Sunday, May 06, 2007

Bad role models

Am I a bad mother for letting Hannah (occasionally) watch Winx?

The whole premise of the show is flimsy and derivative—students at a fairy boarding school fight against evil—and the characters are poorly developed and bizarrely drawn, with ridiculously proportioned bodies and questionable clothing choices. And although these evil-fighters are supposed to have super-magical powers, they never seem to be able to use them for anything more strenuous than magical wardrobe change!, except when it’s the season finale, and then they manage to destroy the most powerful, most evil Thingie on the first try. Of course, up to that point they had spent a lot of time having spats with their boyfriends and each other and fainting at the slightest bit of magical exertion. But the clincher for me was that they finally reached a level in their training where they got magical gizmos to supplement their power—and they were *jewelry* and *purses*. I shit you not. Magical accessories—activate!

And for some reason, if it’s on, I will stop and watch, too. Mostly for the pleasure of MST3King it, I’ll admit, but if Hannah is going to watch something so dumb, I want her to enjoy the benefit of my cynicism and criticism (in the sense of “critical thinking”). I don’t want her thinking that even super-magic fairy princesses are incompetent unless they have their magical outfits and super-magic knight boyfriends backing them up. Because super-magic fairy princesses should totally kick ass.

1 comment:

Moondancer said...

You have the right to protect your daughter as you see fit. I let both my son and my daughter watch the show, but I watch it with them and we talk about it. They know it's fantasy and just for fun. I think communication is important. If you forbid something, then kids want to see it even more, and feel out of place at school with friends who watch it. Just my view on things.