I think She-Ra could have better chance at re-introduction than JEM depending on how they handled it. Although the property is the female counterpart to "Masters of the Universe", it still has the combination of fantasy and sci-fi with characters and stories that would appeal to boys as well.
Even with a female-centric cast, there are still sword, sorcery and laser battles of rebellion against a cyborg villain and his horde of stormtrooper robots- and that's cool no matter who you are. Now where have I heard of a monumentally successful property similar to that before...
really? having something named "she-ra" and declaring it a flagship of feminism, makes me... :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKFBcMGFZy8
Last edited by abulafia; 04-16-2017 at 04:50 PM.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Wonder what age they'd make it for, if they went for a slightly older age group then maybe they could make it more dramatic and violent and all, or how they'd handle the romance in the show if they had it in the show at all, since He-Man didn't really have much either...
"Girl Power" gets used way beyond superhero names...it is used in various media. A few years ago there was a health club in Chicago with a flyer that said "Girl Power", and the ad showed women riding stationary bicycles in the gym. This past Friday on "Entertainment Tonight", they had a segment about upcoming movies starring women but they used the term "Girl Power" to talk about the movies starring women like Charlize Theron (41 years old) and Scarlett Johansson (32 years old) who matured a long time ago and should in no way, shape or form be considered "girls."
In the upcoming movie "Girls Trip", the main cast in that trip consists of: Regina Hall (46 years old), Jada Pinkett-Smith (45 years old), Tiffany Haddish (37 years old) and Queen Latifah (47 years old), all of whom have not been girls for decades.
It's the supreme dismissal of grown females as WOMEN that I have a problem with, because women are automatically referred to as "girls" when "girls" are, by definition, "immature" females who have not reached maturity yet. I think calling women "girls" is extremely offensive to their maturity just like calling men "boys" is extremely offensive. Boy is to girl like man is to woman, and guy is to gal, but society immediately disses women and wants you to believe girl is to man and that's false and inaccurate.
Last edited by MoneySpider; 04-16-2017 at 06:18 PM.
Not surprisingly, I disagree. I think you're imputing too much intentionality to a cultural practice to which the average person doesn't give that much thought. I hear women call each other "girls" and men call each other "boys" without any imputation of infantilization. Women also call grown men "boys" without meaning much of anything by it, and one should give the guys the same benefit of the doubt.
And I disagree with everything you just said. It is the fact that adults throw around the words "girls" and boys" when referring to other adults that I find troubling, and in a world where everyone wwants to be treated with respect, this practice does not make sense to me at all. Not to mention that you've got kids and teenagers who want to grow up so fast and want to do things that adults do, but when they become adults they want to revert to being called "boys" and "girls."
And the average person not giving much thought to these types of practices are the main problem, in my opinion, because people don't really think about what they are saying...all they are doing is mimicking what other people are doing without putting much thought behind it, no matter how ridiculous it is. There's no logical reason for any woman in her 50s with grown kids of her own to refer to herself as a "girl" or allow anyone else refer to her as a "girl." Just like any man who respects himself would not allow anyone to call him a "boy." If he's a man supporting his family, paying taxes, making adult decisions, etc. etc. he is not a "boy." A woman who is the CEO of a company, has a husband and grown kids, is nearing retirement age, etc. is not a "girl."
And just because the people using the terms "girl" and "boy" when referring to adults may not mean anything by it does not mean that they should be doing it, though...because they are literally calling adults juveniles, regardless if that was really their intent or not.
And that's not even getting into the racial problems with calling certain races of men "boys."
We don't call 30-year-old cats "kittens," we don't call 18-year-old dogs "puppies", we don't call 5-year-old girls "women" and we don't call 10-year-old boys "men", so why is the reverse acceptable and not taken seriously at all by a lot of people? This is the same society that uses the words "invite" and "reveal" wrong...constantly.
We'll just have to agree to disagree.
Last edited by MoneySpider; 04-21-2017 at 09:18 PM.
It's entirely context-reliant.
Language and the common use of it is what it is, not what we want it to be. Words, including 'girl' hange meaning over time, and have more than obe meaning, depending on context.And just because the people using the terms "girl" and "boy" when referring to adults may not mean anything by it does not mean that they should be doing it, though...because they are literally calling adults juveniles, regardless if that was really their intent or not.
girl
ɡəːl/
noun
noun: girl; plural noun: girls
1.
a female child.
"girls go through puberty earlier than boys"
synonyms: female child; More
a person's daughter.
"he was devoted to his little girl"
synonyms: female child; More
2.
a young or relatively young woman.
