Introduction
If I
had to name a single favorite show, it would have to be Gravity Falls.
Full of adventure, great characters, and mysteries/puzzles for both the
characters and viewers to solve, it’s no wonder how this cartoon got so
popular. However, around the time the series ended in 2016, I began to notice
an unfortunate trend in the discussion concerning one of the main characters.
The
internet’s treatment of Mabel Pines is not only a reflection of sexism towards
preteen girls on the internet, but by examining that sexism, we can see how
it's spread.
Methodology
For this research project, I had
been planning on discussing the internet’s hatred of the character Mabel Pines,
from Alex Hirsch’s/Disney’s Gravity Falls with these, methods, but I
wound up having to change them in the end. I planned on linking this topic to
the way that the internet makes preteen girls feel bad, constantly bashing boy
bands or Twilight or shopping for clothes, and how that pushes young girls into
the “not like the other girls” boat, which now, they’re also shamed for.
There’s no winning, and I feel that the internet’s treatment of Mabel is a kind
of encapsulates this strange hatred—even a fictional 12-year-old girl from a
kids’ show isn’t safe from this phenomenon.
First of all, I planned on
analyzing two YouTube videos and the comment sections below them. The videos were
“Mabel is Terrible” (parts one and two) by the YouTuber, “CC West.” The first
one has over a million views, and 11,404 comments. The second has 191,717
views, and 1,439 comments. I planned on categorizing the comments into “Part
1—Mabel is bad (simple),’ ‘Part 1—Mabel is bad (complex),” “Part 1--Mabel is
good (simple),” and “Part 1—Mabel is good (complex)”, and then repeating those
categories for the second part. The
categories labeled “simple” will be where brief comments go, and “complex” will
be for longer comments that either try to add something to the argument or make
an argument of their own. I don’t plan on categorizing every comment, but I
might put 10 examples or so into each category. This was the only part that
somewhat made it into my final methodology.
Secondly, I planned on searching
Mabel’s tags on Instagram, and looking for any debate about her character that
I could find. The Gravity Falls fandom is kind of in shambles now, since
it ended several years ago, so the amount of posts I had estimated that I would
be able to find was somewhat finite. However, I did still want to try to find a
maximum of five “Mabel is good” posts and another five “Mabel is bad” posts and
will discuss the arguments that ensue in their comment sections. From what I’d
found so far, these arguments are usually very small, so I don’t currently feel
the need to categorize them.
Third, I planned on using Twitter,
and some select Reddit posts to delve into the way that people hate teenage
girls. For Twitter, searching word combinations such as “girls are annoying,”
just “girls,” and literally just typing in “I hate girls”’ had yielded a
surprising amount of genuine posts about “just hating it when girls do (insert
random thing here.)” Also, I was going
to be searching for trends associated with girls around that age, such as BTS,
K-pop, vsco, and so on. I wanted to categorize all of the Twitter posts that I
used into “Not like the other girls” and “Not a girl in any way but hates
them.” I didn’t intend to use Reddit very much but thought that I could maybe
find some interesting stuff there.
I would have then taken a brief
break from analyzing separate data to point out common threads between people’s
hatred of Mabel and hatred of young girls.
Then, I was going get into the “not
like the other girls” discussion, using the subreddit “r/notliketheothergirls”.
This subreddit not only offers examples of girls striving to prove that they
aren’t what the internet tells them that they are, but also of people shaming
them even then, in the posts and comments. I was going probably be selecting
three to five of these to analyze.
However, that mostly didn’t work
out due to time constraints. In the end, I took the “Mabel is Terrible” essays,
and heavily categorized a sample of 24 comments. I categorized the comments
into “Part 1—Mabel is bad (simple),’ ‘Part 1—Mabel is bad (complex),” “Part
1--Mabel is good (simple),” and “Part 1—Mabel is good (complex)”, and then
repeating those categories for the second part.
The categories labeled “simple” was for brief comments, and “complex” was
for longer comments that either tried to add something to the argument or make
an argument of their own. Each Category contained three comments. But I wasn’t
done with them yet. Focusing on the “Mabel is bad” arguments, I created three
new categories for just those: “Clearly Sexist,” “Sexist Undertones,” and
“Debatably Sexist.” The first of those contained 2/12 comments, the second,
6/12, and the final, 3/12.
Research Question
How does the way that the internet
treats Mabel Pines reflect the way that the internet treats preteen girls, and how
online sexism against preteen girls works?
