#i called it a thing bc idek if this qualifies as an essay/article/argument/pov lol

[loatheta]

is it just me??? like, I don’t really like the way tina and lola are portrayed.

warning: unexpanded thing™ bc ik if i put this in my drafts and i don’t finish it now, i’ll never come back to it. so yeah, please enjoy this very poorly written thing, or don’t.

tl;dr: looney tunes’ portrayal of tina and lola is subtly stereotypical/bordering on misogynistic maybe. i’m no expert and this isn’t like a full in-depth analysis of the show/video bc i’m ignoring my hw for this lol so take my words with a grain of salt.

firstly: physically.

body: tina and lola have the same unrealistic body type – relatively large boobs supported by tiny, tiny waists and faces that are the same as the guys (except, of course, for the styled hair (and ears in lola’s case...? she even curls her ears specifically for a date with bugs, which is not only unrealistic bc they’re her ears lmao but it also encourages the notion that women dress up for men) and long, obvious eyelashes (presumably just to make sure you know that they’re women).

and while it’s of course okay to portray a woman with eyelashes (many women do lengthen their eyelashes or something bc it makes them feel good), if you portray all the women in something with eyelashes, it promotes having a certain type of eyelashes. this is further supported by tina’s sister’s baby son, of who(m?) daffy mistakes for a girl. the only defining trait of the baby that could differentiate the sex of the baby is his eyelashes.

the girls are more humanised in their portrayal; their skin is closer to more human skin tones in comparison to daffy and bugs. daffy is completely black except for a white band around his neck, which is a pretty plausible duck colour scheme for the general audience (I’m assuming the audience, like me, is duck-ignorant lmao). bugs is grey. very rabbit-like.

lola’s a caramel colour – plausible for rabbits, but it’s specifically chosen to be more human-like. tina is yellow, kind of like a rubber duck i guess? still more human-like than daffy. this could be a bit of a stretch, but this could have been a conscious choice so as to make a more adult audience subconsciously less guilty for possibly lusting after them.

clothing: well, firstly, they’re actually clothed lmao. it’s perfectly okay to portray anthropomorphised animals in clothing, but if only female animals have clothes... there’s something wrong here. throughout the video, daffy and bugs almost never have clothes on (bugs dons a suit for his wedding and daffy wears a towel once). they’re animals, it’s natural. so why bother always portraying the women with clothes? well, it’s a simple logical path: if it’s sexual, children shouldn’t see it. this means the producers don’t have to worry about any genitals showing, so the bottom halves are fine. so logically, the reason characters wear clothes at all is to cover their top halves. men being topless is socially acceptable; if it’s hot out, you’ll likely see men outside – chests exposed to the world – to cool off. women’s chests, however, are seen as sexual organs, and therefore should be censored via clothes. i won’t get into that issue here as it’s probably been discussed a lot.

voices: daffy and bugs both have slightly annoying nasally voices which I see as conventionally unattractive. both of the girls have obviously feminine “human” voices. ngl i don’t know how to expand this further so i won’t. someone else can if they see this

and secondly: personality.

tina: judging from what i’ve seen, tina is kind of portrayed as a tame-ish bitch/jerk type. she’s not very good at her job in a printing 

lola: lola’s depicted as an airheaded ditz. (she also appears to be blonde-ish, so that also contributes to the dumb blonde stereotype). lola also plays the role of a crazy girl at times – namely the part where she was possessive of daffy and trespassed into his room/house (that’s not acceptable behaviour, kids).

on a date with bugs near the start of the video, she’s shown as someone who can’t make up her mind about the most mundane things, like if she wants soup or not.

i’m tired, so i’ll just post this now. i might add to it later when i have more time. thanks for reading this sentence folks