Just For Girls?

So far in this blog, I've reviewed two... different kinds of shows. Ironically, both air on the Hub, and both are reboots of shows based on Hasbro toy lines--and I think both have done a great job. One is Transformers: Prime, the other is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I don't think you could get two shows more absolutely on opposite sides of "Boy-oriented" versus "Girl-oriented", but the fact is that I do love them both, albeit for entirely different reasons. If you know much about the latter show, you might know that it has garnered a surprising number of adult MALE fans, which has raised all kind of confusion (and sometimes backlash) on the internet--even though it's not really weird anymore that there are so many female fans of, say, superheroes, Avatar: The Last Airbender, things like that.

I'm not going to get into it much, but I'm pretty sure everyone's familiar with the stereotypes. Stuff made for boys, when written intelligently, isn't really just for boys because anyone can find it interesting. Girly stuff, however, is strictly for girls because it involves things only they'd care about; it's usually done pretty badly, and there's no reason for a boy to like that kind of stuff. But, My Little Pony is pretty unabashedly girly--so, according to this line of thought, how is it possible that boys could find it interesting?

The thing is, the reason why I love this show is that it's basically the show I've been looking for since I was 8 and old enough to realize a lot of stuff marketed at "me" wasn't very good. But I'd still watch it, but there was something about the "girly" stuff that I really liked--it'd just always fall flat on its face before the end of the movie. And, after about 13 years, I think I've figured it out. The thing that attracts girls (me, at least) isn't the overabundance of pink, princess, and same basic fairytale repeated over and over--it's, for lack of a better word, the intrigue.

I'm really not satisfied with that word, so let me try to describe what I mean. Since fairy tales (I'm assuming the more modern, "Disneyfied" versions here) are stereotypically girly, let's look at that. Snow White is about a queen who wants to be the "fairest in the land", first resorting to murder to get it--later a curse. The Little Mermaid is about a girl who makes a deal with a witch to get what she wants (and, according to Disney, the witch is manipulating this situation to get revenge and the crown). Beauty and the Beast is about a girl who makes a great sacrifice to save her father, and later is rewarded by finding true love.

Basically, something I see a lot of in fairy tales is an emphasis on the scheming and sacrifices, the deals, enchantments and curses--the extents people (villains and princesses alike) go to, to get whatever it is they want. Of course, non-girly stuff does this too--it's the main part of spy movies, other than the cool gadgets and blowing stuff up, which is hardly girly. (Of course, without the enchantments and curses there. ;) ) But that tends to be more about the spies doing their best to come out on top--in a fairy tale, the more powerful the curse, the greater the sacrifice, the more emphasis it gets (and the more interesting it is). Maybe that's why stories about high school drama are (according to Hollywood, anyways) so popular among girls--it's still that kind of scheming, though the reason why I don't like it so much is it tends to be much more petty, less about the sacrifice and more about how all the girls are brats....

So, basically, to sum up: little girls get character-driven schemes and intrigue. Little boys get powerful heroes, action, and stuff that's just cool. Girls tend to get the kind of magic that comes with a price (or simply can't be done likely), boys tend to get magic that can be used as a superpower. And, when done right, both are interesting in their own ways!! The main problem seems to be that the media is more likely to see the potential in boys' material and started treating it maturely, and expanding its realm; with girls', they find a formula they think works, spruce it up with more pink, and assume little girls will buy it for that. Worse, they'll take the material that works for boys, make all the main characters girls, and then add the petty kind of intrigue that I've never enjoyed--and expect it not to seem like a knock-off of both kinds of media. At least, how I see it.