Analysis
Mabel is Bad Part 1 (Simple)
1.
“Nathan Higgins
6 months ago
Nowadays we expect our female characters to be strong we
forget to make them responsible, likable, and competent.”
2. “Hannah Nelson-Cole
4 months ago
Mabel: Gets Dipper to break up with Gideon for her
Also Mabel: Forces Dipper to confess his feelings to Wendy”
3.
“Scootaloopuff
10 months ago
Dipper: being supportive to Mabel and sacrificing himself
for Mabel
Mabel: you not supportive enough so I made dippy fresh”
Mabel is Bad Part 1 (Complex)
1. “Neon Lights
7 months ago
While watching the series, Mabel was always a little on the
edge for me, but what settled it was The Sock Opera.
1. After promising to help Dipper find a way to log into the
computer (knowing full well how important finding the author of the journals is
for Dipper) she makes him drop everything and help her impress some boy she
never met.
2. On the night of the show, Dipper comes to her in a panic,
explaining that he was possessed by a demon and needs her help and what does
she do? She completely brushes him off as “overreacting” and basically would
rather win over some boy she barely knows instead of saving Dipper’s life. His
soul could’ve been lost forever and she didn’t bat an eye. Let’s not forget the
part where Dipper was begging her to save his soul but Mabel had to interrupt
to comment on how funny he looked as a puppet. Not like he was pleading for his
life or anything.”
2. Crystal Joy
3 months ago
Mabel is the villain of this story,
She has everything most villains have
Greed
Selfishness
Doing insane things because it's what she THINKS is best
Thinking she is doing good when she's putting everyone in
danger
Making others do her own wishes even if it's painfully
obvious they don't want to do it
etc. etc. etc.
3. “Allison Bilbey
3 months ago (edited)
I really agree with this, like a lot. As the show continued
I felt like Dipper learned and progressed but Mabel stayed the exact same and
always got her way. Probably doesn’t help much either since Dipper is probably
my favorite character in the show, next to Wendy. What’s even more fascinating
is that even Pacifica becomes more like able than Mabel at some point which I
don’t think many saw coming. I didn’t anyways. Mabel is in summary very toxic,
selfish, and manipulative. I really wish that Dipper had been able to stay in
gravity falls so that he could have gotten what he wanted, like I really would
have liked that ending way more”
Mabel is Good Part 1 (Simple)
1. “Link Lonk
8 months ago
Saving a mermaid is much more important than a summer job
that you’re not even properly doing”
2. (In response to a comment that said Mabel nearly
ended the world and never apologized) “Nicholas Gadson
7 months ago
A character doesn’t have to verbally say the words “I’m
sorry” for it to be an apology. It’s quite a common thing in fiction,
especially in the visual medium of television and film, for the characters to
express certain things through their actions or facial expressions”
3. (In response to a comment that said she was
selfish for trusting Blandin) “Anna Richardson
1 week ago
I think that Mabel was just upset because she felt betrayed.
Dipper isn’t compassionate, and he is kind of selfish himself.”
Mabel is Good Part 1 (Complex)
1. “Dark Mystery
1 month ago
I agree with mostly everything, but I have a few issues.
1. Trusting Stan. As
someone else in the comments brought up, it isn't exactly that she trusted Stan
over Dipper after everything that happened, but that she never really lost hope
in Stan to begin with. Yes, she found the ID's and the tape, but she'd spent a
lot of time with Stan, and had grown very close. And, rewatch that scene. Mabel
looks at Stan, sees his expression, and feels pity at his distress, a perfectly
human response.
2. Dipper's apprenticeship. Part of me wants to assume
you're an only child. Trust me, even if you actively know it's a good
opportunity, and that they want it, it's still excruciating to be separated
from a close sibling like that. Not to mention that she accepted it in
Weirdmaggedon. It hurts, trust me.
3. Weirdmageddon. I.....can't believe there are people who
genuinely blame Mabel for it. It wasn't her fault at all. After (accurately)
having an emotional breakdown, she finds a solution to her problems. And since
she's still in her breakdown, you can bet that she's desperate and probably not
in a normal mindset. So yes, Bill tricked her. As for the not apologizing, I
feel like none of the others blamed her either, so no apology was needed.”
