Custom Search
If you grew up in the nineties, there's no doubt you wouldn't remember The Powerpuff girls. Created by Craig McCracken, the show's production ran from 1998 to 2005. Like most cartoon television shows, people usually don't stand back to analyze it's deeper meaning. The Powerpuff Girls is riddled with dark subject matters, intended to subconsciously fill children's minds with extreme right-wing political views and ideas of discriminate hierarchy, the evidence is overwhelming. The show mainly utilized the use of villains to convey symbolism for individuals the creators considered inferior, but that's not to say the protagonists had their own fair share of symbolism. Today, I'm going to look at each of the most re-occurred characters that appeared on the show and try to explain each of their hidden messages.
Let's start by looking at the main heroes themselves, in order from left to right: Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup. Obviously, all three of these characters are Caucasian girls, not like that's a big deal, but you'll see why this was a pivotal decision by the creators later on in this post. Blossom and Bubbles have all the features of ideal Aryan girls; light hair, light eyes, and they're both very well-behaved, especially for kindergarten-aged children. However, these two characters are contrasted by the third member of the team who is anything but ideal. Buttercup has black hair and is stubborn and rude. Being the butch tomboy of the three makes her the black sheep of the family, and the show usually goes out of it's way to make this apparent. Buttercup is usually the first to rebel at any given moment and take matters into her own hands, which usually leads to disastrous results. Blossom and Bubbles represent a naziist ideal that all good Aryan girls are bright and obedient. Buttercup, who acts rash and defiantly, always ends up taking orders from the other two.
However, this show wouldn't be extremely subliminally right-wing if the three girls didn't take orders from a couple of white males. Of course a few small girls can't tell the difference between right and wrong, that's why they need two Caucasian men, the de facto dominant faction in extreme right-wing society, to tell them who's evil and who's not. Being symbols of male dominance, both of these characters also sport their own phallic symbol; Professor Utonium (left) with his pipe and the mayor of Townsville (right) with his top hat.
The professor represents the ideal, white-collar working dad. He created the Powerpuff girls solely to be a responsible father, like any good American would! Although, it's questionable why some lonely scientist would want to create "the perfect little girls", as they're referred to, but why argue with conservative reasoning? He simply wants to raise three, ideal Caucasian girls without the utilization of sex or the dangerous, liberal tradition of adoption. With the ingredients of sugar, spice and "everything nice", plus the accidental addition of a substance called "Chemical X", Professor Utonium was able to conjure "the perfect little girls". Chemical X is the cause of their superpowers, but what qualities were also given to them by the other substances in this crazy, nonsensical, republican world? Sugar is white so ... yeah, you know where I'm going with this. Spice represents sexuality, and since that's a trait Buttercup lacks, she obviously didn't get enough of it. We are never told what "everything nice" is supposed to be, but I don't doubt that it probably involved a few Bibles and small crosses to instill some conservative morality into those "perfect little girls". Now, I know what you're thinking; why would three Aryan girls take orders from a non-Aryan, black-haired man? Well, didn't Hitler have black hair? ... I thought so.
The mayor is the perpetually cheery, white Republican chief of the Townsville municipal, and of course, he's always shown as happy and agreeable. Being a high-ranking member of society, the mayor enjoys the leisure of being able to call the Powerpuff girls whenever he wants via an exclusive, hot-line telephone installed in his office. Although this development is meant to battle overall crime in the city, it's a heavily flawed process because the mayor is the only one who has access to this phone. But, in the world of extreme right-wing thinking, this actually makes sense. Why would the Powerpuff girls want to save a couple of inner-city kids from getting shot? Why help low-income scum when the mayor needs another pickle jar opened?
The mayor also has a voluptuous intern called Ms. Bellum. Although she's considered beautiful, her face is never shown, therefore drawing attention to her curvy shape. Her probable purpose is to teach girls that a woman's body is all that matters.
Now that I'm done covering the protagonists, it's time to move onto the more juicy characters; the antagonists, representing a wide range of ethnic, liberal, and idealistic groups that are usually considered enemies to the right-wing. And who better to start off the antagonists than the mother of them all?
