Washington Professor Claims SpongeBob SquarePants Was "Violent And Racist" In Academic Journal
I wasn’t the biggest SpongeBob guy growing up. I watched it, but I don’t remember specific episodes or anything like that. I have some friends that know what feels like every episode of SpongeBob. They are smarter than me and definitely have a better memory.
To me, when I think back on SpongeBob, I can’t think of anything wrong with it. That’s why I don’t get paid $120k a year to teach about anthropology at the University of Washington. If I did, I would find A LOT wrong with SpongeBob.
SOURCE-A professor has branded SpongeBob SquarePants a “violent and racist” series that “whitewashes US military rampages”.
Writing in an academic journal, University of Washington anthropology professor Holly M. Barker drew parallels between the children’s cartoon and the past use of the Marshall Islands for American nuclear testing.
Holy nuclear take.
Literally, lol.
Bikini Atoll and a number of its neighboring islands remain too contaminated for habitation today.
One fan theory has it that SpongeBob and his collection of weird and wonderful friends are the result of mutations caused by radiation on Bikini Atoll above them.
Barker’s article appeared in journal The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs under the title “Unsettling SpongeBob And The Legacies Of Violence On Bikini Bottom”.
I’m not going to run around yelling that SpongeBob is racist, but I kind of dig this theory? Imagine if SpongeBob was this big metaphor for the issues with nuclear war and over-aggression by the United States of America throughout the 20th century? There’s no way that it is, but I love those who do mental gymnastics, and this is the definition of mental gymnastics.
“Billions of people around the globe are well-acquainted with SpongeBob Squarepants and the antics of the title character and his friends on Bikini Bottom,” she wrote.
“By the same token, there is an absence of public discourse about the whitewashing of violent American military activities through SpongeBob’s occupation and reclaiming of the bottom of Bikini Atoll’s lagoon.
“SpongeBob Squarepants and his friends play a role in normalizing the settler colonial takings of indigenous lands while erasing the ancestral Bikinian people from their nonfictional homeland.”
Imagine getting in the mindset and writing this seriously. No, really, imagine how your entire life would have to go for this to ever come from your brain. And then imagine getting the mindset to accept such a piece in your academic journal.
She adds that: “The detonations do not cause concern for the characters, as they did for the Bikinians, nor do they compromise SpongeBob’s frequent activities, like visiting hamburger joints or the beach with friends.”
Hahahahahah that’s because they are MADE UP, ANIMATED CHARACTERS. SpongeBob is literally a SPONGE. They don’t know what nuclear war IS.
She also claims the show, whose characters wear Hawaiian shirts and whose theme music uses steel guitars, relies on cultural appropriation.
You know what, she may be right about this one. Sandy too. Doesn’t even have a Texan accent. She just fakes it.