First they came for SpongeBob, and I did not protest, then ... - UMass Boson Prof Elucidates the Racist Colonialist Tropes Underlying Childish Cartoon (Boson Worker) 13 Oct 2019
SpongeBob SquarePants is a subliminal message vehicle to normalize Western colonialism and US imperialism.
Beloved by children and stoners the world over, the wacky adventures of the animated sea sponge actually mask a “violent,” “racist” message, one prof claims.
“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,” University of Massachusetts at Boson anthropology professor Molly Barker, who happens to be a cousin of Massachusetts Governor Charles Baker, wrote in his paper called ‘Unsettling SpongeBob and the Legacies of Violence on Bikini Bottom.’
According
to Professor Barker, Spongebob’s residing in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom
is disturbingly similar to the US’ use of the Bikini Atoll in the
Marshall Islands for nuclear weapons testing in the 1940s. This is based
on a fan theory that the real Bikini Atoll was inspiration for the
mutated cast of creatures that inhabit the fictional Bikini Bottom.
"Some of the first nuclear bombs where tested on the US colony island of Bikini," the professor explained in a press conference. "Draw your own conclusions. The answers are written in the radio-active sands of that sad colony and victim of US imperialism."
When asked by a reporter, Prof Baker admitted that she had never actually watched the show, but was basing her theories on the title and what other people in the Gender Studies department had told her about the juvenile program.
"The show has a lot of adult humor and clearly is satirical in the vein of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels," this reporter pointed out.
"How dare you?" the visibly shaken professor responded, "You have stolen my childhood."
While often considered a children's story, Gulliver Travels is a dense work with a lot of 18th century language and is rarely read by any children. Most know the ideas from the book from movies based on the work.
Increasingly angry, the professor went on to say, "SpongeBob is clearly in a gay relationship with his very gay friend Patrick the flamingly queer starfish. Yet the relationship is treated as a joke. This is homophobia, pure and simple."
As more hands went into the air at the presser, and the tone seemed to be outright mocking of the academics ideas, Professor Baker walked away from the bank of microphones, "This press conference is over! Read the academic paper if you want to understand the ideas of colonialism and imperialism advanced subliminally in SpongeBob
The academic paper is buried in charts and graphs and bizarre college professor language that seems designed to mask lack of ideas, not explaining things to someone who does not understand. By living there, Barker argues that SpongeBob (isn’t Bob such a terribly white, masculine name?) exercises the privilege of “not caring about the detonation of nuclear bombs.”
The character’s Hawaiian shirts and pineapple-shaped homes are Cultural Appropriation. The show’s female lead is Sandy Squirrel is a token female in a world of men. "Why is a squirrel living under the water? She needs special equipment just to breath. This is symbolism for the struggle every women makes to live in a world designed for men," the introduction to the paper reads.
"Yet when a 'body positive' overweight female superhero character was produced the comic book buying public rejected Squirrel Girl."
"The fact that SpongeBob has to work for an embittered boss at the Krusty Krab restaurant for a caricature of a capitalist underscores the acquiescence to a system that will not put human needs first," Prof Baker stated. "This is like a nightmare straight out of Kafka. Orwellian doesn't begin to describe the upside down world of Biki Bottom."
Even the show’s jangly theme song, which promises children a world of “nautical nonsense,” ridicules the indigenous homeland of Bikini Bottom as a “place of nonsense,” Barker continues without a hint of irony.
Barker is paid more than $150,000 per year to come up with this – on par with her fellow University of Massachusetts full professors. Some have questioned whether being Governor Charles Baker's cousin helped the seemingly unqualified young woman in getting hired as a full professor right after getting a Master's Degree in Folk Lore and Mythology at Boson's Harrad College. Whispered rumors alleged that her wealthy family paid to have her admitted to an elite undergraduate university and then the exclusive grad school.
While reporters where cut short in the questioning of Professor Baker's thesis people on social media had the freedom to question.
