SheZow is an Australian/Canadian coproduced cartoon that was picked up by the Hub, and began airing in the states in June, 2013. The original pilot aired in 2007, as part of the Disney Shorty McShorts' Shorts show.
The story follows Guy, a twelve year old "extreme dude," as he is described by the official website. Guy and his family move into a home they inherited from his deceased Aunt Agnes. While Guy and his twin sister, Kelly, are unpacking boxes they discover a hidden ring that belonged to their Aunt. Kelly at once recognizes the ring as SheZow's ring. Guy doesn't believe that Agnes was secretly a superhero and puts the ring on, thus inheriting the SheZow powers that are normally passed down from aunt to niece in their family line.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
Banned, Censored, and the Obscure: Part 1
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Main Protagonists and Love Interests
Ratio
of Female to Male Characters (from 2008-2012)
Gender of the Main Protagonist
Looking at
only American, or American/Foreign Coproduced Animated Films Rated G or PG that
were released in at least 500 theaters. If the film contained live action
scenes, it primarily had to be about the animated characters set in an animated
world.
9/53 female protagonists
46/53 male protagonists
17% female protagonists
83%
male protagonists
2/9 female protagonists had an equal male protagonist who shared the movie
2/46
male protagonists had an equal female protagonist who shared the movie
Love Interests
6/9 female protagonists had love interests (67%)
26/46 male protagonists
had love interests (57%)
Raw Data: Gender Ratio Part 2
Ratio of Female to Male
Characters (from 2008-2012)
All First Billed
Characters from
the Cast Overview list (ALL CHARACTERS)
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
All First Billed Characters
Year: 2008 - 2012
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Raw Data: Gender Ratio Part 1
Raw Data: All Voiced Characters with a name or character
descriptor 2008-2012
All Voiced Characters
Part 1: Ratio
of Female to Male Characters (from 2008-2012)
All
Voiced Characters with a name or character descriptor
Looking at only American, or American/Foreign
Coproduced Animated Films Rated G or PG that were released in at least 500
theaters. If the film contained live action scenes, it primarily had to be
about the animated characters set in an animated world*
Year: 2008 - 2012
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Mile High Comics vs. My Comic Shop
I try and always buy my comics locally (and while I'm on that note, if you're in Portland check out Excalibur), but when I'm trying to find certain back issues and have to hunt online I shop at one of two sites: milehighcomics.com and mycomicshop.com
Mile High Comics is known for having a slightly pricier baseline, but they are also known for always having a 60% off sale running. They are actually the first site I ever bought comics online from. Over the years I have had good luck being able to find sometimes uncommon issues that with the discount would be a reasonable priced.
Mile High Comics is known for having a slightly pricier baseline, but they are also known for always having a 60% off sale running. They are actually the first site I ever bought comics online from. Over the years I have had good luck being able to find sometimes uncommon issues that with the discount would be a reasonable priced.
Labels:
comics,
mile high comics,
my comic shop,
online shopping,
review
Sunday, July 7, 2013
The Boxtrolls Teaser Trailer - LAIKA Love

When in 2012 they introduced the first out animated character in an American family target theatrical release, there was some opposition. Some Christian reviewers commented on the difficulty of having to now explain to their children about homosexuality, as Nancy French put it:
"...Parents who take children to the new movie ParaNorman might have to answer unwanted questions about sex and homosexuality on the way home from the movie theater (French)."
Well, the new Boxtrolls trailer does that explaining, and quite eloquently:
Labels:
animated,
animation,
cartoon,
LAIKA,
race,
sexuality,
stop-motion,
teaser trailer,
The Boxtrolls
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Outing of Fictitious Characters
In the my recently published AWN article , I
mention how there has been a decrease in the social censorship of LGBTQ themes
and that “viewers who are less receptive to such
characters are becoming less vocal.” I thought it would be nice to go into a
little bit more detail about this and give some examples that show this change.

