Marina Ilic

Feminist and student majoring in animation. I have a strong interest in how the children's media addressed gender issues.

Posts Written by Marina
By Marina Ilic • 12 years ago

Gay Issues Adressed in Cartoons

First off there isn’t a single openly gay character in cartoons. It’s the popular opinion that gay issues are never addressed in children’s media thanks to network censors, but I believe that gay issues are addressed. But it must be done in a very subtle way for fear of being dropped by the network. Here I discovered wonderful examples from 2012 to 1996 with important messages to the child audience.

Gravity Falls created by Alex Hirsch
Episode: Dipper vs Manliness 2012


The young character Dipper is insecure about his masculinity when his uncle calls him unmanly. Distraught, Dipper seeks help from the Manotaurs (pun off minotaurs) to teach him how to be a man. After a montage of beef jerky, punching, and chest hair Dipper is nearly ready to be a man; his final test is to slay a beast called the Multi-Bear. Anxious at first Dipper agrees to the quest for fear of being called weak. Dipper defeats the Multi-Bear, but right before he kills it he learns the only reason why the Manotaurs want Multi-Bear gone is because he doesn’t fit their masculine ideal with his love of Icelandic pop group BABBA (reference to ABBA.) Dipper refuses to bring down the Multi-Bear and questions the Manotaur definition of masculinity. In the end being a man is about standing up for what you believe in.

Dipper: I’m saying the Multi-Bear is a really nice guy, and you’re a bunch of jerks if ...
By Marina Ilic • 12 years ago

The Agendas in Entertainment

The typical hero of the silver screen is a male and Caucasian and heterosexual. And while there’s nothing wrong with creating a hero to this mold it isn’t exactly progressive either. The big problem with this is that the world is not 100% male and Caucasian and heterosexual. We are more than one gender. We are more than one race. We are more than one sexuality. Films and shows that do have characters living outside the mold tend to adhere to group specific agendas. Once again, this isn’t progressive.

Female characters are always a woman first. Many movies with female characters adhere to a female agenda. Movies about a woman being a woman with woman problems, not a very relate-able character ...

The typical hero of the silver screen is a male and Caucasian and heterosexual. And while there’s nothing wrong with creating a hero to this mold it isn’t exactly progressive either. The big problem with this is ...