boys.
They are right on one thing – the comic design has been changed to appeal to the current generations. Literally the first thought I had was “okay…. That looks way different and like it was made for children. And they went the netflix-typical route of diversifying.”. Because – they did. Nobody can look at that and not realise that it’s deliberately tailored to the current progressive thinking luckily happening.
Where they go wrong is in being so fucking incredibly whiny about it! It’s a GOOD THING!
yeah, it’s a bit weird to see a story you know being told with a completely different style, but people, you survived Ben Affleck as batman and hey, he’s pretty cool. Just different.
They see the truth and then they take it and do the weirdest things to it and come up with this crap. Just… Ugh.
And that comment about women nowadays growing fat and coloring their hair and being unhappy instead of taking care of themselves and being their best selves? The fuck, dude? Choosing ones haircolor and not desperately trying to fit into outdated stereotypes and accepting that sometimes you feel like shit and mental problems happen – that IS taking care of yourself. Dumbass.
Oh, so that’s what Noelle Stevenson’s been up to! While I have no real horse in this race as far as having watched the original show, I think the new designs are really cute, and might check the show out since I know Stevenson is a good storyteller.
Re: WWTH & the case of the missing busty women, I really feel you there. It’d be great to see myself in an actual character, instead of a set of tits played for humour/sex appeal. I’ve been uncomfortable about my, er, prominent chest since I was twelve at least, and finding out in high school that one of my good male friends had me listed in his phone as “Tits” really did a number on me back in the day. As did realizing that the old man at a church dinner who told me I “looked like an Amazon” when I was 11 or so did not mean that I looked like a capable warrior by his comment. Let Busty Women Kick Ass In A Practical Manner!
As an adult, I am a bit meh on the art style (as I am with most newer cartoons; they just don’t grab me the same way some of the older style stuff does).
As a kid, though? I was *super* not into the art style for She-Ra. And it wasn’t just that I didn’t like it—I looked at it and thought, “Oh, that looks like the art that goes on comic books for teenagers and grownups” and literally did not realize that I was in the target demographic. Tiny!Kootie would at least recognize “This is for me” in the new She-Ra.
And 10/10 for having visible shorts under the skirt. I know it’s still a long way from being battle-practical, but eliminating the possibility of upskirt angles is terrific, IMO. Not to mention that it’s an outfit little girls could easily closet-cosplay in, which lets them do acrobatic/active stuff without undies showing or without a sleeveless top falling off.
And as someone who hasn’t been particularly flat-chested since I was possibly still in She-Ra’s target demographic, I am all for the idea that female characters don’t have to lose their boobs to be tough and heroic. …But I also recognize that heroic women with boobs is kind of the norm, not the exception, so whether the boobs are sensibly covered/supported or just smaller, either way is a nudge towards better representation. IMO.
The show isn’t aimed at children, but I found Futurama’s Leela to be a pretty good example of writing a well-rounded female character drawn with noticeable boobage.
Hello.
Hmm, when i was young, there was also a girl-aimed animation serie, Jem and the Holograms, and i do not remember the characters to be pretty busty. And nobody was complaining. It seems the trend is to complain about everything new. Well, not really a trend, novelty is often the target of a part of the population (that does not mean that anything new is good, however).
Out of topic, but for this year promotion of the Legion of Honour (one of the highest rank of orders of merit), there has been some suprises, especially this one : Muriel Tramis, a woman of color video game designer. Even if she only obtained the lowest rank of this order, guess who are not quite happy about that ?
Have a nice day.
1987: Damned Gene Roddenberry has ruined Star Trek FOREVER!
1993: What the fuck is this? This is not Star Trek. And though it’s obviously trying to be, it’s not Babylon 5 either!
1995: Damned Joel Shumacher has ruined Batman FOREVER!
Also 1995: Damned Kate Mulgrew has ruined Star Trek FOREVER!
1999: Damned George Lucas has ruined Star Wars FOREVER!
