3 Feminist Lessons The Powerpuff Girls Taught Us

If there’s one thing this generation of ours has in common, it’s that we all grew up watching the same cartoons. We all heard the same jokes, sang to the same theme songs, got the same cartoon references and watched the same trio of Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup fighting crime for the city of Townsville.

We decided to go on a feels trip by re-watching the cartoon series and realised that little did we notice when we were little, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup were easily the most feminist cartoons back in the day. These three little girls were giving us so many important life lessons while kicking butt and being super cute all at the same time. Listed here are a few things about women empowerment The Powerpuff Girls taught us.

• Redefine Feminism

The Powerpuffs Girls aren’t just a group of 3 adorable girls running around fighting crime. These are empowered female characters that not only exhibit girl power but also, very respectfully, redefine feminism for its audiences.

In the episode Equal Fights, the Cartoon series features a faux feminist villain named Fem Fatale who steals Susan B. Anthony coins since all other forms of money have men on them. While the character does make some valid points, her view of feminism is a completely distorted one i.e. less about equality and more about wanting special treatment.

In the end of this episode, the Powerpuff Girls teach her an important lesson in their legendary speech that goes something like this,

“In 1872, she broke the law by voting. And even though she was found guilty, the feds wanted to go easy on her-because she was a girl!-and not send her to jail. Susan B. Anthony didn’t want special treatment. She wanted to be treated equally. She demanded that she be sent to jail, just like any man who broke the law. And that’s exactly what we’re gonna do to you.”

• The Powerpuff Girls exhibit strength, without compromising their femininity.

The trio pretty much defied all pre-conceived notions that you need be either a man or an extremely tough, sexy woman to be a superhero. The Powerpuff Girls represented a paradigm shift in how we view female superheroes by giving us characters that exhibit strength and femininity all in one package of sugar, spice and everything nice.

Apart from that dash of chemical X, the Powerpuff Girls represent 3 adorably badass little girls. Super heroines like these were a rare find back in the ’90s and ’00s.

• Reinforced ideals of women being partners rather than competitors

Contrary to how society is constantly trying to condition women into believing that they’re competitors, The Powerpuff Girls teach us a very important lesson about girls being allies rather than enemies. Each of these girls has her own special powers that defined her and these skills were best put to use when the three of them worked as a team. Not only did the makers of the series focus on its characters’ individuality but also on their strength as a team.

In the character of the villain Princess, the cartoon series also showed us that jealousy and selfish pursuits of power were self-defeating, not to mention supremely annoying. Seriously, nobody liked that kid.

The makers of the series defied all concepts of gendered super heroes and gave us an empowered superhero trio without even realising it. So, its safe to say that The Powerpuff Girls were about much more than just fighting crime and saving the day.