Barker’s groundbreaking addition to the lexicon of western academia is not her first swipe at the colorful world of Robert the sponge. The prof expounded her theory that Bikini Bottom = Bikini Atoll in an article for The Conversation last year. This latest effort has earned her considerably more attention, and considerably more ridicule online.
“Watch out Teletubbies,” one commenter wrote. “You’re next.”
The Nickelodeon Children's television network claims they have never read the study, heard of Professor Baker or the University of Massachusetts at Boson, or even the city of Boson, Massachusetts. "Are you making all of this stuff up?" the person who answered the phone at the complaints department asked. "I wish," this reporter responded.
https://web.archive.org/web/20191013113128/https://bosonmassachusetts.blogspot.com/2019/10/first-they-came-of-spongebob-and-i-did.html
https://archive.is/1H2Es
Beloved by children and stoners the world over, the wacky adventures of the animated sea sponge actually mask a “violent,” “racist” message, one prof claims.
When asked by a reporter, Prof Baker admitted that she had never actually watched the show, but was basing her theories on the title and what other people in the Gender Studies department had told her about the juvenile program.
"The show has a lot of adult humor and clearly is satirical in the vein of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels," this reporter pointed out.
"How dare you?" the visibly shaken professor responded, "You have stolen my childhood."
While often considered a children's story, Gulliver Travels is a dense work with a lot of 18th century language and is rarely read by any children. Most know the ideas from the book from movies based on the work.
As more hands went into the air at the presser, and the tone seemed to be outright mocking of the academics ideas, Professor Baker walked away from the bank of microphones, "This press conference is over! Read the academic paper if you want to understand the ideas of colonialism and imperialism advanced subliminally in SpongeBob
The academic paper is buried in charts and graphs and bizarre college professor language that seems designed to mask lack of ideas, not explaining things to someone who does not understand. By living there, Barker argues that SpongeBob (isn’t Bob such a terribly white, masculine name?) exercises the privilege of “not caring about the detonation of nuclear bombs.”
The character’s Hawaiian shirts and pineapple-shaped homes are Cultural Appropriation. The show’s female lead is Sandy Squirrel is a token female in a world of men. "Why is a squirrel living under the water? She needs special equipment just to breath. This is symbolism for the struggle every women makes to live in a world designed for men," the introduction to the paper reads.
"The fact that SpongeBob has to work for an embittered boss at the Krusty Krab restaurant for a caricature of a capitalist underscores the acquiescence to a system that will not put human needs first," Prof Baker stated. "This is like a nightmare straight out of Kafka. Orwellian doesn't begin to describe the upside down world of Biki Bottom."
Even the show’s jangly theme song, which promises children a world of “nautical nonsense,” ridicules the indigenous homeland of Bikini Bottom as a “place of nonsense,” Barker continues without a hint of irony.
Barker is paid more than $150,000 per year to come up with this – on par with her fellow University of Massachusetts full professors. Some have questioned whether being Governor Charles Baker's cousin helped the seemingly unqualified young woman in getting hired as a full professor right after getting a Master's Degree in Folk Lore and Mythology at Boson's Harrad College. Whispered rumors alleged that her wealthy family paid to have her admitted to an elite undergraduate university and then the exclusive grad school.
While reporters where cut short in the questioning of Professor Baker's thesis people on social media had the freedom to question.
Barker’s groundbreaking addition to the lexicon of western academia is not her first swipe at the colorful world of Robert the sponge. The prof expounded her theory that Bikini Bottom = Bikini Atoll in an article for The Conversation last year. This latest effort has earned her considerably more attention, and considerably more ridicule online.
“Watch out Teletubbies,” one commenter wrote. “You’re next.”
The Nickelodeon Children's television network claims they have never read the study, heard of Professor Baker or the University of Massachusetts at Boson, or even the city of Boson, Massachusetts. "Are you making all of this stuff up?" the person who answered the phone at the complaints department asked. "I wish," this reporter responded.
https://web.archive.org/web/20191013113128/https://bosonmassachusetts.blogspot.com/2019/10/first-they-came-of-spongebob-and-i-did.html
https://archive.is/1H2Es
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