Powerpuff Girls!

One of my all time favorite animated shows besides Sailor Moon is Powerpuff Girls. Everyone who has watched the show knows the opening sequence:

"Sugar, spice, and everything nice. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girls. But Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction-Chemical X! Thus the Powerpuff Girls were born." 

The other day I learned that the "creation myth" of the powerpuff girls is actually from an English nursery rhyme called "What Little Boys Are Made Of". According to the poem, boys are made of "snips and snails, and puppy dog tails" (which sounds repulsive next to what girls are made of, no wonder boys are gross). Anyway I am so excited that the show is being rebooted because of the three female-empowering lead characters. 

On the topic of the Powerpuff Girls' creation story, I was reminded of the conversations we've been having in class about the scientist archetype and how Professor Utonium doesn't really fit into this mold of an unfeeling, narcissistic man of science. He is a very caring father to his girls and cares very much about their well-being. However, as shown in his spilling chemical X into his "experiment" in the opening sequence, Professor Utonium is not immune to failure, which always accompanies science. I also find it interesting that he is creating life for the purpose of creating a family, unlike the scientist in other stories who do it just to see if they can and what will happen. I wonder if there are any theories as to what the professor's motive was to creating children instead of just adopting. I guess I have some research to do...

A clip from the rebooted Powerpuff Girls coming out in April. 

 

Romanticism

In class we talked about the opposite of romanticism, industrialization, when discussing the scientist stories. Romanticism is the ideology that stresses emotions and nature over reason and material goods. My favorite part of romanticism is that it emphasizes nature and the presence of God in nature. After being raised Christian and trying out different religions and ideologies I feel that the sort of animistic thinking found in Romanticism fits me best. I would call myself a very "emotional creature" so I find the art, music, and literature of this time to be very enjoyable. 

So I find it hard to understand why this ideology hasn't really made a comeback, and why industrial values even had to compete with romantic ones. The ideas of humans as mechanical beings in Herbert West: Reanimator and Frankenstein were interesting but overall both stories left me feeling slightly dreary and uninspired. Maybe this is because, especially in Herbert West, it disregards the human soul and suggests that after death your memories, personality, everything that makes you who you are simply vanishes. 

(When I have my own house, romantic paintings like these are going up on every wall in every room...they're so comforting and calming to look at!) 

Venus: The Goddess of Love and Beauty

During my twentieth time on Tumblr today I came across this lovely picture:

I proceeded to find out where it came from and I discovered it's from a French comic book called Venise Céleste. I was unable to figure out the meaning of the picture from the comic book because unfortunately I do not speak French. Anyway it reminded me of Sailor Venus from Sailor Moon: 

which made me think about the Roman goddess Venus. I wanted to look at the basic similarities between Venus, Sailor Venus and the image from the French comic book. The woman in the comic book resembles the goddess Venus because of her beauty and lack of clothing. In many pictures Venus is either nude or in a revealing dress. Sailor Venus is the "girly-girl" of the Sailor Scouts; she is very much into her appearance and boys. Her character is very similar to the goddess of love and beauty. I think it's interesting that in both images the magic they use is a bright yellow color, which seems to be symbolic of the actual planet Venus, the brightest planet in our solar system. 

On a side note... I really wish I could find out more about the comic book because look at these pictures!! The colors are amazing! 

Female Creatures in Myth

I'm a sucker for a story featuring a strong female character/creature/being, which is why I really liked the article "Magical Femininity: Womanly Creature That Kick Ass" from mysticfiles.com. The author brings up an idea from some of the readings, that "[female] magical beings may take on the negative aspects of womanhood as viewed by men or adapt certain scary or intimidating creatures into their feminine physique..." I find this concept intriguing because while some may say it's sexist or demeaning I find it to be empowering in a way. It shows that men are scared of females because they don't completely understand them, and they should be scared! (haha). 

