I havenât been feeling myself lately so I thought itâd be a good time to do up screen grab study of Thorn đ„ I always loved their movements in the Witchâs Ghost, they were so fluid and elegant so it was fun to study that today! đŠđ§čđž
A Luna screen grab study for the win!! I love Luna, I feel like sheâs underappreciated even though her design is absolutely lovely đđč (I may have some bias because I learned piano for three years đ)
Another screen grab study from The Witchâs Ghost, this time itâs Dusk. I really loved her as a child (and now) she radiated such scary gremlin energy that I aspired to have as well đđŠđ„
A review from a Black autistic person of âBebeâ the Proud Family: Louder and Prouder episode that focuses on autism.
My word is still only one perspective and shouldnât be taken as an authoritative view. I didnât like this episode but other Black autistic people have every right to their perspectives as well. At the end of the day Iâm just some guy, y'know?
The Proud Family is still colorist af though.
Some Excerpts:
I try not to be too hard on the original Proud Family from the early 2000s. It was one of the few and earliest Black cartoons that existed at the time. There werenât a ton of shows that featured a Black girl as a protagonist. So while it had issues of colorism and not sticking the landing with a lot of its executions, that doesnât invalidate the times it made genuinely positive moments and gave something of comfort and love for Black viewers, especially Black girls. I never got into it myself, but I recognize that it does hold a good place in the hearts of a lot of Black viewers.
Colorism is in a lot of Black media. Living Single, The Boondocks, Coming to America, My Wife and Kids, Black-Ish, literally anything coming from Chris Rock, you name it.
So in talking about the framing for Bebeâs autism, we have to reckon with how the show utilizes colorism in how it frames what it deems the right or wrong opinions. Itâs arguably even done with Bebe himself and Cece. Oscar, Maya, and Dijonay are all frequently awful people throughout the show, but we shouldnât leave it at that. We should remember how the show uses that to direct the viewer on how they frame the conflicts.
So there are moments where Maya is an awful friend and one who needlessly condescends to the people around her, but itâs important to think about the framing and not the depiction in how weâre meant to think of her as a person in intentionally portraying her that way.
She contributes to another in the line of characters who ultimately stand for some kind of revolution, activism or change who are then revealed to be fake, elitist, and angry.
 Light-skinned women can be portrayed as awful but still will use dark-skinned women presented as âunladylike, often compare them to beasts, portray their fatness, their textured hair as undesirable and gross in a white gaze. Itâs used to impart the idea that the traits I just listed are revolting and a reason to deride these characters.
This isnât really an episode about Bebe, and like many things autism related, we have to center everything entirely around the family members of the autistic person. Penny having all of the labor in childcare thrown onto her is obviously bad, but it takes a different context in how thatâs used alongside Bebeâs autism diagnosis in how itâs framed around relieving Penny of a burden and how the narrative sets Penny up to be as sympathetic as possible in that regard. Pennyâs parentification is a major issue throughout the series, but itâs also very intentional that one of the few times the show ever challenges the idea that itâs okay is also in the episode where her brother is diagnosed with autism.
 Because they chose an infant to be the autistic character, Bebe isnât able to communicate his feelings or perspective to the audience. It allows everyone else, most notably Holly Peeteâs character to shape Bebeâs narrative and center themselves in it.
The episode ends on a shot of the children all playing. As the door shuts, theyâre revealed to all be flying and have super powers, alluding to the phrase "autism is a superpowerâ which it is not. Autism is a disability, and itâs okay to call it that. Disability is not a dirty word.
