When a 12-year-old boy puts on a magic ring, he turns into a woman decked out in pink who has super powers. No, it's not the plot of a French indie film about gender identity, it's the crux of SheZow, an animated cartoon aimed at children 7 years old and up that premieres tomorrow, June 1, on The Hub. And that means it has conservatives crying foul.
Ben Shapiro at Breitbart.com alleged that Margeret Loesch, CEO of The Hub (co-owned by Discovery and Hasbro), was under the influence of drugs (and "leftist") when she greenlit the animated kids series, implying it is a transsexual plot to corrupt children who can be easily influenced. As Cartoon Brew points out, this is the same cable network that brought audiences such hardhitting entertainment as the network that brought you My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Transformers Prime. Oh, and SheZow has been airing in Australia since December 2012. The basic idea is that the male character, Guy, is gifted with superhuman abilities, a skirt, thigh high boots, and a pink shapeshifting car when he hears the phrase, "You go girl!" Sounds pretty dangerous.
Loesch said herself that, "When I first heard about the show, my reaction was 'Are you out of your minds?' Then I looked at it and I thought, 'This is just funny.'"
The Catholic League's Bill Donohue criticized the show for exposing children to gender bending at an inappropriate age. "The target audience here is not adults," Donohue said. "The target audience are young people, many of whom may be confused about their own sexuality."
Well, let's remember that sexuality is different than gender, and this seems much more a joke on crossdressing than it does about gender identity. Of course, if there's some issue with finding power in pink, talk to the breast cancer ribbon folks. Maybe the scariest thing is that it's about a person identified as female who can kick ass?
GLAAD spokesperson, Rich Ferraro sees it differently, referencing the Teletubbies: "I don't think this show is about transgender issues anymore than the Teletubbies were about gay issues, because one of the characters was purple and carried around a purse." The Hub also denies the accusations of trans-indoctrination, commenting that, " is a light-hearted, animated comedy, like Bugs Bunny, who could make kids laugh out loud by wearing a dress and wig."
After watching the intro, in my view, that shapeshifting car seems to be the most sexual thing about that show, at times looking like a giant pink dildo.
Watch the intro below:
