She-Ra: Empowering Shero or Gateway Drug?

6/4/2012

Rebecca Hains has posted a call for chapters for a scholarly anthology about princess culture. We had a quick Twitter exchange about possibilities and somehow She-Ra popped into the conversation. If you never heard of She-Ra, Princess of Power, you were not a preschool child or the parent of a preschooler in the mid-1980s. Here's a taste:

My three-year-old daughter was heavily engaged in He-Man and She-Ra play for about a year, and owned not only She-Ra and the horse and the castle and a sick-kick or two, but also a She-Ra outfit. The later was a mix of items that were purchased (shield, sword and mask) and homemade (dress from an old slip, silk scarf turned into a cape). For a brief time, trips to the Mall were transformed into "shopping with She-Ra", as she walked a few steps behind me, narrating an imaginative adventure and waving her pink plastic sword.

So take a look at She-Ra. Consider the Playboy Playmate proportions, the girlish voice, the horse, the clothes. If you were a fan, what do you remember being so attractive about She-Ra? What impact, if any, did she have you, as a child or as a grown up? Would you be happy or appalled if your own child fell in love with She-Ra today? Is she the mother or grandmother of the Disney Princesses? A distant cousin?

Curious minds want to know.

Panya link

6/4/2012 01:16:25 pm

I was 4-5 when the show was originally run. I had a mini She-Ra figurine to go along with my brother's and cousin's He-Man toys. I remember thinking she was beautiful, and I loved her dress and cape -- I have a distinct memory of caressing the chiffon-like material on her skirt. I also liked her crown and castle in the cartoon -- though not the toy versions of those, they changed those and I thought they were horrible. I thought the other female characters were pretty too, particularly Frosta [she was actually my favorite], Catra, and Teela [had to look up their names]. I liked that they all had "jewels" on them [I've always been attracted to sparkly things]. I can't remember if I had any of the other "girl" toys, or if someone else in the family did, but I remember stroking the skirts and rubbing the jewels on those too. Though my memories of those "girl" toys are vague, I remember playing with the He-Man toys more often, with my brother and male cousin [we all lived together at the time] -- I really liked Skeletor, so I usually 'played that part'.

I couldn't even remember what the cartoon was about; looking it up now, I think I was probably attracted to the sci-fi/fantasy aspect of the story, since I love that as an adult.

I promote modesty, pacifism, and unisex-appeal in clothing/toys/play now, so I don't think I'd be too happy if any of my children liked She-Ra OR He-Man.

6/4/2012 01:50:07 pm

Very interesting! Thanks for the detailed response. I find it interesting that boys and girls could play with the toys together, and wonder how common that was.

Kim

6/23/2012 12:19:58 pm

I was a teenager in the 80's but I remember catching an episode of She-Ra where she had gotten kidnapped or captured by her enemies. A male hero friend of hers wanted to save her, but she was able to rescue herself, and it was a major point of the episode that she didn't need to be rescued by a man. I thought that was a great message, myself.
I was a kid in the 70's and my heroes were Wonder Woman (who wears an even skimpier costume than She-Ra), Princess Leia (before the brass bikini) and The Bionic Woman. I also loved Charlie's Angels -- for all the complaints that it was a "cheesecake" show, to me it was about strong women fighting crime as a team. I found such shows and characters totally empowering and the sex appeal aspects of them were non-existent for me until I got much older. To this day (I'm in my 40's) the empowering aspect inspires me more than the sex appeal insults my feminist sensibilities. So, to make a long story short, if I had a daughter or other young female who embraced She-Ra, I would have no problem with it. (And I myself am a pacifist who dresses modestly.)

Kelly

7/3/2012 02:11:43 pm

I was about 5 when I remember playing with She-Ra dolls - but it was only in relation to my playing with the boys in my neighborhood. In fact, I didn't have my own She Ra - she belonged to one of the boys, as part of his He Man toy collection. When I played with the boys, they always made me be She-Ra arguing that I was a girl. I wanted to play with the tougher characters and usually fought them on being stuck on She-Ra - which is funny considering that I visually present my gender as very feminine and was always a girl who liked being a girl. I was also a girl who played sports and had two brothers AND was a huge fan of Wonder Woman. I think I got so mad about She-Ra because the boys were the ones defining me and limiting the abilities of my gender.

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She-Ra: Empowering Shero or Gateway Drug?

Jo Paoletti

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