"I haven't got the time to meet girls"
synonyms: young woman, young lady, miss; More
a young woman of a specified kind or having a specified job.
"a career girl"
informal
women who mix socially.
"I look forward to having a night with the girls"
a person's girlfriend.
"his girl eloped with an accountant"
synonyms: girlfriend, sweetheart, woman, partner, lover, significant other, fiancée; More
dated
a female servant.Yeah, that is a whole other kettle of fish. This use refers to a meaning of the word that never had anything to do with male children.And that's not even getting into the racial problems with calling certain races of men "boys."
Of course we do.We don't call 30-year-old cats "kittens,"
To avoid repeating points I've already made, I'll just note that I think most people use "boys" and "girls" informally in the manner I've described because it's just a part of everyone's pedagogical upbringing. Putting aside people who don't benefit from public education, most people are exposed to a simple designation when they grow up, when teachers say things like, "Boys on one side of the room, girls on the other." In this context "boy" and "girl" really don't mean much more than "male" and "female," and the informal way of using the terms means about the same thing. The people speaking know they're not really youngsters any more, but there's a certain pleasure to pretending at it in words. And no, people wouldn't be so informal in formal circumstances: no one's going to call a female CEO a "girl" except other ladies she may be hanging out with.
And as Carabas said, the racial use of the term "boy" has nothing to do with the context under discussion.
Agree completely! So many rich aspects on the mythology as a hole but the She-Ra universe always felt even more elaborate and rich then He-Man's.
Really wish to see what they could do reinventing the franchise, playing with the mythology. It's basically Star Wars meets Dungeon's and Dragons with cool and diverse female characters.
And the whole aspect of Adora being raised by Hordak then turning to lead the rebellion against him has so much potential for stories and characterization. Depending on what tone they wanted to set, the things she did in her past coming back to haunt her or having to build trust among the rebellion could be issues for her to face in addition to fighting battles against the Horde.
I would love to see what they would do with Shadow Weaver, she was always my favorite.
on she-ra&he-man
to me, toy franchises are among the lowest end of human intelligence.
back in the 80s i seriously doubted other kids sanity when they came up with he-man toys.
you do realize, that they just recycled that torso from another action figure?
(and that was even before i learned that they reused animals from their doomed lines. eagle/battlecat)
how can you be so blind?
well i was never into sterioid-schwarzenegger inspired schwachsinn.
the masters of the universe universe has a certain high fantasy appeal. but in my humble opinion it is dimished by the oversexualized depiction of the characters.
"masters" might be the most pornographic toyline ever published. (greg land would be the perfect artist for a modern incarnation of MotU)
if you take it for what it is, a cheesy scifantasy line, ok.
but putting anymore context beyond that into it... well iŽd question your sanity
you can tell good stories just about everything. but just the names "he-man" and "she-ra" makes me wanna smoke crack
Last edited by abulafia; 04-22-2017 at 07:46 PM.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
I suppose I just like what I like. Whether it's high art or schlock and everything else in-between. The origins of an idea never bothered me be it novels, comic books or cartoons designed to sell toys to children. If I find something that interests me, I do enjoy discussing it. I never really cared the figures used recycled parts or were basically knock-off Conan the Barbarian figures, my imagination and creativity allowed me to have fun with them. Of course everyone's mileage may vary, so I can see why it wouldn't appeal to other people.
The ridiculous over-the-top nature of the characters may repel you, but to me it's part of the reason why I like it. Caricatures of humanity depicted through musclebound warriors, scantily clad sorceresses, monstrous villains of every shape and size- all bordering and crossing the line of absurdity is highly entertaining to me.
Of course as with any creative work (especially one like MOTU and She-Ra with their myriad of cartoons, comic books and supplemental material) it is open to re-imaginings, reinterpretation, and additions of concepts and ideas to the franchise. Take Battlestar Galactica for instance, originally a cheesy 1970's Star Wars imitator re-imagined in the 2000's into a successful and celebrated television series. The core ideas, even most characters are still present in both iterations but it's the reinterpretation and additions or subtractions that transformed it into something more than it's predecessor.
I'm not trying to sell these cartoons as something greater that what they are, but to dismiss them out of hand and postulate they can never be anything more than what they are because of their genesis and then deride those who would think otherwise is very uncharitable.
If the just go with Masters of the Universe like the DC series has done, you can incorporate them both in the same series. You have both worlds and characters work interchangeably.
I'm a gigantic He-man/She-ra nerd and have tons of toys, the mini-comics, and giant character/episode guides, etc.