Many classic characters like Rainbow Bright are being revamped, but is the new image a good one?

Derek Wall

A&E Editor

Popular female oriented franchise icons from the 80’s and 90’s are getting a makeover. Companies, like Mattel and Nickelodeon, are finding that the female role models, as they were originally designed, are no longer resonating with modern consumers so a change was needed. But the means in which these companies have used to “modernize” these characters has many questioning the morality and overall purpose of such a shift.

The reason for much of the debate stems from the fact that “modernizing” seems to equate with “sexualizing.”

Dora the Explorer, a popular franchise from Nickelodeon, began airing in 2000. The series has been hailed as an entertaining show for young viewers with a poignant bi-lingual slant. Dora speaks both English and Spanish to her viewers giving them an elementary education in both languages.

Complete with baby fat, frilled yellow socks, and a bowl haircut, Dora would go on amazing adventures with her backpack and her monkey sidekick, Boots.

However, Dora received a makeover in March of last year. Although the young Dora will still continue to host her own show, a “tween” version of Dora now exists on the Internet under a franchise called “Dora’s Explorer Girls.”

The webpage hosts Dora, along with her friends, with a new take on fashion. Dora sports a sleeveless baby doll, purple leggings, pearl earrings, additional jewellery, and makeup. Dora also has appeared to have lost all of her baby-fat gotten rather slim.

Parents are especially in an uproar over the change to Dora’s image. Many feel that the change into a make-up wearing, tight sporting tween was unnecessary and actually quite problematic as a female role model.

The VP of Marketing for Mattel, Gina Sirard, claimed that the parents protests are actually contrary to what their market research confirmed: “The moms that are talking about it are exactly like the moms we researched and asked. These are the moms that asked for an alternative for the older girl in order to stay in the Dora franchise longer.”

Other female characters are getting made-over also; this includes Strawberry Shortcake and Rainbow Bright.

Gone are the days of the old Strawberry Shortcake. The Strawberry Shortcake many grew up with was bloomer clad, a lover of gumdrops, and went everywhere with her cat, Custard. The new Strawberry Shortcake is curvy, thin, and has forsaken her cat for a cell phone apparently.

Although Rainbow Bright has been fairly inactive since her days on the air back in the 1980’s, those that have been following her webpage have seen her transform recently. Not surprisingly, Rainbow Bright has shed the baby fat, slimmed down, and become far more fashion conscious.

Many feel that the “modernizing” of these characters is in response to the overwhelming popularity of the Bratz dolls. The Bratz series has been very controversial since its inception. The characters are hyper sexualized and dress to a level of promiscuity that parents have criticised as being absolutely indecent despite the Bratz being tweens. It seems though that controversy sells well and Bratz continue to dominate the toy market.

Somewhere along the way “modernizing” and “sexualizing” of female role models seemed to become analogous and this presents a huge issue to parents but also to feminist organizations such as bitchmedia.org. It seems that more and more female role models are resorting to image and sexuality as their primary contribution to society.