Independent Women

In cartoons females are usually depicted as princesses, sidekicks, male alter egos, and wives or girlfriends. All of these identities somehow relates back to a man. Princesses, particularly Disney princesses, are always looking for prince charming to swoop in and change their live. Sidekicks such as Batgirl, are dependent on a man for there job, and without such man would not exist. Carbon copies of male cartoons such as Daisy Duck to Donald Duck are created just to compliment the male character. The list of female cartoons wives and girlfriends is endless. So I went on a search for a list of independent, non-male centered female cartoon characters;

Ursula (The Little Mermaid)
Josie and The Pussycats
Creulla DeVille (101 Dalmatians)
Velma (Scooby Doo)
Powerpuff Girls
Betty Boop
Sandy (Spongebob Squarepants)

Admidtly this is a short list and I am sure there are more, but these characters represent the aura/attitude of most independent female cartoon characters. To me it is most interesting that many independent characters are villians, to me that is sending the message the women who grow up single turn bitter and evil. On the other hand there are characters such as Sandy and Velma, who are smart, witty and hang right in with the guys, but they have no type of sex appeal and are never looked at for their beauty. Lastly there are characters like Betty Boop where their sex appeal and identitiy as single is their most dominant characteristic. What kind of message are these characters sending to young girls? The images suggest that if you are single you are either evil, nerdy, one of the boys, not sexy or just waiting to be taken. There is a saving grace, characters such as Josie and the Pussycats and The Powerpuff girls give youg girls a vision of females who independent of males, attractive, strong and stable.