Comments on: Gender in “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!”

By: Thalia

Thalia — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:52:29 +0000

I also noticed that he never really wears clothes and at the beggining of the show they show his room and its full of flowers.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 22 May 2010 19:23:32 +0000

From everything I can tell he’s supposed to be a boy.

By: Madison

Madison — Sat, 22 May 2010 13:49:06 +0000

Wait, so Wubbzy IS a boy? Because I remember one day I was watching it with my little sister, Faith, and he was wearing pants at the beach, but they had flowers on them! And another time my friend Rosalia said he walked into the girls’ restroom at a resteraunt (sp.??). Maybe she was making stuff up, but I’ve never witnessed her lie about something pointless like that! Then again, I’ve never seen the episode myself.

By: kat

kat — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:58:25 +0000

I think it goes beyond just that they’ve created a girl character that embodies extreme “girliness”. To young girls watching this show, they see this character and they go, “I should be like her”. They think that that is their option, to be extremely girly. I take issue with that. I agree with Shawn that shows like Dora The Explorer are great for girls because they show a girl being strong and independent and yet, at the same time, she’s a girl.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:46:32 +0000

I’m complaining that the show presents the boy character in such a gender-neutral way that I had to check the theme song to verify that he’s a he. Meanwhile they added a girl character who embodies every extreme girl stereotype there is. That has the double whammy of reinforcing those stereotypes while quietly cementing the view that boys are the default.

By: Glen

Glen — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:05:16 +0000

Forgive me for not already knowing the answer to this question: Stephen, is this a complaint? Are you expressing dismay at a children’s program that makes girls look like girls, and boys look like boys? What would you suggest as an alternative?

By: Missy K

Missy K — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:38:51 +0000

I like Dora the Explorer because she’s out there doing stuff on her own. She isn’t sitting around waiting on the prince to come save her or wondering whether he likes her dress. She’s all about solving her own problems. And her theme song doesn’t make me want to tear my hair out.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:52:34 +0000

If they did an episode of Wubbzy that was in essence a John Hughes movie, I’d be all about that.

By: "Little"Shawn Thomas

"Little"Shawn Thomas — Fri, 29 May 2009 01:15:18 +0000

Y’know, this works only if they’ve added a boreberry-juice-swilling kickety-kick ball all-star antagonist to uphold the a-hole gender role. Ah, those jocks (remember the 80′s?). Really, though, it’s scary the amount of mutability that can happen to simple character stories at the whim of creative directors with marketing degrees. You can be sure that Nickelodeon has psychologists and market researchers who shed notes like scales over the production companies that feed the network.