Posted by By Anna Goodman, Staff Writer
Do you believe in magic? I do. Despite considering myself a bit of a pessimist, I can’t help grinning when a color-coordinated squad of quippy teenage girls save the world with the magic of friendship. Why is this? Because despite how magical, girl-power-centric shows are often overlooked as being senseless and pointless, I appreciate them for bhow they contribute to many little girls’ sense of feminist self-confidence.
Television shows like Jem & The Holograms, Winx Club and its sequel, World of Winx, Lolirock, and Sailor Moon are all prime examples of this, but what do these shows have in common, besides color-coordinated outfits, transformation sequences included in every episode, a surprising amount of diversity in terms of race, and theme songs incapable of not rhyming “together” with “forever?”
They highlight the importance of girls and women embracing their femininity. They treat us like we are worthy and not foolish for wanting something better than the world we have and shows us we are capable of changing it.
Let’s all be honest here. Society hates teenage girls. It hates their clothes and their music and their emotions and their interests, and this follows women their entire lives. I denied my love of “kids” cartoons for a while, unknowingly buying into the notion that they are a thing to be mocked or scorned or merely not spoken of.
Things targeted toward young women are so often seen as lesser and frivolous, no matter the depth of topics they cover. Even things that seem like they’re targeted at young girls face the same stereotypes, like the incredible anime Violet Evergarden, which follows a 14 year old female protagonist living through a traumatic childhood. While the anime’s intended audience was not necessarily children, it still suffered much of the same assumptions of being worthless. In the end, there is still something that sets Violet Evergarden apart from so much media: hope. Violet ends up a success story, writing letters for people to their loved ones and connecting various relationships she begins to forge relationships of her own and see that life is worth living.
In the world that we live in today, we need this hope, happiness, and camaraderie between women. So I ask you again, do you believe in magic? I do. I believe that when girls and women work together they can achieve incredible things. I believe that I can save the world in a pink ball gown and three inch heels. And most of all, I believe that girl power has a place in all our lives, despite what anyone would tell us.
The Maroon 