User blog comment:BradP27/Why RR was the Best Season Since the Original TDI--if not better/@comment-1376932-20151014074350/@comment-1888444-20151015031137

^ Totally agree with you that a lot of us don't (and shouldn't) take this seriously, but also worth it to remember that a lot of younger kids watch this show.

There's a really thorough body of research that clearly shows that kids' attitudes about the world can be fundamentally shaped by TV shows (even cartoons)--and so when gay people are treated as punchlines, or when all the "attractive" women have wildly unrealistically thin wastes and the other ones are mocked, that becomes part of how they think the world is, or should be. Homophobia and body image issues are real, and no one thing (or person or show) is responsible, but if a girl sees a lot of ultra-thin representations of women on TV, that's going to be how she thinks her body should look; if a gay kid sees same-sex attraction treated as a joke, how is that going to affect their self-image?

The reason I bring this up is not because "oh social justice blah blah" but because this is a show where the producers do listen to the fanbase, and so we do have a responsibility to push back against problematic/harmful content.

This, of course, is worth considering in the context that the show is far better towards women/people of color than it has been in the past!