The politics of powerpuff: putting the ‘girl’ into ‘girl power’

Abstract

This paper examines the politics of The Powerpuff Girls. It situates the series' three super-powered heroines within the 1990s popular discourse of ‘Girl Power’, presenting empowered images of young femininity. The narrative premise of child characters triumphing over adults also engages with a generational politics with some precedence in television for children. Finally, an assessment of the limitations of the series’ ‘Girl Power’ politics reveals the marginalisation and vilification of certain identity formations outside the white middle class heterosexual girlhood represented by the show’s protagonists.