Blog #3

I suppose for my last blog post I wanted to continue my reoccurring theme of including cartoons and their strong impact on my life. For my cultural artifact I decided to go with teen titans, the original tv show that aired on cartoon network back in July 2003. That means I was 5 years old when the first episode was aired. I remember in elementary school I would jump off my bunkbed and sing a long to the catchy and mesmerizing intro.  Although I was fairly young, the lessons the show taught me stuck with me up until now. One specific episode I can explain from beginning to end was season 2 episode 7 “transformation”. This episode was important to me because Starfire (being the main character in this episode) undergoes this extreme transformation that ultimately leaves her feeling insecure and alone. Although I believe this episode was targeted at young girls who experienced or are in the process of experiencing puberty because her body changes so drastically, it had also taught me certain things are short lived and not meant to be the entirety of one’s focus. Overall since the very beginning I have always looked up to Starfire because she expressed both beauty, grace, and incredible strength. She wasn’t afraid to stand up for what she believed in and always had been the voice of reason by doing what she believed was right. An example of this would be season 4 episode 6, the teen titans had contacted an outsider for help on a mission. This episode dealt with racism, because this outsider had called Starfire Troq instead of referring to her actual name. When Cyborg confronts her on why she has been so down lately she expressed how the word was created to attack people of her kind. With this Cyborg apologizes for misusing it, from which Starfire reiterates, "There will always be people who say mean words because you are different. And sometimes their minds cannot be changed. But there are many more people that do not judge people based on how they look, or where they came from. Those are the people whose words truly matter”. I remember writing this quote down in my diary when I was younger because it was my first introduction to bullying. This taught me how to never treat someone different because of how they looked or where they came from and to preach it to my young friends. It wasn’t until high school I reflected back on the show to see how different I thought of the show after I was more mature. I feel like the creators of the show had also tried to teach mental health through the character of Raven. She didn’t say much but her impact was also powerful. She had captivating powers that reflected solely on her own emotions, if anything it taught me how as a human there is so much to balance that we can be struggling inside but can never express it out of fear or judgement from others. I can’t remember the episode where all of Ravens personalities come out, but her friends make it their mission to help her, it might have been a hidden PSA to check up on friends you know have it quite hard. Overall this show was one of the biggest blessings and I couldn’t be fonder of everything it taught me and others.