2003: Damned Wachowskis have ruined The Matrix FOREVER … after just a few damned years!
2005: Damned Christopher Nolan has ruined Batman EVEN MORE THAN IT ALREADY WAS!
2013: Damned Zack Snyder somehow managed to ruin SUPERMAN!
2016: Paul Feig did WHAT to the Ghostbusters?!
Also 2016: Damned Zack Snyder ruined the ruined ruin of Batman?!
2017: Gal Gawho? If it doesn’t say LYNDA CARTER on it I’m not watching!
Also 2017: Damned Zack Snyder has ruined Man of Steel FOREVER!
ALSO 2017: Damned new ALLEGED Star Trek series has ruined Klingons FOREVER!
2018: Damned Noelle Stevenson has ruined She-Ra FOREVER!
…
(Warning: stealth pun in above.)
Given what she’s undoubtedly endured at the hands of the gamergaters, she should probably have been given a fucking Purple Heart…
Looking at the linked pictures, I like her old preposterous headpiece slightly better because when you’re doing preposterous headpieces in a cartoon, you may as well go all out.
That’s the strongest opinion on new She-Ra vs old She-Ra I can muster.
No, wait, the new Adora looks much more fun and expressive than the old one.
https://camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com/2018/07/18/she-ra-leads-to-scrappy-doo-distemper/
I hope the link works this time.
I delete a comment above where it didn’t work, because I couldn’t edit it before I wrote that one.
It is a reaction about the same topic from other sources.
I love the aside about old hippies moving into the universities to indoctrinate and brain wash youngsters.
I couldn’t even brain wash my students to double space their essays.
Mind you, I’m less an old hippy than an elderly punkgirl.
@Marshmallow Stacy: I’ll use your last comment as an excuse to post this:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/07/never-mind-bus-pass-punks-look-back-wildest-days
I like how Jordan is still rocking unusually-colored hair.
So, people getting their knickers in a twist about an art change for a kid’s comic accuse others of arrested development…
…good thing I buy industrial strength irony metres. In bulk.
That aside, I didn’t watch He-Man or She-Ra as a kid, as we didn’t get the TV-station it was on. I’ve only ever seen a hand full of episodes.
Things that stood out to me even as a ten year old:
-The animation was atrocious.
-That nobody put two and two together and figured out the civilian identities of He-Man and She-Ra is only possible due to magic.
-Animated Prince Ironheart hair cuts look worse than real ones.
There was a reboot of He-Man some years back. More than 15, actually, I was still in school…
I watched a few episodes here and there and liked the fact that civilian!He-man was a scrawny kid and hero!He-Man was totally ripped and at least a foot taller.
Oddly enough, I never looked at She-Ra’s boobs. I kind of chuckled at the silly story lines sometimes. I liked the original art, to be honest. I probably won’t watch the reboot. I’ve a bit of nostalgia for the old cartoons, silly though they were.
@weirwoodtreehugger: I think another part of it is that a lot of animation and comics so emphasize larger brests (boobsocks having them unnaturally separated, exaggerated boobplates, etc) that it’s almost like people don’t get how to draw larger boobs in a non-sexualized way anymore. Also as some female characters get better costumes (Spider-Gwen, Miss Marvel, Captain Marvel, Batgirl, Batwoman with most artists) the de-emphasis of the boobs as being drawn in a more accurate, true-to-life way, as if covered by normal clothing, makes people think the bust size has been hugely reduced when in fact she’s just clothed like a normal person.
This came up with the latest Mortal Kombat game, X. They finally gave the women realistic, more athletic proportions as part of the game’s more “Real” art style (tho the costuming could still leave a lot to be desired, srsly just cause they’re not in bikinis anymore did not mean Mileena and Kitana are dressed anywhere near sensibly)…and the manbaby part of the fanbase lost their shit. Said they made the women into “dudes” by…giving them normal human proportions. Hell, several still had big racks, even, just drawn like a normal woman with a big rack. And they couldn’t handle it.
Be Bust.