Soccer moms.

[MonkeyFunk]

Since I started visiting animation forums, I heard a lot of talk about soccer moms. The phrase is a little exotic to me, since I live in a country where the words "soccer" and "mom" aren't widely used, so I did a bit of research on who was being described by the term. From wikipedia:

In North American social, cultural and political discourse, soccer mom broadly refers to a middle-class woman who spends a significant amount of her time transporting her school-age children to activities such as soccer practice. The male equivalent, soccer dad, is less-used.

Some definitions I found from elsewhere:

A white, suburban woman who is married and has children.

a middle-class, suburban American mother of school-age children, regarded as being, typically, child-centered, politically moderate, civic-minded, etc.

Okay, fair enough. But this didn't tally up with how I'd heard the term used by animation fans. Here's a reply to a brief controversy about a poster for the Garfield movie where he looked a bit like he was making a rude hand gesture:

it's probably the same people who brought you all those wonderful things..

Like Kim Possible's Baremidriff,
and of course the Declartion of Banning of Harry Potter, W.i.t.c.h. and Winx club merchandising and books..
it's also the same group who probably is saying the X-Men are gay, and that Adult Swim Anime is not for kids of any age..

Yep it's brought to you by Moms... Soccer moms.. the same bored people who have no lives and yet who act silly when a tree gets cut down, yet they drive around in their SUV's hoping they can smoke out Spiderman and call the show Creepy and demonic.

Woah. Apparently, soccer moms are fundamentalist Christians, and also radical environmentalists. Similarly, here's a quote from another forum, about a potential Sonic movie:

I think it's not US we should worry about. It's the soccer moms who whine about things like Sally not wearing clothes or Ixis Naugus' magic is of the devil. That or "Pokemon is satanic and Jinx portrays a coon stereotype and not a ganguro/mamba Japanese subculture!"

Again, fundamentalist Christianity is popping up, along with what appears to be a reference to Carole B. Weatherford.

So... how did this happen? How did the animation community take a term describing moderate caucasian middle-class housewives whose kids play soccer and turn it into a byword for a blatantly non-existent group of fundamentalist Christian enviromentalists who think Jynx is racist?

[AerostarMonk]

I must admit it's a rather broad generalization, but I believe it's because of things like the Motion Picture Association of America's Ratings Board and the Parent Television Council. It's generally believed that these two groups are primarily made up of middle-aged women who have nothing better to do than police the airwaves and cinemas in hopes to sanitize the minds of children everywhere.

At least that's how I interpret it.

[TKnHappyNess]

It's only that one psycho Carole Weatherford who said Jynx was racist. She even went after Mr. Popo in Dragonball.

[MonkeyFunk]

Actually, my first thought when I saw Jynx was that she was a black caricature. I'm still not entirely convinced that she isn't.

And what makes you think that Weatherford is a "psycho"? She sounds perfectly rational to me.

[Classic Speedy]

Here's how I view the chain of thinking that led to the distortion of the "definition".

Soccer moms are mothers who drive their kids to various sporting events (not necessarily soccer) and/or extracirricular activities. They often use mini vans to carry numerous kids, though this isn't always the case.

Because mini vans are often associated with suburbia, it can be assumed (though unfairly) that all soccer moms are suburban.

Many suburbs are known for being clean and safe, the "ideal" environment for a kid to grow up in (though this is debatable), as it's low on crime, medium to upper income, and fairly homogeneous.

As such, the soccer moms want to keep it that way by shielding any controversial material from their children which may sully this atmosphere.

Because of this, they are overly protective of what their children watch and, if they find something they feel is inappropriate, take it upon themselves to make sure nobody else gets to see it, as doing so preserves the suburban utopia they don't want disrupted.

It's a bit of a stretch, and I realize a LOT of assumptions are made in the process, but that's really the only way it makes sense to go from "parent who drives their kids to soccer practice" to "overprotective media watchdog".

Actually, a -more- accurate definition would be Security mom, though you don't see that used nearly as much for some reason. I guess "soccer mom" just stuck.

[Ed Liu]

I don't think it's just the animation community that has appropriated soccer mom as a derogatory term. For starters, the term alone limits it to American usage and context, since everyone else in the world calls it "football," but it's a term that's taken on a life of its own to describe a particular type of person.