2. “Ana Tuba
3 months ago
I thought it was pretty clear in the show that Dipper and
Mabel's personality traits are directly related to those of Grunkle Stan and
Ford. Dipper has Ford's intelligence and
curiosity, while Mabel has Stan's selfishness and childish qualities. Mabel's reaction to Dipper apprenticeship
directly mirrors Stan's to Ford's possibility of going away to college without
him, and their falling out serves as a warning to Dipper and Mabel. If Mabel doesn't grow up, she'll lose Dipper
and if Dipper doesn't forgive her when she screws up he'll lose Mabel. That's why it makes sense that Dipper
constantly sacrifices for her and forgives her, and why Mabel finally accepts
that they have to grow up. It shows that
even though they have the same flaws as Stan and Ford, they won't make the same
mistake. When Mabel says that it's okay
for Dipper to move on without her, it shows growth and the thing that Stan
would have never done, but when Dipper stays he does the thing Ford wouldn't
have done. Without Ford and Stan's
dynamic, Mabel would probably be irredeemable, but with it's inclusion, the
show is making a powerful statement about forgiveness, growing up, and
family. But hey, that's just my take
3. “I hate humans
3 months ago
I'm going to disagree with the "Trusted Stan, opened
the portal". I feel like it's not that she trusted Stan over Dipper, it's
more like she didn't lose hope on her gruncle like everyone else. At that point
they just gathered Stan's intentions from the government, is illegal actions,
and in the book. She believed that Dipper wanted to avoid the destruction of
mankind and that Stan wasn't that bad of a guy. If the roles were reversed she
would've trusted Dipper. But I do agree with the rest of your points.”
Mabel is Bad Part 2 (Simple)
1. “Abby Beatson
4 weeks ago
“Oh but Mabel is just a kid!!¡¡!”
SO 👏 IS 👏
DIPPER 👏!!! AND PACIFICA! And Candy and Gretchen who
still manage to behave better than her.”
2. “Shy Fly
1 month ago
I never questioned mable because she really does act like a
preteen girl in her situation. She believes shes a good person but she isnt
thats true. A selfish child, but what more do you really expect from your
average middle school girl? Something ive learned is that not every personality
trait has a reason. Some people are just, not good”
3. “Emperor Of Mankind Official
3 weeks ago
You wanna hear a joke?
Mabel's character development.”
Mabel is Bad Part 2 (Complex)
1. “Gryotharian
1 month ago (edited)
Bill’s offer to her for the rift really makes it seem like
the writers knew exactly what they were doing, Bill literally said in the
puppet episode that dipper sacrifices everything for her and she never does
anything for him. Bill knows how selfish Mabel is and exactly what kind of
selfish deal she would want to accept and offers it to her for the rift. Which
makes me wonder why they didn’t do anything more redeeming for Mabel. Cause
she’s a very well written character, they just didn’t give her a complete arc
for whatever reason”
2. “Greatsaiyakirby
1 month ago
I feel Mabel would be ALOT more tolerable if she suffered
CONSEQUENCES for alot of her selfish actions. It's okay to have a flawed
protagonist who makes bad decisions, selfish decisions - but it's NOT okay if
one of your main characters CONSISTENTLY faces NO consequences for those
actions and decisions. There's a reason why the Eds in Ed, Edd and Eddy almost
never WIN, because at the end of the day their main goal is to SCAM the other
kids out of their Money for Jawbreakers”
3. “Galactic tea spiller
1 month ago
This show was legendary. It made history and a majority of
people can agree how well executed it all was, however, I do highly agree with
all your points. Yes Dipper and Mable are siblings meaning it makes sense for
them to tease each other and fight every once in a while, however some of
Mable's actions, like giving the rift and just her forceful behavior of
everything SHE wants was insanely extravagant, and I haven't ever read the
comic (I REALLY WANT TO THO) but yeah that apology doesn't sound like an actual
apology for so much awful behavior. It sounds like what a character might say
after a fight over the course of a one time filler episode”
Mabel is Good Part 2 (Simple)
1. (A response to a comment about feeling sorry for
Pacifica but hating Mabel) “Saanvi Srivastava
3 weeks ago
I wouldn’t say I hate Mabel, more so that I wish she would
open her eyes and see the harm that she causes. Still agree with everything you
said about Pacifica though”
2. (A response to a comment saying that Mabel’s
apology in the comic was too little too late) Anita “Remenárová
1 month ago
@Fräulein Zuckerguss To each their own, I guess. I'm fine
with it like it is. Her correcting her ways is more important than the apology.
