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  • THURSDAY FEBRUARY 3 2005 11:36 PM

SpongeBob vs the Culture Warriors

Submitted by s5

Edited by Michael_J_Totten

Many of us had a laugh when Dr. James Dobson condemned SpongeBob Squarepants for supposedly encouraging kids to be gay. But not everyone was laughing. The Plaid Adder explains how the fundamentalist Christian crusade against children's programming runs deeper and more sinister than that.

Meet Margaret Spelling, new director of the Education Department. Spelling has told PBS - which produces and airs much of America's children's programming - not to air an episode of Postcards from Buster in which Buster the bunny visits Vermont to learn about how to make maple syrup, and meets a child whose parents are a lesbian couple. "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode," she said. And furthermore, "Congress's and the department's purpose in funding this programming certainly was not to introduce this kind of subject matter to children, particularly through the powerful and intimate medium of television."

This is what makes the SpongeBob controversy not funny. It's one thing for a crazy man to make an ass of himself in public by frothing about the subversive dangers of cartoon miscreants. Spelling's missive to PBS proves that under the Bush administration, this minority has accumulated enough political and social clout to dictate to the rest of the country. "Many parents" may object to this episode, but many other parents don't, and still others are deeply offended and bitterly angry about the fact that the head of a government department funded with their tax money has just ordered PBS, on pain of losing federal funding, to pretend that either they don't exist or they exude a radioactive toxicity that will blight and destroy any child exposed to them.

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Kingbugs

kingbugs

I'm lost
December 2002

FEB 04, 2005 04:59 AM

here are two good links:

the first is Dobson's "setting the record STRAIGHT (pun intended)
and then there is a nice reaction, pointing out the dangers of this... (oops, already posted. duh)

Over all, I find this scary. I am currently teaching a class on Gender Construction and Popular Media, and am taking these articles in to class today. (S5, thanks for the heads up). Hopefully, I'll be able to show 100 18 year olds why and how politics, media, and gender are entwined, and hopefully, how such political "family value" organizations breed / support / rationalize prejudice.

edited to say "duh."

[Edited on Feb 04, 2005 5:16AM]

Idjit

Idjit

HOPEFUL

I'm lost

FEB 04, 2005 05:17 AM

Michael_DeSade said:
What it boils down to is this: if you want to produce a show that openly discusses the various forms that human relationships take, more power to you. If you pitch a show as a 'bunny' visiting Vermont to learn about maple syrup, don't use it as an excuse to push your own agenda on the sly, be it liberal or conservative.



It has as much of an agenda as Sesame Street did in introducing black and latino (with actual Spanish speaking) characters back in the day. Should that multi-cultural liberal agenda have been squashed? The message is tolerance by reflecting the realities of life, which is hard to have a problem with regardless if it's a liberal or conservative agenda.

Appletonpunk

Appletonpunk

Neenah, WI
September 2004

FEB 04, 2005 05:57 AM

this is all too funny, religeion has it out for spongebob when its the priest they need to keep an eye on. dirty dirty

cartoon aren't corrupt, people with too much time on their hands are. raise your onw kid before everyone elses

[Edited on Feb 04, 2005 8:00AM]

supercrisis

supercrisis

Canada
July 2004

FEB 04, 2005 06:25 AM

"Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode,"

Yes, let's shield our children from the evil gays! If we don't they might catch gay disease! Or even worse, they might come to realize that their parent's are fucked up in the head.

venomkid

venomkid

I'm lost
January 2003

FEB 04, 2005 07:11 AM

I think, on the underside, this has a lot to do with marketing and the lack of saturation for Christian media, especially in children's programming. It's just a fact that Christian media does not sell to kids nearly as well as secular. There have been some success stories, but the market's overwhelmingly secular. This is viewed by some as missing a great opportunity to get their message out to the youngest of the unwashed masses.

I just can't help but think that, on some level, this entire brouhaha is to make sure that already convinced Christian parents keep buying Christian media, and to try to get those on the fence to hop to their side.

hasselhoff

hasselhoff

Germany
April 2004

FEB 04, 2005 07:30 AM

A gay man wearing short pants and a tie? I cant buy that. But living in a pineapple under the sea, that's a different story.

Psydragon

Psydragon

Novato, CA
OLD SKOOL

FEB 04, 2005 10:35 AM

Haha This debate reminds me of this show.
http://rainbow.arch.scriptmania.com/rainbow_tv_episode.html
Maybe they should play this one on PBS!

giga_geo

giga_geo

San Francisco, CA
November 2002

FEB 04, 2005 11:55 AM

s5 said:

Michael_J_Totten said:
I still think it's funny. A friend of mine trolled through the Free Republic Web site (a loony right-wing version of Indymedia, for those of you who don't know) and he told me even the Freepers were laughing at Dobson. The guy is an assclown who isn't taken seriously by anyone but his own dittoheads.



well, it's not the freepers that worry me; it's the "concerned parents". i'm not sure if they have a message board of their own yet.



they do: enjoy.

some of them are more tolerant than they look.

[Edited on Feb 04, 2005 by Giga]

howdidigethere

howdidigethere

Oroville, CA
June 2004

FEB 04, 2005 12:02 PM

spounge bob should die just for causing this crap of a controversy

Minerva

Minerva

HOPEFUL

Annapolis, MD

FEB 04, 2005 04:53 PM

Stab_Me said:
spounge bob should die just for causing this crap of a controversy


Spongebob didn't cause it. Really, it was Tinky Winky who paved the way for homosexual children's progam characters. whatever

s5

s5

San Francisco, CA
OLD SKOOL

FEB 04, 2005 05:00 PM

Giga said:
they do: enjoy.

some of them are more tolerant than they look.



great link, thanks. smile

plasticfangs

plasticfangs

Portland, OR
OLD SKOOL

FEB 04, 2005 05:13 PM

1) Gay peopel do not have secret society, where they all wear funny hats and wring their hands with scheme to "turn out" the entire world.

2) YES, pro-gay culture warriors would be okay, whereas Anti-Gay culture warriors are NOT. Why? Because it's called bigotry.

Wren

Wren

SUICIDEGIRL

Minnesota, USA

FEB 04, 2005 05:21 PM

s5 said:

Giga said:
they do: enjoy.

some of them are more tolerant than they look.



great link, thanks. smile



I liked it, too. Thanks. biggrin

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