Young children, as we all know, have a sometimes annoying habit of repeating the things that they hear. I was no exception. One night as my mom was making dinner, I picked up a head of broccoli and as I studied it I put it up to my mouth and said “This looks like one of those things you talk into.” My mother looked down at me, her 4 year old daughter, and answered “Yes... A microphone?” I nod my head with young conviction and place the broccoli back to my mouth “Yes... Hi I am Ricki Lake. And today we are going to talk about butts.” A statement like that would make any mother proud. However no harm, no foul. My mom has always had a good sense of humor and she was more amused than anything else. Nonetheless, when my mom told Claudet she was horrified at what I was learning during the time I spent at her house. I don't think I ever did see that TV show again.
Now my mother thinks that TV, along with Walmart and junk food, is right up there with the devil. She can be a little extreme at times... Though she was not upset that I had experienced it at my babysitter's house, I have spent most of my life watching only movies on our television set because we never had cable and probably never will. We didn't even have anything other than dial-up internet until I was in college.
However, there was a short period of my life that we did have TV, from kindergarten to 3rd grade. My memories of that media-enlightened time consist of very little besides an overriding desire to watch Power Rangers. Yes, you read that correctly, Power Rangers. In my young mind, nothing could be better than watching that multi-colored fighting force vanquish the bad guys. That and my mother had forbid me and
my brother from watching it, on account that it was “too violent”. TV in general was forbidden most of the time so this show was thus doubly forbidden and thus all the more attractive. As in any kid's mind, parents telling you not to do something equaled spending lots of energy in an attempt to do said thing. Most of the time this entailed us trying to use sneaky ninja skills.Picture credit Megan Barros, Photographer extraordinaire. My friends and I are way cooler than the Power Rangers (see second picture).
Though Power Rangers had the draw of
the forbidden fruit, that was not the only reason that I wanted to
watch it. There was also the Pink Power ranger. Like many a little
girl before me, I wanted to be the Pink Ranger. She kicked butt and
took names all while wearing a tight pink suit and maintaining
perfect hair. I have never really understood that actually. How did
these people manage to avoid the inevitable helmet hair? I think that
was their real super
power! In any case the Pink Power Ranger was my role model. As I have
grown older I realize how this show was merely proliferating gender
and racial stereotypes. Not only was the brown haired blue-eyed girl
in pink but the original cast featured the Yellow Ranger (another
girly color) as an asian girl,
the Blue and Red Rangers were white males and the black guy in the
group was (shocker) the Black Ranger. Though it seemed extremely
unfair when I was a kid I now appreciate my mother's efforts to get
us hooked on Phonics instead of TV. Like any typical Vermont girl I
would much rather be hiking than sitting around inside watching the
television. I can thank my mother for that. However, every once in a
while, I do enjoy taking a nostalgic blast back into my past by
watching a Power Ranger episode. For the ingenious dialogue
if nothing else.
(Picture credit: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/31560/review/power-rangers-operation-overdrive-blue-sapphire-vol-3/)