Some of my favorite creatures mentioned in the article were gorgons, valkyrie, the sphinx. Gorgons just look so cool and the fact that their gaze can turn people into stone brings a whole new meaning to the "female death stare". Valkyrie are kind of the definition of a female badass. They are powerful and strong and are able to choose who lives and who dies in battle. I've always been fascinated with sphinxes because I am obsessed with all things cat (or half-cat I should say). I was first introduced to sphinxes in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I remember seeing the illustration in the book and thinking how majestic she looked. Though Halloween is a long way off, I'm thinking about dressing up as one of these awesome female creatures this year...

Gorgon

Valkyrie 

Sphinx

I Wish I Was a Mermaid...

I was on Tumblr last night and I saw this picture...

and I decided I wanted to dive into the history of mermaid myths (haha). When my sister and I were younger we would pretend to be mermaids in our pool for hours. For me being a mermaid was right up there with being a princess or a witch like Hermione Granger. Thinking about it know, it seems odd that a little girl would wish to be a half-fish creature. But anyway, where did the idea of mermaids originate? Some scholars think that people mistakenly took manatees to be mermaids, especially when they emerged from the surface of the water with seaweed on their heads (this actually sounds adorable). But even before this, ideas of mermaids were present in Syria and Babylonia in the form of water gods. And of course in Greek mythology in the form of Poseidon. In Japan, consuming the flesh of a mermaid was thought to prevent death (yikes!). It's interesting to note that mermen are normally depicted as unattractive, the complete opposite of the alluring mermaids. 

So back to the idea of it being odd for little girls to want to be half-fish, half-woman. I think that even though mermaids can't ever walk on land (unless of course they sell their soul...) there is something powerful in being able to lure men to their death. While many young girls don't know this side of the mermaid myth, I personally think they should. I think the myth of the mermaid is one of the few myths in which females have agency and they aren't demonized for it. 

Source: newworldencyclopedia.org

The Unicorn

Of all the fabulous mythological creatures, I would say my favorite is the unicorn. There is just something so fascinating about a majestic, magical horse with a glittering horn on it's head. In Harry Potter, the blood of a unicorn makes the drinker immortal but cursed. According to the song/poem, "The Unicorn", by Shel Silverstein, unicorns aren't around today because they didn't make it onto Noah's ark. In the infamous youtube video "Charlie the Unicorn", unicorns can talk and apparently are  extremely annoying.

"The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price" (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)



"We're going to Candy Mountain, Charlie!" 

So where did this idea of a unicorn come from? The myth of the unicorn was first seen in Mesopotamian artwork. In Greek literature the unicorn was most likely based off of a rhinoceros, but was described as being "the size of a horse, with a white body, purple head, and blue eyes, and on it's forehead was a cubit-long horn coloured red at the pointed tip, black in the middle, and white at the base" (britannica.com). References to unicorns even appear in the Bible; some writers considered the unicorn to be a symbol of salvation and Christ. In Chinese mythology the unicorn, or Ch'i lin as they call it, was a gentle, wise creature who brought good fortune. (Read more)

The unicorn stands out from the majority of mythological creatures because instead of being frightening and dangerous, it is beautiful and majestic, representing light and goodness. 

Modern Day Diana and Endymion

Two weeks ago I was at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco and I saw this painting:

It's of the goddess Diana and her human lover, Endymion. I have always been fascinated with the goddess of the moon, probably due to my favorite childhood (and current) tv show, Sailor Moon (based off the manga series). In the show Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon) falls in love with Mamoru Chiba (Tuxedo Mask/Prince Endymion). Sailor Moon is also known as the "moon princess" and Tuxedo Mask as the "prince of the Earth".

I didn't realize that the Sailor Moon series contained references to Greek/Roman mythology. After seeing the painting at the Legion of Honor and making the connection to Sailor Moon, it made me want to look into the mythology surrounding Diana and Endymion. According to the version from www.nga.gov, Endymion was a handsome shepherd whom Diana immediately fell in love with after seeing him. Some believe that when there is a new moon, it is because Diana has left the sky to be with her lover Endymion on Earth. This is interesting because in Sailor Moon, the princess of the moon is reborn again on Earth after sacrificing herself for Prince Endymion. 

I am very interested in the modern re-telling of myths (especially Greek and Roman mythology) and I think I will continue to look for more modern stories about the goddess of the moon.