The Jetsons

Lately, Peanut has been obsessed with the idea of flying cars. He sees this as the prime solution to traffic jams and the interminable fifteen minutes through which he must suffer to get from school to home to television. I decided he might like The Jetsons (because, really, what else is worth noting about the show other than the flying cars?) but I was wrong. He hated it. I hated it. My husband hated it.

To be sure, we watched the 1990 movie which was undoubtedly worse than the show ever was. No schtick that plays well in a 22 minute format translates well into a 1 hour 22 minute format - especially when the main gags of the material include doggie treadmills, pills for food, and machines that brush one's teeth. Putting all that aside, The Jetsons has not aged well. And it's not the technology: it's the outrageously marginalized gender roles.

The Main Characters

Judy
She's your typical boy crazy teenage girl, swooning at the faintest hint of attention from an attractive male and simply dying of grief when he goes away. Presumably she attends school, but there's no mention of activities or friendships - unless, of course, said friends are part of a gossip chain that feeds her the latest on her boy crush.

Elroy
For the life of me, I can't figure out how old this kid is supposed to be. He's in footie pajamas, but plays a sport that involves riding a small, surfboard-like object over a gaping space pit to certain death. He's a whiz kid, too, and is seemingly the brains of the family. Which isn't actually saying much: that bar is set way low. There is ample evidence that the one who really has all it figured out is the dog.

Jane
She likes shopping, gossiping on the videophone, and shopping. She's mortified to be caught without wearing her face - a cute, idiot phrase for wearing makeup, but perfectly at ease with swiping her husband's wallet. The movie makes a half-assed attempt to cast her as a volunteer organizer for a recycling program, but beyond that she's all housewife. Assuming, of course, that housewives do nothing but watch soaps and give themselves spa treatments.

George
It's a wonder George doesn't have an aneurysm from financial worry. In addition to his wife daily running off to the mall, he's constantly at risk of being unemployed because, being a man, he's stupid and lazy. It takes the combined efforts of Jane, a computer and the maid to so much as wake him in the morning. He's supposed to be the lovable, central character to the family - but he seems to waiver between laziness at work and antisocial behavior at home. As most men do.

Everyone Else

Granted, many shows on tv today are still working off these stereotypes - and are popular, to boot. What strikes me as especially offensive about The Jetsons, however, is the lengths to which it goes to preserve gender bias. In the world of The Jetsons, even female robots are relegated to the roles of housewives, maids and secretaries, while their male counterparts are simple jocks, paper pushers and blue collar workers.

Rosie the tubby old maid of a maid	Gertrude the hot (in a robotic way) secretary	A neighboring housewife of the Jetsons
Robot football player, complete with "dumb jock" facial expression	George's co-worker - this guy is, literally, a filing cainet	Sprocket factory foreman

The plot of The Jetsons revolves around one of two things: gags about futuristic machinery and highly gendered hijinks. The only character who shows any frustration with her role is Rosie the maid. She's irascible in the way that tv maids are supposed to be irascible, but no more. This is a kid's show, after all, so it's only right that she's brought into the show with just a touch of sexual harassment: "She's eager, isn't she?" But h-o-m-e-l-y.



I suppose it should be ironic that a show about the future is so drastically void of the social progress we've achieved since Betty Boop first booped her boops. But Hanna-Barbera isn't known for groundbreaking social commentary (unless a caveman channeling the spirit of The Honeymooners because his wife overcooked his t-rex t-bone is commentary). Maybe this is why one of their own action heroes later pursued a career in civil litigation.

It's a good day when I can reference Harvey Birdman.