Mojo Jojo, the de facto main villain of the series, represents the biggest ethnic threat and crutch to the white race; black people. Yes, you heard me right. Mojo Jojo is, in fact, a very obvious personification of Africa. He's an African monkey with an African accent, even his name is African. Mojo Jojo was once a lab assistant of professor Utonium's, but when the Powerpuff Girls were created, the explosion caused his brain to enlarge, thus giving him enough conscienceness to escape the professor, much like how the African slaves escaped their masters. Nothing's more dangerous than a black man who knows too much! He also appears to symbolize African-Americans more than anyone else, because Mojo Jojo (the black man) blames Professor Utonium (the white man) for his evil actions when monologuing about his motives. In The Powerpuff Girls Movie, Mojo deceives the Powerpuff Girls into helping him get off the streets and they build a laboratory for him, much like how the welfare system works, only for Mojo to turn the tables and try to take over the world with his fellow primate kind (AKA the black race). Mojo is given green skin to show that he is the most evil of all the villains, as well as the primates who join Mojo in his quest for world domination in the theatrical film. But why green skin? Well, that's another metaphor I hope to explain with our next villains.
Since minority characters are rarely ever seen in The Powerpuff Girls, the creators probably decided that they would use one skin color to group all minorities together. After all, they're all the same as far as the extreme right-wing is concerned. The Gang Green Gang serves to symbolize minority gangs in general and the "dangers" of multiculturalism. Aside from blacks (as handled by Mojo's character), each member of the gang represents a different racial minority. Starting with the four characters in front from left to right; Little Arturo is Hispanic, Grubber is Arab, Ace is Native American, and Snake is Asian. The one character in the back, Big Billy, is the only exception; he's meant to represent a white, race traitor. They're all pretty harsh stereotypes, especially Little Arturo's character which insinuates that all Latinos are incredibly short. In "Buttercrush", the fourth episode of the series where the Gang Green Gang made their debut, Buttercup develops a crush for Ace. The episode exemplifies how interracial relationships spell trouble as Ace takes advantage of Buttercup and deceives her into letting him and his gang freely cause trouble. He then tries to keep Buttercup busy, feigning emotions for her while his friends attempt to kill Blossom and Bubbles, which only goes to show that all minorities are heartless and that we're better off without those damn Indians! When Buttercup finds out what's happening, she proceeds to beat Ace and his gang in the most brutal ways possible. With how much violence there was in The Powerpuff Girls, I'm surprised nobody complained or tried to censor it for as long as it aired. I guess little girls beating up minorities is the only violence soccer moms seem to approve of.
Him, as this character is called, is an obvious slash on homosexuals, and in typical right-wing fashion, Christian symbolism is heavily used to portray this character as significantly evil. This character is called "Him" because no one dares to speak his real name, or some crap like that. What? Is Satan a new curse word for these republican nuts now, even though it's used in the Bible like the word "Hell"? Regardless, we're never told if this character is Satan or not, but it's still pretty obvious that he's gay. I mean, that goatee proves he's a guy, but he wears high-heeled boots that rise above his knees and also what appears to be Santa lingerie, and of course, Santa Clause is evil by conservative standards because he represents the liberal consumerism and nonreligious aspect of Christmas. Him also sports mechanical, crab claws instead of hands, which I guess is a metaphor for "Crabs", the sexually transmitted, genital lice.
Finally, the Rowdyruff Boys teaches girls to give in to the male-dominated world. Being ideal Aryan boys, the Rowdyruff Boys display a strong sense of initiative and enough morality to rebel against their illegitimate black "father", Mojo. In their first appearance, "The Rowdyruff Boys", the twelfth episode of the series, Mojo Jojo creates these boys in his jail cell so he can break out of prison and get revenge on the Powerpuff Girls, but of course, like the typical black man he represents, Mojo is never seen paying their child support. In the ensuing battle, the Rowdyruff Boys manage to actually kill the Powerpuff Girls. They are the only villains who ever achieve this feat, proving that the only thing more powerful than little, Aryan girls with superpowers ... are little, Aryan boys with superpowers. They are brought back to life however by the tears of Townsville's citizens and think that all hope is lost until they finally decide to appease the Rowdyruff Boys by kissing them on their cheeks, which finally makes them disappear. This is yet another, extremely right-wing metaphor, showing that males will always be dominant over females, and that the only way females can ever gain piece of mind by males is through sexual appeasement.
But even minor, reoccurring characters also share in the rampant, extremely right-wing symbolism. In order from top left to bottom right; Fuzzy Lumpkins represents the liberal threat posed by the poor and unemployed, the mobster Amoeba Boys are actually viruses and represent the dirty "infection" of Italians in America, the Smith family represents a typical, evil democratic family, and Sedusa and Princess Morbucks exist for the sole purpose of illustrating how violence against other females is okay, no matter what age they are.
So, in conclusion, the ideal world for the creators of this series is a world where all women are simply servants and objects to the dominant, white republican man. Minorities are all alike; deceitful and not to be trusted, especially blacks, who are the most evil. Gays are demonic people who believe in Santa Clause instead of God. And although little, republican, Aryan girls are able to defeat the most powerful liberals and minorities, they will still never be a match for their male counterparts.
