Ms. Sara Bellum
As
a character in the Cartoon series ‘The Power Puff Girls’, Ms. Sara Bellum is
the Mayor’s very competent, statuesque, and redhead right-hand assistant who often
handles things the Mayor can’t, which is practically everything. The
multi-stereotypical face is never revealed on screen, clearly producing a gaze
that objectifies women as it shapes the minds of the youngsters to believe that
you don’t need a ‘head’ in order to be successful.
Among
eyes Ms. Bellum is a common predilection because of her sexy appearance. The
hyper-feminist has an ‘Hour-Glass’ shaped body that the majority of men dream
about. Simply constructed from a thin waist (the base); making its way up to
large breasts or down to her round hips and toned butt, her body is considered
as full. Characters in the cartoon often claim that she is very
beautiful (Pro. Utonium is always stunned
and usually weakened in her presence) which makes sense because all her
features are ‘long’ which is considered beautiful or attractive now, and
apparently when the cartoon was being produced. She is a tall woman with long
legs, hair, nails, and also a long neck which is said to be beautiful as is
symbolizes a horse’s neck. Ms. Bellum with her perfect lady-like posture always
struts herself in a pair of red (the color of seduction) heels, a short
skin-tight skirt, a golden necklace, and a black belt to make her tight,
slightly revealing business vest even tighter. Whenever in the center of
attention an object has to cover her face or just her great deal of curly red
hair does the job. But what impact does this have on the viewer and did it
affect our society today? Yes, the girl eyes staring at screens know
that since they are smart they will have a successful future but because of Ms.
Bellum they now think that there success won’t come a long unless they have the
exact appearance as Ms. Bellum, including the incorrect fact that what matters
is what’s going on from the neck down. This applies to the society today as
millions women who were never able to climb up to the standard of ‘Ms. Bellum’,
end up feeling incomplete, unconfident, not good enough, or just the plain old
unattractive loser who was never able to have the highlight of correcting a
teacher while she glows emitting her beauty. She also indirectly teaches a type
of seduction to kids in one episode through teaching ‘The Power Puff Girls’ to
be nice the ‘Rowdyruff Boys (villains)’ (in other words, kiss them) instead of
fighting to destroy them which ended up working. Furthermore, Ms. Bellum is
also the reason why men only focus on women’s bodies because that’s exactly
what she did. She taught the once young boys to only focus on what underneath
the head because that is what is important.
At
first Ms. Bellum is seen as a sex object, ironically until she speaks, even
though her voice sounds insouciant. Matching her appearance Ms. Bellum’s tone
is kept constant while her throaty, alluring, and quite unruffled voice
displays her intellectual side. While it’s hard to believe that as she says
stuff like ‘It’d be my pleasure…’ her “Do tell…’s” show the stereotype of a
very successful woman were her only super power is her high intelligence.
Unfortunately, this does criticize the patriarchal structure or the society
because distinctly she is the brains of the Mayor operations, deserving his position.
Yet she’s just an assistant to the dumb unproductive male just because being
Mayor is defined as ‘a male job’ like being the president. In one episode she
expresses an obsessive attachment to the Mayor after he died, proving that she
is in love with him which easily connects to the society now as usually the
assistant ends up falling for her Boss or vis versa.
The
gaze of Ms. Bellum strongly objectifies women as it teaches youngsters to judge
from the head down and that it is only possible to be ‘something’ high in life
if you have ‘The Look’. Although, no-matter what your IQ is men remain inferior
to women, and women have to stay trapped under their planned authority. Who
knew a headless woman in a cartoon for kids could explain today’s society moreover;
engrave such a huge impact in the world today, huh?