As someone once said: "Don't be sorry, be better.”
3. “Mya W
1 month ago
I feel like Mabel giving up the rift has more to do with a
fear of growing up (especially without dipper) than general selfishness. Mabel
is childish and scared of facing any future without having the one person she’s
always relied on in that situation”
Mabel is Good Part 2 (Complex)
1.
“Li Marrable
1 month ago
I definitely think that some of her her flaws are due to the
fact that she's like- dumb and 12 and isn't really thinking much about
1. The long term affects of her actions as a whole
2. How these actions may affect others in ways not
immediately obvious to her
3. Consent and manipulation
I think she could grow up to be more well rounded and
thoughtful, as she grows and gains perspective, and I think that's starting to
happen in the comics.
I don't think shes a bad person who wants to hurt people,
she's just... Got some growing up to do. Compared to her brother, she is much
less mature in a lot of ways.”
2. (In Response to a comment on how Dipper should
have accepted Ford’s apprenticeship offer)
“ CutielyCat 1
2 weeks ago
I mean yeah he should went with ford but like (my opinion
here) I really don't blame Mabel really for crying and not wanting him to go
with ford because like if you're freaking close with Ur siblings especially
twins,since dipper and Mabel do adventure together makes them super very close
makes it REALLY hard to leave your sibling and grow up without em”
3. (In response to a comment about Mabel’s breakdown
at the end of the summer being an overreaction)
“Christopher Brown
1 month ago
I thought it was because she was afraid she and her twin
brother would grow apart upon becoming teenagers and entering high school? She
seems to depend on him a lot, so separating understandably freak her out. It's
something she needs to grow out of, of course, but that's what the finale was
all about. Perhaps Alex Hirsch has a hard time Mabel's characterization from
the point of view of a third party, given that he's writing about his
relationship with his twin sister. (But then again, most of us don't have a
fraternal twin, either.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, what questions does this
information raise? Even with just three comments in each section (a total of
24), that’s a lot of information to go over. But the most important
question is this: How do people’s reasons for hating or supporting (at least
admitting that she’s not the devil) vary? Because, even if most of the comments
under each video were in agreement that she’s terrible, a closer analysis will
show you that different users have different reasoning, and some criticism is
definitely a lot more sexist than others. Although, to be fair, I would argue
that anyone who paints Dipper, Ford, and Stan as saints while full-on trashing
Mabel likely has at least a little vein of sexism in them, seeing as other
characters share some flaws of Mabel’s—such as, how Dipper and Ford were both
also tricked by Bill (Ford is really the root of all this) and Dipper has
endangered the lives of his loved ones to impress a girl or satisfy his own curiosity
on a few occasions. But I think that
comments about disliking Mabel could be further categorized into comments
attacking her for reasons attached mostly attached to the show, or for reasons
attached to personality traits, most of which I’ve seen could also be tied to
negative behavior commonly associated with teenage girls. The “Mabel is good”
categories exist mostly to illustrate that, even in these comment sections,
there are some differing opinions, but even then, they aren’t usually
necessarily saying that she’s good. So why is there so much more hate for Mabel
than the other characters in this series? Why is there no sympathy for a child
who, at age 12, came to a new town, was almost physically forced into marriage
with gnomes, was stalked, was pressured into a relationship with her stalker
who also tried to kill her brother behind her back and later tried to threaten
her back into a relationship with a giant robot, was bullied, was terrorized by
supernatural forces and had to deal with all of this as a child in a new place?
Is not it a normal reaction for a young girl to try and push all of this away
by pursuing a summer full of carefree fun? After all, she never signed up for
this. Mabel is no angel, but she’s definitely not that bad. She’s a frightened
kid, and a complex character. Also, I just want to point out that Mabel
apologized in the comics and everyone is acting like that’s too little too
late, and the aforementioned stalker apologized, the show then made it clear
that he hadn’t changed that much, and people still act like he’s been perfectly
redeemed. He and Mabel are a somewhat popular pairing, and I’m not even going
to start unpacking that here and now.
-Analysis Round 2
Clearly Sexist (2/12)
6 months ago
Nowadays we expect our female characters to be strong we
forget to make them responsible, likable, and competent.”
