Monday, January 6, 2020

stereotypes in scooby-doo mystery incorporated

So, over break I was watching the show Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated with my little brother, and I noticed that through its main characters, the show was enforcing stereotypes about class. Velma, who is well-known by all to be the smartest and most resourceful member of the Scooby-Doo gang, is depicted in this show as working class. Her parents are the only characters in the show that consistently been depicted working persistently in their professions. They're shown as persistent in their work, and they will often talk and worry about money. They are also shown as just plain, average people; they're not rich, they're sensible, they don't spoil their daughter, and they most likely remind audience members of their own parents. This shows reveals that people who are working class are sensible and plain, but that it's not necessarily a good thing. The ways Velma resembles her parents (sensible, intelligent and hardworking) are the exact traits that make her notoriously nerdy and unattractive to other characters in the Scooby-Doo series. Comparatively, Daphne is rich. She and her mother live in a mansion and are spoiled by Daphne's father. Both act ditsy, and often behave as if things should be handed to them. Neither of them know how to react when things don't go their way. These behaviors (being ditsy, bratty and clueless) are exactly the traits that seem to make Daphne so attractive and popular in the series. Daphne's behavior reflects the stereotype that wealthy people are spoiled brats, yet her popularity reveals that it is these exact behaviors that make one 'cool.' This depiction of the stereotypes and values of different classes idealizes being rich and bratty, and shines a negative light on the normal and sensible characteristics that result from being middle class.

4 comments:

  1. I too watch scooby-doo and have noticed other characters that fall under certain stereotypes, like how Velma is seen as the brains of the group and how she is always the one who solves the mysteries

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  3. I also noticed that Velma was always portrayed as being not cool or nerdy in a really negative light. Since Velma was smart she was also not cool which perpetuates a stereotype that women have to be pretty and ditzy like Daphne to be cool. It’s sad that this was one of my favorite shows as a kid and it perpetuates such bad stereotypes.

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  4. The show seems to provide the idea that women can only be one dimensional. I would have liked to see a character that could've been pretty and smart. Instead, they just decided to split them into two, one dimensional characters (Velma and Daphne).

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