Most kid who grew up in the last 10 years would remember Nickelodeon’s action/extreme sports cartoon Rocket Power. For those who have never seen the show, it is about four kids growing up in California surrounded by the skateboarding/extreme sports culture. One of the main characters, Otto Rocket, is a very egotistical yet very good skateboarder. He typically leads the other three into crazy adventures and always feel the need to prove himself to others. As a child watching this show, I always felt that Otto was the coolest. I wanted to be just like him. It was a mixture of being a fan of the show and seeing Otto as a form of a role model. While discussing the show over lunch earlier today, everyone eating agreed that Otto was a “giant asshole” yet we all still loved the show. Otto was always selfish and usually got into a lot of trouble, yet he represented masculinity in a strange way.
As Trujillo says, “Perhaps no single institution in American culture has influenced our sense of masculinity more than sport” (Trujillo 292). Although Otto was not portrayed with all the hegemonic masculinity traits, he certainly felt the need to be better than everyone else regardless of what it took to do so. You know you’re the epitome of manliness when your first name is a palindrome. Notice how in this clip Otto almost immediately finds a scheme to prove himself.
So what does all of this mean to a little kid? Surely i found the show entertaining as a child, but I also tried to emulate what I saw. I recall attempting to skateboard and falling over and over again thinking, man, I wish I could be like Otto, he’s so cool. Eventually I discovered Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, a much safer alternative. Even in a kid’s show, the emphasis on masculinity is present. I recall in numerous episodes Otto’s disgust at his sister, Reggie, who showed Otto up. Otto emphasized that men dominated the sports world, and he had the cockiness to go along with it. Although seen as a relatively harmless TV show, it had psychological effects on fans such as myself, whether intentional or not. On the other hand, other Nickelodeon shows emphasized gender roles from the other perspective. Take Hey Arnold!‘s Helga, a girl who takes crap from nobody. Throughout her day, Helga belittles anyone in her path, showing cruelty to anyone who will listen. She shows the female equivalent to someone who feels the need to emulate masculine traits in order to be taken seriously. She would also become infatuated with the thought of a romantic relationship with Arnold, showing her lack of decisiveness and her own confusion in regards to her identity. She is very intelligent and also confused my little prepubescent mind about the roles of men and women in society. Did some women really act that way? Nickelodeon may me question every stereotype I had learned up to that point. At the drop of a hat, Helga would fight anyone anywhere even though defense is typically associated with masculinity. But almost instantly afterwords she would pull out a locket with Arnold’s picture and talk about her love for him. Nickelodeon unintentionally opened my eyes to both sides of the spectrum. This video captures her split-personality pretty well.
Sources:
Trujillo, Nick. “Hegemonic Masculinity on the Mound.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication. 8 (1991) 280-308.
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