Back when Mona/ Y'Gythgba wasn’t even confirmed on the show i had the idea she would turn out to be a Horned Lizard with a strong southern belle accent.
Warning- This is MY PERSONAL opinion about how a show i like seems to misrepresent females (did i mention i actually like the show?)
Today; October 17th, 2014 Buried Secrets which would be the third episode of the third season was released in the United States. I have been a fan of the fanchise since the 80's and i've grown to really enjoy this incarnation of the ever popular Tennage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The current series is beautifullly animated, action-packed. The voice acting is top-notch and the scripts and gags couldn't be any more clever. In a time of lame visual and written fiction the turtles are always exciting, a joy to watch.
Naturally, since too much of a good thing is great and i don't have anything else to do on weekends anyway i decided to go ahead and rewatch the whole series from the beginning about two weeks ago or so...yup, still exciting. But certainly there were some things i didn't think about the first time i got to see those very same episodes. I know it is a kids show targeted to a young male audience- or at least that is what some people still thinks anyway given the fact that there is an enormous amount of female fans who are not ashamed to proudly refer to them as *shellheads* -
Some months ago i found a commentary on the technodrome forums about the show keeping female characters at bay. It happens in every fandom that females might become a love interest for a main characters at some point; and this person's opinion was that if there weren't many other females in the show was precisely because sooner or later they would become only the turtle's "girlfriends".
Knowing how fanbases are i am 99.9% certain that would happen...and then there would be people arguing about whom makes a better couple with who...but then again, i was not concerned by the *lack* of females on this show being that it is a show for boys. It seemed rational for me to think that complaining about TMNT not having enough girl characters would be as silly as being angry because My Little Pony had almost no boys. Gender marketing, pretty much. No big deal.
However, as i rewatched more episodes i found myself amazed at how the few *females* are portrayed in the show. I had a slight feeling of frustration that lingered with me with each rewatch. Buried Secrets was only the drop that spilled the glass and got me to write this.
The premise of this series concerning gender is that most likely all women -no matter the species- are evil; unless of course they are April O' Neil which is frequently animated in a way we can get a good glimpse of her lower backside. This is however, not enough : April may be on the team, have alien powers and apparently be pretty much the center of the universe being as perfect as she is- but she is still female. She is the cause of why in season 2's finale the turtles had to leave their lair. She is also (as surely any girl) aware of how a particular character (Don) feels towards her and instead of making things clear with him about her not being interested, or making her mind and accepting him seems to enjoy toying with the terrapin instead, neglecting him one second and kissing him the other...because surely all women are bipolar like that.
And that's the only *good* girl character we have here in TMNT 2012 who aside of being Donatello's crush and the equivalent of a jerk has no particular interests or hobbies, or a personality trait that could aid us to define her other than "moderately strong female sidekick"
We also have Karai, pretty much an average femme-fatale who sends rightful men into temptation. She happens to be more complex and interesting that April, with an intrincate backstory that explains a lot about her personality; On this version she was raised by the Shredder-being by the way Splinter's biological daughter- the turtle's legitimate enemy...and also referred as "Hot-in an evil kind of way" by Raphael. As the story goes forward it is revealed that she is not as bad as she seemed to be-but impulsive, reckless and despite being trained as a ninja- unable to restrain her desire for vengeance and obeying Splinter's an Leo's suggestion to not seek revenge towards the Shredder without even a plan thus ending up as a mutant snake. But hey, that was her fault.
Be warned that April and Karai are not even the real issue here *gasp* through the series we have seen female robots with rocket elbows destroyed, a giant hoard of fake April clones melt into black goo, a deformed giant April mutant reject explode...an just when we thought we had another girl added into the cast, Irma Langinstein's character turned to be a Kraang robot spy which resulted in her body tearing apart and her head, still intact roaming around during that scene's fight.
We have also got an episode with Bigfoot being a lady so far...which i would find hillarious, if her own crush for Donnie wasn't this series form of saying "If you are not an average white pretty girl getting someone to like you will only be amusing for others to watch" Bigfoot did found love at the end of the episode, but seriously, even the turtles- friggin' mutant turtles- laughed at her appearance and her efforts to be liked. MUTANT humanoid turtles, everyone.
And now we have this episode in which April's *mom* turns to be a giant alien tentacle blob or something after clearly being depicted as somewhat "racist" (if race and not species applies to mutants of course) in true Nick's TMNT tradition that when something has boobs, it is either rude as hell or a monster of some sort that has come to control, devour and corrupt you, poor innocent males.
It worries me that this has become a repeating trope within the series, and that a series that seems so innocent and enjoyable is obsessed with representing women erratically. It angers me that small children will be influenced by the idea that women are simply bad.
Ciro Nieli, is there something you want to tell us about your view on women? Did you had a bad experience with one? Just so you know, not everyone of us is a robot monster.
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