Entertainment for us growing up consisted of long novels, animated video games, and children’s TV shows. Before watching the adventure based shows like SpongeBob Squarepants, Adventure Time or the Fairly Odd Parents, there was the concept of good versus evil. We both wanted to be the Danny Phantom, the Avatar, the Percy Jackson, the Harry Potter and, especially, the Power Ranger of the world. Quite frankly, I think we can speak for most children in that we all wanted to be the good guy fighting evil. Our favorite television show growing up was Power Rangers. As children and even till now, we’ve always been fascinated by how Saban Entertainment could expand our imaginations through the Power Rangers. Now that we are older, however, we’ve began to see a deeper connotation to the Power Rangers Universe. There are cons to the concept of who are the defenders of earth, but the overall message we got from them was important: anybody can be a hero. No matter your race, gender, age, or sexual orientation, you still have the chance to be good in this world. Power Rangers are a group of usually 5, but sometimes 3, teenagers defending earth against some type of threat that tries to take over the planet. Each Power Ranger is a different color according to their personality traits or strengths. The red ranger, usually the main character, is a teenager surprisingly good at fighting and shows leadership traits. However, the first wave of Power Rangers raised an eyebrow to the public when the casted black ranger was an African American teen, and the yellow ranger was Asian. To fix this misconception, future installments of the Power Rangers provided multiple race backgrounds to fit the different roles associated with the ranger’s individual status. While the red ranger is more often Caucasian than not, Saban has had 3 African American red rangers, and even one Samoan red ranger. What my brother and I have also noticed is that the roles of the African American rangers relied heavily on the stereotypical black man, an outsider’s job, or even the most athletic teenager. For example, the African American red ranger from Power Rangers SPD was a superhuman, yet he was portrayed as a thief that lived on the streets. The black ranger who was “coincidentally” black in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, had the uncanny ability to sneak into places and steal things. This idea of anybody can be a hero is again shown in Power Rangers Turbo. This new breed of rangers had a twist; instead of 5 teenagers, there were 4 teenagers and a kid. The kid, however, morphed into an adult sized warrior when linked with his suit’s powers. Saban’s goal here was to establish that even children younger than teens can be the heroes of this world too. Again, Saban challenges of our culture’s stereotypes through gender. In one of the later series, Power Rangers Super Samurai, the male red ranger is no longer holding the position, and gives way to the first female red ranger. This is Saban’s way of incorporating women into a leadership role. Finally, in this year’s reboot of Power Rangers the Movie, they’ve introduced the first lesbian Power Ranger. Now this had nothing to do with a stereotype, or a suit-color/race clash, but it had all to do with that the team of Power Rangers accepted her for who she was. At the end of the day, she was a hero just as much as the other rangers. Power Rangers showed us more than to do the right thing and correct morals. Growing up and living life allowed us to see passed the racial barriers, sexual orientation and gender issues. We finally found the whole picture Saban was pitching at us all along: anyone can be a hero.
No comments:
Post a Comment