1 month ago
I never questioned mable because she really does act like a
preteen girl in her situation. She believes shes a good person but she isnt
thats true. A selfish child, but what more do you really expect from your
average middle school girl? Something ive learned is that not every personality
trait has a reason. Some people are just, not good”
Sexist Undertones (6/12)
4 months ago
Mabel: Gets Dipper to break up with Gideon for her
Also Mabel: Forces Dipper to confess his feelings to Wendy”
“Neon Lights
7 months ago
While watching the series, Mabel was always a little on the
edge for me, but what settled it was The Sock Opera.
1. After promising to help Dipper find a way to log into the
computer (knowing full well how important finding the author of the journals is
for Dipper) she makes him drop everything and help her impress some boy she
never met.
2. On the night of the show, Dipper comes to her in a panic,
explaining that he was possessed by a demon and needs her help and what does
she do? She completely brushes him off as “overreacting” and basically would
rather win over some boy she barely knows instead of saving Dipper’s life. His
soul could’ve been lost forever and she didn’t bat an eye. Let’s not forget the
part where Dipper was begging her to save his soul but Mabel had to interrupt
to comment on how funny he looked as a puppet. Not like he was pleading for his
life or anything.”
3 months ago
Mabel is the villain of this story,
She has everything most villains have
Greed
Selfishness
Doing insane things because it's what she THINKS is best
Thinking she is doing good when she's putting everyone in
danger
Making others do her own wishes even if it's painfully
obvious they don't want to do it
etc. etc. etc.
“Allison Bilbey
3 months ago (edited)
I really agree with this, like a lot. As the show continued
I felt like Dipper learned and progressed but Mabel stayed the exact same and
always got her way. Probably doesn’t help much either since Dipper is probably
my favorite character in the show, next to Wendy. What’s even more fascinating
is that even Pacifica becomes more like able than Mabel at some point which I
don’t think many saw coming. I didn’t anyways. Mabel is in summary very toxic, selfish, and manipulative. I really wish
that Dipper had been able to stay in gravity falls so that he could have gotten
what he wanted, like I really would have liked that ending way more”
1 month ago
I feel Mabel would be ALOT more tolerable if she suffered
CONSEQUENCES for alot of her selfish actions. It's okay to have a flawed
protagonist who makes bad decisions, selfish decisions - but it's NOT okay if
one of your main characters CONSISTENTLY faces NO consequences for those
actions and decisions. There's a reason why the Eds in Ed, Edd and Eddy almost
never WIN, because at the end of the day their main goal is to SCAM the other
kids out of their Money for Jawbreakers”
“Galactic tea spiller
1 month ago
This show was legendary. It made history and a majority of
people can agree how well executed it all was, however, I do highly agree with
all your points. Yes Dipper and Mable are siblings meaning it makes sense for
them to tease each other and fight every once in a while, however some of
Mable's actions, like giving the rift and just her forceful behavior of
everything SHE wants was insanely extravagant, and I haven't ever read the
comic (I REALLY WANT TO THO) but yeah that apology doesn't sound like an actual
apology for so much awful behavior. It sounds like what a character might say
after a fight over the course of a one time filler episode”
Debatably Sexist (3/12)
10 months ago
Dipper: being supportive to Mabel and sacrificing himself
for Mabel
Mabel: you not supportive enough so I made dippy fresh”
4 weeks ago
“Oh but Mabel is just a kid!!¡¡!”
SO 👏 IS 👏
DIPPER 👏!!! AND PACIFICA! And Candy and Gretchen who
still manage to behave better than her.”
3 weeks ago
You wanna hear a joke?
Mabel's character development.”
1 month ago (edited)
Bill’s offer to her for the rift really makes it seem like
the writers knew exactly what they were doing, Bill literally said in the
puppet episode that dipper sacrifices everything for her and she never does
anything for him. Bill knows how selfish Mabel is and exactly what kind of
selfish deal she would want to accept and offers it to her for the rift. Which
makes me wonder why they didn’t do anything more redeeming for Mabel. Cause
she’s a very well written character, they just didn’t give her a complete arc
for whatever reason”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although this sample is limited to
comments I snatched on a whim, it’s still definitely worth noting that half of
them had sexist undertones. And, even just casually grabbing some of the
comments, there were two that, when I really read them, felt clearly sexist in
that they blatantly blamed her flaws (at least partially) on her gender. And,
while there are some debatably sexist ones that’s not the same as “not sexist.”
In fact, I’m going to start there—let’s look at the “debatably sexist”
comments, and how they could still be sexist.
