Cartoons Back in the Day
When my baby-boomer generation was growing up, we did not have computer games. We only had cartoons. Our young minds were heavily influenced by their characters and storylines and we would play pretend reenactments with our little friends in the back yard. It was a gentler time, as we were not kicking each other’s heads off in mortal combat. We were only engaged in super-racist cowboys and Indians and shooting each other with fake guns.
So which cartoons do I remember as making a mark on my psyche? Well first there was the Flintstones, which made us all believe that people regularly interacted with dinosaurs. Fred was the most misogynistic bully ever to grace children’s programming. He would bully his best friend Barney and order his wife to bring him dinner and clean up the house. Thankfully his wife Wilma had her very crafty neighbor Betty to help her get back at Fred. Betty and Barney also introduced adoption into our vocabulary when their son Bam Bam entered the show. Thank goodness, even as a little kid, I knew Fred was an asshole.
Josie and the Pussycats introduced us to three young women who could rock and solve mysteries, which was pretty positive. Josie also had the first black female animated character in Valerie the tambourine player, who also happened to be a genius. They went on tour and were hot and relatively badass.
Scooby-Doo taught us how group collaboration could solve crime and also told us to listen to the unkempt doofus nerd with the big dog. Shaggy looked homeless but had a lot of good ideas. We also delighted in the fact that the homely Velma was smarter than the glamourous Daphne and her useless hunk boyfriend Fred. They were the stereotypical cheerleader-jock duo.
Johnny Quest adventure series taught us to be more racially tolerant, as Johnny relied heavily on his trusty sidekick Hadji, who was Sikh and therefore wore a turban. This was a timely message because a lot of Indian immigrants were moving into our neighborhoods around Vancouver and joining our schools and racism was rampant.
I remember a boy coming into my grade five class and being teased mercilessly. Hurtful epithets like “raghead” and “turban twister” were widely used. It was not a proud moment for my generation but thankfully, we have evolved.
Far and away my favourite cartoon was the Jetsons. It opened up endless possibilities for the future, like flying cars, talking dogs, lasers and household robots like Rosey. A child's creative mind could run rampant with these ideas and it was definitely formative for me.
Cartoons were a way for us to relate to the world around us. I believe they were less violent than today’s video games, but they certainly were not perfect in their messaging. Tell me, what was your favourite?
