BlogHer - Hello Kitty has something to say - Comments

disturbing quandry

Maynardn — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:59:04 -0500

Tofu-Powered Art-Chick

I do not think it is over-reading it to say that it is misogynistic. What disturbs me is that I'm an artist sensitive to the manipulation of images and I never noticed or made the connection. Having grown up with Hello Kitty, it may be that it was always around, so I didn't think about it. I don't think this idea was intentionally implanted by Sanrio as anti-feminist. Rather, these things get woven into the culture unconsciously. The designer probably wanted a cute looking cat and modeled it after the ideal, cute, Asian girl that was mild-tempered, quiet, with good manners - a "good girl." Now my quandry is do I get rid of the Hello Kitty window clings I put up in anticipation of my new, two-year-old daughter's arrival from China?

My blog:
http://artweekly.blogspot.com

um..

Tiara Shafiq — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:50:58 -0500

isn't that kind of reading too much into Hello Kitty's lack of mouth? I don't think Sanrio necessarily had an anti-feminist agenda when designing her.

Hello Kitty has something to say

Melinda Casino — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:42:10 -0500

Candace N. Gardener at Muse and fury notices a facial feature missing from Hello Kitty: the mouth.

Many girls world-wide absolutely love Hello Kitty. Candace points out the political aspect of the missing meow mouth:

"The message here is loud and clear (unlike HKâ€™s voice): donâ€™t just be quiet and passive, be Silent. You have nothing to say—you are forbidden from speaking. Stop thinking and feeling too."

Feminist Allies, a team-blog by feminist men, points to a post by Kameron Hurley of Brutal Women and comments on it:

"First of all, I love that Kameron said something, 'even' in a workplace situation. This is exactly the sort of day-to-day fight that it is sometimes hard to fight as a feminist. But I think it cuts to the heart of the disingenuousness of people who say that they're not being sexist, exactly, but that they'd be disappointed if they had a girl. And I think a lot can be understood as you start to figure out why you want a child of a particular sex, whether you desire a boy or you desire a girl."

Read "The Gender Essentialism of 'Wanting a Boy'" by Jeff at Feminist Allies.

A couple of pointers to carnivals: The next Radical Women of Color Carnival will be hosted by Tigera Consciente at team-blog Street Photojournalism Reppin' Da Town. The deadline is September 30th, and you can email submissions to RosaDominicana AT gmail DOT com. See this post for details. Hat-tip: Women of Color Blog.

And the latest issue of The Carnival of Feminists is up at Redemption Blues.

Image: Muse and fury

BlogHer Contributing Editor Melinda Casino also writes at Sour Duck.

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