August 17, 2024

A Look at G.I.Joe 80’s PSA’s:#18



It’s time for a little mysogyny! 



#18. Don’t judge 

Featuring Gung-Ho


Now to be fair it is perfectly normal for boys at the age this show is targeted at to be all “ew girls”, but did they have to make it a girl? And if they did why not come out and say it! A “girls can do things to” message would have made more sense. For this one to work I’d have made it a shy or wimpy kid instead. This a problem a lot of these had, afraid to really say what they mean so they keep the terminology vague or simple. 

Another failure is the fact they’re roller skating on a pretty impressive ramp. This isn’t something you can do without experience. So being cautious that the girl has that experience makes sense. Though they clearly just assume she’s a girl so there’s no way, but she doesn’t even try to defend herself before Gung-Ho steps and somehow knows she can do it without even asking! What if she fell flat on her face? One simple way around this-make it the sister of one of the boys then you could argue that he should know she’s capable. 

Points for the kids having appropriate helmets and pads at least.Good lesson gets mangled by rushed psa. I should mention Gung-Ho is voiced by Chris Latta the legend who also did Cobra Commander and Starscream on Transformers (among dozens of others).

Grade:C

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