I'm with Speedy Boris up to the part about soccer moms wanting to keep their communities safe and homogeneous. I do think that the term is applied to a particular brand of housewife living in the suburbs driving their kids around in a minivan or an entirely unnecessary SUV, and that this stereotype's primary purpose is about being the caregiver for their kids.

However, I thought the word always had connotations of stupidity, with the idea that soccer moms really aren't good for much other than producing children and shuttling them to and from extra-curricular activities. I also think the stereotypical soccer mom suffers from a particular kind of narrow-mindedness, in that absolutely everything in their lives revolves around their kids. The combination of these two things means that they get wildly overprotective of their little darlings and happily pull things out of context (or don't even bother to understand the context at all) to blast stuff without knowing the slightest thing about it, all in the name of "protecting the children." Life in the suburbs and its homogeneous nature didn't figure into it as much as the idea that they're really just hicks in the sticks with enough money to have cable TV and the Internet but without the brainpower to process anything on either for themselves. Their fundamental characteristic is ignorance, which is then exploited by people wishing to herd the soccer mom population to apply pressure in the name of their cause.

I don't think there's a particular alignment with soccer moms and fundamentalist Christians, other than that they can often target the same things, and that the majority of Americans are thought of as Christians. Similarly, I don't think that there's a strong connection between soccer moms and environmentalists. If they are saying the same things as either group, it's because some representative from that group managed to drive the herd in that direction by making it an issue about their kids.

I do think that there's a lot of unspoken subtext to "soccer mom" towards live in the 'burbs, women in general, and stay-at-home mothers specifically, and it's also a term of extremely limited practical use. But they're an easy enough target for the average Internet nerd to use to blast "those people" who are saying they can't have something.

-- Ed

[Ducard]

So... how did this happen? How did the animation community take a term describing moderate caucasian middle-class housewives whose kids play soccer and turn it into a byword for a blatantly non-existent group of fundamentalist Christian enviromentalists who think Jynx is racist?

You look for common sense where there is none. To the overly defensive fans of animation, you don't have to make sense when naming a scapegoat.

[tb4000]

I notice the ones using the term soccer moms in that fashion are people who grew up in exactly the same way. I'd love to have grown up in a soccer-mom like suburbia instead of the projects.

[Super_Staff]

Thing is, I don't think it's most mothers or the 'soccer mom' type that bother me. It's the overprotective, annoying type of soccer mom that goes after Harry Potter, Card Captor Sakura, and anything that's 'unsanitary'/'occult'/otherwise improper and go crazy over wanting to get these things banned...when they really don't do much other than be entertaining properties that people enjoy.

Since those women are so obsessed with keeping the 'dirt' off TV, that'd they spend some of that time/energy actually taking care of their kids and making sure *themselves* that kids don't watch things that are inapproproate instead rather than try to ruin it for the rest of the world/grown ups.

[AerostarMonk]

When did it become accepted that all media watchdogs are women? I really don't understand this at all

[Super_Staff]

When did it become accepted that all media watchdogs are women? I really don't understand this at all

No, they're not all women.

But a lot of the ones that shriek the line 'for the children' tend to be mothers.

[Antiyonder]

When did it become accepted that all media watchdogs are women? I really don't understand this at all

I'm an equal opportunist and I choose to blame both mom and dad. And again, it puzzles me that they don't go after the tween sitcoms. Sure they aren't violent, but they do encourage negative behavior.

[Super_Staff]

I'm an equal opportunist and I choose to blame both mom and dad. And again, it puzzles me that they don't go after the tween sitcoms. Sure they aren't violent, but they do encourage negative behavior.

I know, right?

Plus, it boggles me how they haven't gone after Wizards of Waverly Place yet. For, it is evil.

[Antiyonder]

I know, right?

Plus, it boggles me how they haven't gone after Wizards of Waverly Place yet. For, it is evil.

To give a better idea of what I'm refering to:

Max Keeble's Big Move- Max starts a food fight and receives no punishment, thus insinuating that kids should hold a food fight at school.

Man Of The House (Jonathan Taylor Thomas stars as the kid): Sonm treats his step dad to be like crap and isn't even given a stern warning about it.

Lizzie McGuire: Lizzie constantly displays a negative attitude towards her parents with no threat of even grounding her.

The Lizzie McGuire Movie: Playing the devils advocate that movies need to be wholesome and safe, this movie can really corrupt a young viewer:

- Lizzie fakes sickness to avoid a class field trip.
- She goes around in a foreign country with a boy she doesn't even know.
- She commits identity theft which is indeed a crime.

