I just ordered myself this ‘fancy’ new cordless hand-vacuum from Amazon… the new Dirt Devil Kone in Plum ($39.99). If it weren’t for the fact that I actually need a cordless vacuum and have been checking Target and such places for one lately, this would be a purely esthetic-driven HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE purchase and, therefore, pathetic. It sure is perty, though.

Thinking about this whole vacuum thing, I remembered a Bugs Bunny cartoon I watched in my youth where Hansel and Gretel stole the witch’s broom and quipped, upon escaping her clutches, “Ah, your mother drives a vacuum cleaner!”

I couldn’t remember if the witch had a name, so I did a little searching. Her name was Witch Hazel (oh, how clever). The episode was called “Bewitched Bunny” and it’s from 1954. Here’s a Chuck Jones sketch:

The episode was apparently quite controversial. At the end of the cartoon, the witch sprinkles herself with magic powder and turns into a beautiful female rabbit. As Bugs walks away with Hottie McBunny there, he ‘turns’ to the camera and says, “Ah sure, I know! But aren’t they all witches inside?”

In 1998, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council handled a complaint from a woman who wrote in to her local station, which had played that cartoon some weeknight during The Bugs & Tweety Show. WELL, it’s interesting to read the case. Here’s a quote from the complainant’s letter:

Televising this anti-woman cartoon demands that you personally offer a televised apology to woman viewers of Global Television. This can best be done during the “First National” news program and repeated at the 11 p.m. news program. A copy of this complaint is being mailed to the CRTC.

And a portion of the reply:

In the episode you refer to, one could argue that the female character (the witch) is portrayed as strong and intelligent, while the males are seen as weak and somewhat naive. While Bugs Bunny warns the witch that “any rabbit’s too smart for you”, she actually outwits the rabbit, not once, but three times in attempting to catch him.

And the reply to that:

I did not complain about the witch! She was behaving like a witch, not a woman!

I complained about the statement by Bugs in regard to the attractive female rabbit, “aren’t they all witches inside?” Implying that all females are evil and destructive.

This is the basis of my complaint.

If the audience had been adults, perhaps we could chuckle and forget it. This cartoon was aimed at children who are forming their attitudes to men and women. Therefore, this cartoon is not only offensive to women, but gives a wrong idea of women to impressionable children: women are evil inside. “Aren’t they all witches inside?” This means I am a witch inside, Charlotte Bell is a witch inside, and Gretel of the cartoon is a witch inside. Misogynistic attitudes do not belong in children’s cartoons.

If my wrist is feeling better tomorrow, I’ll amend this entry to add my two cents. It’s hurting me right now, so the one-handed typing is becoming even more frustrating.

Basically, it will be something about applying current social/moral standards to works created in a very different social climate and accepting them as historical works. A cartoon shown at 5 p.m. is vastly different from a Saturday morning cartoon or one shown in a morning block of children’s programming. Parents should be aware of what their kids are watching and be there to navigate situations like these; for all we know, they could be terrified at the prospect of a witch plotting to fatten up and eat children. For that matter, the stories of the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen aren’t really for sensitive children of today either; they’ve been Disney-fied and bowdlerized into oblivion and bear no resemblance to their original forms.

My apologies. I must stop now. I need to take some Motrin and get to bed.

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