“Scootaloopuff”
puts Dipper on a pedestal. He’s not constantly supportive of Mabel. He doesn’t
really share her interests and has put her needs over his own on various
occasions. For example, what was the one thing she asked him not to do at
Stan’s party? Raise the dead. What does he do? Raise the dead and jeopardize
everyone’s lives. Or the time he got everyone into a haunted convenience store
to impress a girl. Or the time he threw away that was keeping a
Halloween-themed horror from eating them to impress a girl. Or the time he was,
like Ford and Mabel, tricked by Bill. Or the time he took everyone to the
bunker with him and almost hit Wendy with an axe. Or the time… I’m gonna stop
myself there. Dipper is more mature than Mabel is because he’s supposed to be
the straight-man to her goofyness, but to insinuate that Dipper has done no
wrong and Mabel is trash begs the question “why would you think that?” I don’t
know, maybe because Mabel is also a spazzy 12-year-old girl who likes
stereotypically girly things and that’s something that annoys people?
“Abby Beatson” has the comment that’s probably
the most arguably not-sexist of this whole bunch, since she A. says that Dipper
is more mature, which is fair and doesn’t put him on a pedestal, and B., she
lists other female characters who she also believes to be more mature than
Mabel. However, these characters also have significantly less screen time than
Mabel—you know that a character didn’t actually make an impact on you if you
can’t even get their name right (“Gretchen” should say “Grenda.”) And, aside
from perhaps Pacifica, I’ve seen nothing in the series to truly imply that
they’re more mature. They are, however, slightly less stereotypically girly
since Grenda is buff and Candy is a nerd, though they do also share Mabel’s
interest. The only episode that could maybe make the case that they’re
more mature is “Boyz Crazy,” in which Mabel, Candy, and Grenda take in some boy
band members who are actually helpless lab experiments. Candy and Grenda want
to let them go, but at some point, Mabel decides that she doesn’t want them to
leave, and everyone gets into a fight. However, I feel that Mabel’s clinging to
them might be partially because, as I mentioned briefly in my previous post,
she’s clinging to the idea that her carefree romantic summer fantasy could
still happen after being stalked and almost forced into marriage. Stress makes
people weirder, and while that doesn’t excuse poor behavior, it does explain
it. And she did, shortly after the fight, take charge and make everything
right. As for Pacifica, she’s only more mature after her character develops and
is shown to be a victim of abuse who, in season two, strives to become a better
person than her parents are. Those events in season two are what caused her to
mature, and, even during the apocalypse, she’s still hesitant to touch homeless
man or wear clothes from Mabel, so is she really much more mature? Also, Mabel
is the one who first sees the good in her and helps her start to realize that
her family is bad. This could be a disdain for Mabel based on her fitting
certain stereotypes about preteen girls, or it could just be that this user
didn’t think over things much.
“Emperor
Of Mankind Official’s” comment is kind of too vague to thoroughly analyze. It
could be said that it’s more of a critique of the writers than of Mabel, so I’m
going to void it for now.
“Gryotharian”
was mostly critiquing the writers, but doesn’t seem to understand that Bill, in
asking Dipper what Mabel has done for him lately, was trying to manipulate him.
If he’d shown them fighting gnomes together, or Mabel saving Dipper from
Gideon, or Mabel going along with Dipper’s insane egotistical time loop in Time
Traveler’s Pig (yes, she eventually made him stop, but Dipper rewriting time so
that a boy wouldn’t ask his crush out is kind of insane and doesn’t respect
said crush’s feelings) then he wouldn’t have taken Bill’s hand and allowed him
into his mind. Mabel’s not just selfish, and she proves that at the end of this
episode when she lets her sock puppet rock opera be ruined because she’s trying
to force Bill Cipher out of Dipper. So, maybe this was just a critique of the
writers, maybe this user just wants an excuse to dislike Mabel.
Moving
onto the comments with sexist undertones (the big boi of these three), “Hannah Nelson-Cole”
is also guilty of putting Dipper on a pedestal but does so in a slightly
different way. Also, elephant in the room—that username sounds female. But even
if the user is actually a girl, women still deal with internalized sexism and
channel this towards others. Though I’m nonbinary, I’m still AFAB, and still
dealt with this until realizing that it was there, which was in more recent
years. In addition to the “Dipper isn’t perfect either” point from above,
Dipper offered to help Mabel tell Gideon to get away, which she appreciated
because she was creeped out by Gideon and being near him made her really
uncomfortable. She didn’t “get Dipper” to do anything for her because he was a
good brother and offered. You can’t really compare it to Mabel trying to get
Dipper to be honest about his feelings with Wendy. Dipper tends to overthink
and bottle his feelings, and Mabel knows that. She’s not in the wrong there.