In 1895 the novel was used to call into question the sexuality of its author
Oscar Wilde. When he was put on trial for being gay (or more accurately “gross indecency
with other men”), sections of the book were read aloud. The opposing attorney called
the novel “sodomitical” and drew comparisons between Oscar Wilde, and Dorian
Gray as if the fictional character were a stand-in for the author (pg5).
Some sixty-eight years after the release
of Dorian Gray, in 1958, Seduction of the Innocent was published. In this nonfiction novel author and
psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, harshly critiqued comic books for their
violence and sexual content. One of the chapters dealt with
children’s sexuality, and suggested that Batman and Robin were a gay couple,
Wonder Woman was a lesbian and that comic books were causing sexual perversion
in children.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
AWN: ParaNorman Reblog
Exciting
news!
I recently had the opportunity to write for the Animation World Network.
In the article, ParaNorman’s Mitch: The First
Family-Friendly Gay Animated Character, I look at the changes that
have taken place in American animated theatrical releases in the past twenty
years to allow for the first out animated character. This has been a wonderful experience,
and I’m so thankful for all the feedback I received from Dan Sarto while writing. The article was just published today : )
Check it out HERE.
{Title}
Labels:
animated,
animatinworld magazine,
animation world network,
AWN,
cartoon,
gay,
mitch,
ParaNorman,
sexuality
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Gender Ratio 2008-2012
Study: Gender Ratio in Family Targeting American Theatrical Animation
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Fact Check: Only 13 Female Protagonists
"Between 1937 and 2005 there were only 13 female protagonists in animated movies."
I stumbled upon this quote that's been floating around, originating from Miss Representation, though I can no longer find it on their site. There doesn't seem to be any source material backing it up. I feel like this is why it is so important to get some raw data out there about gender statistics in animation, because there isn't a lot to go off of at the moment.
I stumbled upon this quote that's been floating around, originating from Miss Representation, though I can no longer find it on their site. There doesn't seem to be any source material backing it up. I feel like this is why it is so important to get some raw data out there about gender statistics in animation, because there isn't a lot to go off of at the moment.
Labels:
cartoons,
female,
gender,
hero,
main character,
male,
protagonist,
women
Monday, April 29, 2013
The Croods: A Review
I don’t normally do reviews, but having recently been so immersed
in the 2008-2012 gender ratio study I’ve been doing, I decided to talk about a
movie I recently saw that I had a very strong reaction to, The Croods. Spoilers
abound (be warned).
Labels:
Croods,
dreamworks,
plot holes,
plot issues,
review
Friday, March 15, 2013
Cartoon Closet 6
Part 6: The Repopularization of the Male Duo
The repopularization of the male duo was directly
tied to the creator driven animation movement that blossomed in the nineties. And
the explosion of male duos shows was all the more striking in comparison to the
eighties which was (almost) completely void of any. Lets looks at some historical context.A Brief History of the Eighties
Under president Reagan there was a heavy deregulation of children’s media. Limiting the number of commercials targeting children was called out as violating an advertisers first amendment rights. Mark Fowler the elected chairman of the Federal Communications Commission continued the job the president started, saying “The marketplace will take care of children” (Education).
![]() |
Rubik the Amazing Cube, yes - this actually existed |
Labels:
1990,
animation,
cartoon closet,
censorship,
creator-driven,
eighties,
gay
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Random Art Update
Some day I will actually get the first issue of the comic I've been working on done. *sigh* till then here is a random page from it : D
Thursday, February 21, 2013
New York Times Reblog

CLICK HERE to read the entire article
It is also is very exciting for me, as a blogger, because the article links back to my Cartoon Closet series.
"Elsewhere in the book Wertham argues that the superheroes Batman and Robin represent “a wish dream of two homosexuals living together,” and cited a young gay man who says that he put himself “in the position of Robin” and “did want to have relations with Batman.”
Although I've only been writing the Cartoon Closet for about half a year, it's a compilation of years worth of research. It's really exciting to be getting traffic from such a talented author, and well respected news source. Basically, yay!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Intended Innuendo
Children's cartoons are by defualt a comedy genre. There is a history of intended innuendo, or adult humor that is hidden along side the humor targeting kids. Here are a few examples showing double coded punchlines (this is a just a small handful of the types of jokes that are in kids shows):
Cartoon Network Bumper - Powerpuff Girls (Justice League Spoof)
Labels:
animation,
cartoon,
cartoon closet,
children,
double coded,
double coding,
gay,
innuendo,
kids
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Timeline
This is an ongoing timeline, showing an overview of the events I discuss in the Cartoon Closet series. It is in progress, and I will continue adding more dates and links to it. If you notice something important I'm missing, please comment, so I can add it in : )
Labels:
animation,
cartoon closet,
cartoon network,
censorship,
coded,
disney,
double reading,
gay,
history,
innuendo,
kids media,
lesbian,
nickelodian,
pbs,
timeline
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Cartoon Closet Part 3
Part 3: Archetype of the Male Duo
The Male Duo in Live Action
The Male Duo Archetype* in animation has its roots in Vaudeville acts. Originally bawdy
stage shows based heavily on their verbal humor, the transition to film led
slapstick comedy to being the focus during the silent era. With talkies the
male duo comedy acts incorporated both slapstick and verbal humor (wiki).
![]() |
Gay Subtext? |
Homoeroticism has been a part of the genre from the very beginning. Part of this has to do with relationship comedy, where the male characters would deconstruct male/female and husband/wife relationships playing the role of one or the other as part of the comedy act.
For instance in Their First Mistake (1932) where Laurel and Hardy adopt a child. In a conversation that takes place in bed, Laurel convinces Hardy he should adopt a baby, in order to keep his wife's mind occupied. That way they could continue going out at night together and it wouldn't bother her so much. But when they get home with the baby, they discover that Hardy's wife is filing for divorce for alienation of affections blaiming Laurel as the other woman (73). This is used to create a mock husband/wife relationship between them, first with Hardy playing the angry wife whose husband is shirking his responsibilities, then with Laurel playing the wife in a sequence that jokes about breast-feeding.

Their First Mistake is unmistakably homoerotic, but whether this was intended, or soley a result of parodying heterosexual relationships it's hard to know. But looking at an earlier Laurel and Hardy, Liberty (1929) we can see, as Russo puts it, homosexuality as a part of farcical misunderstandings (72).
In this movie a running gag involves the two having put on the others pants. They spend the first half of the short trying to find a place to privately switch clothing. The joke hinges on the reaction of those who catch them, and clearly think something naughty is going on. In one case, they are trying to change in the back of a taxi. Caught half-way through by a man and woman, Laurel and Hardy quickly leave, but before the couple enters the taxi the man makes sure no one else is in the back. Who is this third person he's looking for? (a woman perhaps?).
Labels:
animation,
archetype,
cartoon closet,
comedy,
gay,
male duo,
pinky and the brain,
ren and stimpy,
subtext,
vaudeville
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