Monday, November 9, 2009
Growing Up
I noticed someone talking about Doug and its colot treatment and I decided to run with it. As a child, I loved to watch Doug, Rugrats, and Ren and Stimpy. Needless to say, I had now idea how many jokes I never understood as a child that I understand now. Growing up certainly changes your perspective on things and enhances your perception. For instance, when watching Doug, I never associated the show with its racial colors. Actually what I mean is that I never compared the characters to their real races. For instance, Skeeter is bluish-green and was meant to be black, but as a child I never understood that, nor did I care. Patti Mayonnaise was supposed to be a typical Californian surfer blonde that was overly intelligent but I never picked up on that either. Even Roger Klotz, is portrayed as a sickly yellowish-green, which is supposed to be Asian I believe (though don't quote me). I never noticed ANY of these things and its strange to see these things change before my eyes. I wonder at what point do I leave my childhood frame behind and transition into the adult mindset?
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Those were great childhood shows. I enjoyed them a lot. I never thought about any of the racial representations either, as a child. Actually to be honest, although I haven't watched the show in a long time, I haven't picked up on them recently either. Ill have to watch for that next time I tune in.
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting!! I never thought about the different races portrayed in Doug! Isn't it funny how we automatically make those assumptions now, but how insignificant that was as children. This would be a very interesting topic for a paper!
ReplyDeleteWow! You're right. I would have never realized that as a child. Sure I understood that the change in skin color for these characters stood for diversity, but I never made a direct correlation to any specific race. Now I want to go dig up a few episodes of Doug and look into that.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how we unconsciously move from that innocent frame of mind to a more mature one, that recognizes a whole new set of characteristics. It makes you wonder if those color choices were conscious decisions made by the illustrators, and if yes, why did they make those choices? definitely something to think about...
ReplyDeleteWow, I used to watch that show all the time as a child, but I never would have thought to make those connections. Looking back, it is crazy to see how many shows that were meant for young audiences actually portrayed different races in such ways.
ReplyDeleteyou know whats weird? dougs neighbor Bud had purple skin but was african american like skeeter, who was blue. since bud was always buying contraptions that were very expensive and never worked, he can be seen as materialistic and impractical.
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