This article aims to discuss The powerpuff girls cartoon as a media text that brings the child image as hero. We analyse the ways preschool children interpret some cartoon episodes and, through these symbolical references, produce meanings about being a child in contemporary culture. Based on the dialogue between children discourses and those which compose the animation narrative, we discuss the new mappings of the boundaries between childhood and adulthood and between male and female experiences. We also highlight the ways girls produce a play culture, crossed by references taken from other media texts in which the image of the powerful girl appears associated with seduction. In conclusion, we analyse the contradictions of the contemporary childhood, located between the deconstruction of the fragile and innocent child image and other types of adult control, drawn by consume culture.
Childhood; Gender; Media culture