So how is it that parents consider the movie to be appropriate for their children?

[MonkeyFunk]

Well... in all likelihood someone somewhere has objected to those shows. It's just that the majority of personal criticisms don't go public.

This is kind of what I'm talking about: it's not like the various people who have been labelled "soccer moms" form a coherent organisation with a hard-and-fast canon of what's acceptable and what isn't. They're a bunch of different, largely unrelated people with largely unrelated complaints.

[Super_Staff]

To give a better idea of what I'm refering to:

Max Keeble's Big Move- Max starts a food fight and receives no punishment, thus insinuating that kids should hold a food fight at school.

Man Of The House (Jonathan Taylor Thomas stars as the kid): Sonm treats his step dad to be like crap and isn't even given a stern warning about it.

Lizzie McGuire: Lizzie constantly displays a negative attitude towards her parents with no threat of even grounding her.

The Lizzie McGuire Movie: Playing the devils advocate that movies need to be wholesome and safe, this movie can really corrupt a young viewer:

- Lizzie fakes sickness to avoid a class field trip.
- She goes around in a foreign country with a boy she doesn't even know.
- She commits identity theft which is indeed a crime.

So how is it that parents consider the movie to be appropriate for their children?

Well...I don't see what the big deal with the food fight thing (it doesn't really *hurt* anyone, just makes clothes and kids dirty). Or kids talking back to/disrespecting their parents (hey, it happens). Though, Lizzie was an idiot for going around with a strange person in a country far from her own (who was much older than she was, mind you) but eh. It's a bad movie that already insulted my intelligence with some of the stuff I heard happen in it (you have to really stretch your imagination with it).

I mean, sure, the kids portrayed in those movies are shown as disrespectful (and stupid), but it's not like...stuff that should be banned from TV.

The thing is the crazy parent faction (i.e. 'soccer moms') want certain shows to be pulled off the air and locked into a super secret government vault for things they deem inappropriate.

[AerostarMonk]

The thing is the crazy parent faction (i.e. 'soccer moms') want certain shows to be pulled off the air and locked into a super secret government vault for things they deem inappropriate.

But that's just the thing. I think what MonkeyFunk is trying to say is that there isn't just this one faction railing against things. It's many different factions that largely have nothing to do with the other. It's not like there's a guy in S&P text messaging some soccer mom about a super secret meeting to get rid of the word 'butt' in a cartoon. There probably are barely any factions when it comes down to it. Your regular media watchdog group is probably little more than a loose confederation of people who have a moderate gripe.

[Super_Staff]

But that's just the thing. I think what MonkeyFunk is trying to say is that there isn't just this one faction railing against things. It's many different factions that largely have nothing to do with the other. It's not like there's a guy in S&P text messaging some soccer mom about a super secret meeting to get rid of the word 'butt' in a cartoon. There probably are barely any factions when it comes down to it. Your regular media watchdog group is probably little more than a loose confederation of people who have a moderate gripe.

No, I don't think that's how they work either. But the crazy parent faction I'm referring to isn't related, per say. I'm just trying to find a label for them instead of just saying 'a certain group completely unrelated to another!!' or whatever.

[Lavenderpaw]

Wasn't there a villian in Kids Next Door that was a soccer mom?Evil,of course.

[Antiyonder]

Well...I don't see what the big deal with the food fight thing (it doesn't really *hurt* anyone, just makes clothes and kids dirty). Or kids talking back to/disrespecting their parents (hey, it happens). Though, Lizzie was an idiot for going around with a strange person in a country far from her own (who was much older than she was, mind you) but eh. It's a bad movie that already insulted my intelligence with some of the stuff I heard happen in it (you have to really stretch your imagination with it).

I mean, sure, the kids portrayed in those movies are shown as disrespectful (and stupid), but it's not like...stuff that should be banned from TV.

I'm not suggesting that those shows to be banned. I'm merely stating that bad behavior is bad behavior whether it's dangerous or disrespectful. A I thought the point of censorship was to discourage the possibility of their children imitating bad behavior.

Besides, going around in a foreign country with a boy that she doesn't know could lead to danger and while identity theft isn't necessarily dangerous it is illegal, and the character isn't even punished for it. Not a very good example.