Thread:Greenhatdigital/@comment-1888444-20140630035742

Hey Julie,

Thanks so much for dealing with all of this! You are a saint to have this much patience.

My girlfriend and I have been Total Drama fans since the beginning, in middle school, and are eagerly awaiting TDPI. This is an issue has bugged us for a while and I figured that this is the best avenue to pass our thoughts directly onto the team.

Here goes: I think the way the female characters on this show are animated is severely problematic. It is harmful to young women, and it should be fixed.

Let me explain:

-Most female characters on the show have an extremely thin waist that is half the size of their hips and chest. They also generally have large breasts.

-Female characters that AREN'T modeled this way are either called out for being large (LeShawna, Sugar, Sadie) or, worse, are even mistaken for guys (Jo).

-The unreasonably skinny female characters are often objects of male attraction (Lindsay, Gwen, Courtney, Heather, Zoey, etc). The ones who are not so skinny are almost all portrayed as unattractive (Jo, Beth, etc).

-No human being looks like all the super-skinny Total Drama girls. The average girl has a body type similar to Jo, or maybe Beth.

Obviously on a cartoon show, characters will not be drawn entirely realistically. But the way Total Drama portrays women's bodies isn't just inaccurate--it's dangerous. A clear body of research has shown that a) children are very susceptible to what they see on television and make assumptions about life based on what they see on TV, even cartoons, b) when young girls repeatedly see unrealistic standards of beauty on television, they begin to believe that this is what pretty people look like, what they ought to look like, etc, c) the feeling of "not being pretty enough" as a result of comparing themselves to ultra-thin, touched-up models, movie stars, etc is a strong driver of eating disorders, depression, and lack of confidence in young girls.

Here's what a young girl watching Total Drama sees: All of the "normal" characters--the desirable ones, the ones who are popular, the ones who have boyfriends--have ultra-thin waists, clear skin, and large breasts. And the ones who don't have reed-thin waists--the ones who look like her, probably--are unattractive and played for laughs.

How does that make her feel? Inadequate, because she'll never be able to look as "beautiful" as sought-after Lindsay? Ashamed, because the girls who look like her are being called fat or mistaken for men?

This kind of portrayal of the female body is damaging to girls' self esteem and body image. This isn't an opinion or an anecdote or a theory--it's a fact that has been supported by years of research on the relationship between media and self-esteem in women.

Total Drama is an incredible show. But the creators need to take responsibility for the fact that it plays a role in shaping the worldviews of the millions of kids who watch it, and portray its female characters in a socially responsible way. I'm not asking for fewer attractive characters--just for those attractive characters to have more realistic waistlines and body types, so young women of all shapes and sizes can feel affirmed and beautiful.

Two great articles about the link between television and female body image for Wiki-ers wanting to learn more:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1999.tb02791.x/abstract

http://www.westminstercollege.edu/myriad/index.cfm?parent=...&detail=4475&content=4795 