I too grew up watching Rocket Power, and as an avid snowboarder and skateboarder, I am partially embarrassed to say that this show had some what of an influence on how far I pushed it with these sports. Watching this show as a kid had plenty of psychological effects on me. First of all, the characters portrayed in Rocket Power were in a similar age group at the time as I. I drew a connection to them, as if they could be my friends in real life. I was very similar to them, I was fairly lazy as a kid (as were Otto and Twister), and I loved ‘extreme’ sports. I would say I was a fan of the show, but not in the sense that I worshiped them. In fact, I often found myself aggravated at the characters because they were pulling off absurd, physically impossible tricks. I agree with Dave in that the show reinforces hegemonic masculinity through its own devices.
One of the main hegemonic qualities as Dave pointed out is the function of sport in the show. Not only did Otto Rocket prove himself the most ‘hardcore’ character in many episodes of the show, his sister Reggie was always the voice of reason, she played a very stereotypical female role (take a look at the episode Dave included in his blog). “Forces and competence are… translations into the language of the body of the social relations which define men as the holders of power, women as subordinate [and] this is one of the main ways in which the superiority of men becomes ‘naturalized’,” (Trujillo, 291). To the defense of the show (and a point David made), Reggie often beat Otto in various competitions during the show to his demise. Although this could have just been used as a tool for creating drama and tension in the plot, or as an element of surprise. For the most part, Otto’s character naturalized the masculine role through his ‘hardcoreness.’
Here is a segment of a Rocket Power episode that Dave included in his blog:
References:
- Trujillo, Nick. Hegemonic Masculinity on the Mound.
Great blogpost, great looking weblog, added it to my favs.