![]() Female athletes may have been seen more that year, but that didn’t stop these athletes from being talked about in sexist terms. It was a step in the right direction when it came to portraying strong female heroes.īut, we weren’t quite there yet. It was as if the world was ready to give little girls strong women to look up to. (When it came to screen-time, men favored women in one of the smallest gaps ever 53 to 47.) It was as if women were not as invisible as they once were. This was the first generation of women competing in the Olympics that had been raised under Title IX, the 1972 federal law that protected people from being discriminated based on sex in educational institutions and activities, and the benefits of this law, were obvious.Īs the Atlantic pointed out, the Atlanta games were defined by strong female performances that were actually being shown on TV. It shouldn’t go unmentioned that Space Jam hit theaters following the 1996 Atlanta summer Olympics, which would later be hailed the “Summer Of Women.” This past summer, the San Francisco Chronicle pointed out that it was those Olympics, which saw not only the “Magnificent 7” female gymnastics team take gold, but also the women’s basketball team, soccer team and softball team - the latter of which were making their Olympic debut, which finally showed women as strong competitors. In fact, when Bugs does call her “doll,” her eyes turn into flames and she let’s him know, in no uncertain terms, “Nobody calls me, doll.” A sentiment she would need to repeat later on in the movie. She was cool, calm and collected, standing up for herself against anyone’s misogyny. It’s why the idea of Lola Bunny is so important to so many girls growing up in 1996, who were looking for female sports heroes. Here, they even made Lola do them better - after Jordan, she’s the best player on that court, dunking left and right, while her male counterparts struggle to dribble. They did this by trying to sell it as girl power at a time when little girls needed to see other women doing all the things men did. She was there to sell T-shirts and dolls to athletic little girls who were tired of feeling left out. This isn’t all that surprising, being that Lola Bunny was created as a “female merchandising counterpart” to Bugs Bunny, according to the 1998 book, Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. ![]() When I rewatch this movie as an adult I realize Lola Bunny is more of a fetish then a legitimate heroine for little girls. She also spends most of her time being Bugs’ object of desire. As the only girl in the Looney Toons movie, which has Bugs Bunny and his friends teaming up with Michael Jordan for an intergalactic basketball game, she proves she has the skills to be on that court. A big box office success, it is the highest-grossing basketball movie of all time and is one of the most iconic movies of the 1990s.Twenty years later I still may not fully understand the plot of Space Jam (Seriously, does anyone?), but I definitely have feelings on whether or not Lola Bunny is a strong female character. It starred Michael Jordan as himself in a similar storyline with the NBA legend partnering up with the Looney Tunes to take on a team of monsters. Joe Pytka directed the original Space Jam, which was released in theaters in 1996. Of course, Bugs Bunny and Lola will also be joined by several other iconic classic characters like Daffy Duck, Tweety, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, and Speedy Gonzales. Along with James, the cast includes Kath Soucie, Sonequa Martin-Green, Don Cheadle, Khris Davis, Jeff Bergman, Cedric Joe, and Eric Bauza. James, Ryan Coogler, Maverick Carter, and Duncan Henderson produce. For us, it was, let's ground her athletic prowess, her leadership skills, and make her as full a character as the others."ĭirected by Lee, Space Jam: A New Legacy was written by Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Keenan Coogler, and Terence Nance. So we reworked a lot of things, not only her look, like making sure she had an appropriate length on her shorts and was feminine without being objectified, but gave her a real voice. "She probably has the most human characteristics of the Tunes she doesn't have a thing like a carrot or a lisp or a stutter. Noting that there are several other changes made with Lola beyond her new look in Space Jam 2, Lee goes on to add: It's important to reflect the authenticity of strong, capable female characters." This is a kids' movie, why is she in a crop top? It just felt unnecessary, but at the same time there's a long history of that in cartoons. "Lola was very sexualized, like Betty Boop mixed with Jessica Rabbit.
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