So, again, what’s left once the shabby reasoning for disliking Mabel is peeled
away? Yeah.
“Neon
Lights” admits that he’s never really liked Mabel but doesn’t specify why.
Mabel did kind of screw up in Sock Opera, but when Dipper asked for
help, she did help. She asked him to take over her sock puppet rock
opera for a little while, and thought that his little puppet face (Dipper’s
disembodied soul was possessing a sock puppet) was funny-looking, but it’s not
like she said “Oh come on, this isn’t serious, it can wait until after the
show.” No, she immediately went to confront the demon who had possessed him and
get the journal back. Yes, she wanted to take a couple days off from helping
Dipper unravel the mysteries of the Journal to impress a boy she liked, but
that doesn’t seem so bad. From her viewpoint, the mysteries will still be there
in a couple days, and they have a lot of time to work through them, so why not
attempt to at least partially have the summer she wanted, and still help
Dipper, just a little bit later? She couldn’t have known that the author of the
Journal’s laptop would self-destruct after too many failed password attempts,
or that Dipper would attempt so many passwords. I think that this one just
wanted a justified-sounding reason to dislike her, when the truth is, he just
doesn’t like that she’s a boy-crazy hormonal preteen girl who wants to impress
a weird boy who likes puppets.
“Crystal
Joy” calls her out for negative traits that are associated with preteen girls,
while refusing to acknowledge the good ones. She’s greedy, she’s self-centered,
she tries too hard to get what she wants. Wow, let me guess, does she also go
wild with her dad’s credit card and alienate nerds and wear pink on Wednesdays?
This description sounds more like pre-redemption Pacifica. Mabel has a powerful
sheer force of will, and yes, she does get her mind set on her goals. But
ultimately, she also tries to help her family and friends, right her wrongs,
and it’s clear that she’s got a lot of love to give. Also: she is a literal
child. What 12-year old isn’t a little bit selfish? And before you say it,
yes—Dipper is too. See the list where I had to cut myself off earlier.
“Allison
Bilbey” starts off by saying that Dipper progressed, but Mabel didn’t. Dipper’s
progression is just clearer because he’s more serious and has a lot of anxiety
to overcome. It’s harder to develop a character who has to stay consistently
silly. But I think that Mabel did mature, mostly in that she learned to stand
up for herself more, but that’s neither here nor there. Also, they say that
Mabel is “very toxic, selfish, and manipulative,” which is similar to the
previous post, so I’m going to just redirect this to there.
“Greatsaiyakirby”
says that it’s fine for Mabel to make selfish decisions, but the problem is
that she doesn’t suffer consequences for them. I think that this one leans more
heavily towards critiquing the writers, so I won’t get too deep into it.
However, it could be argued that Mabel does learn from her mistakes, but those
mistakes aren’t necessarily revisited, so we don’t get to see super-obvious
development. She does, if nothing else, always try to right her wrongs once she
understands that she’s made a mistake, so that can peel away the outer layers
of this argument too, and possibly reveal a core of mild sexism, but maybe not.
Maybe they just dislike the way the writers handled her development. At this
point, I’m starting to really wish that the show had given Mabel more obvious
development just so that I wouldn’t have to sift through all this.
“Galactic
tea spiller” says that Mabel is “extravagantly” forceful and, perhaps the part
of this argument I’m most sick of after years of it, that Mabel is to blame for
the almost-apocalypse from the three-part series finale. Also, they don’t think
her apology for being hard to be put up with was good enough, even though they
haven’t read the graphic novel which that happened in. I’ve already covered the
“forceful” thing in past paragraphs, so I won’t make you sit through that
again, but let’s get one thing straight. Mabel is no more to blame for
Weirdmageddon than Ford was. He’s the one who started this whole thing with
Bill Cipher. Bill disguised himself as someone who she met not long after
coming to Gravity Falls, who she had later become friends with, and casually
offered help while she was in the middle of an emotional breakdown. Bill didn’t
even use a disguise for Dipper, and Dipper still fell for it, by the way. And
the “her apology wasn’t good enough” point also makes me mad, because
seriously? Everyone is just ready to accept Gideon’s apology, a murderous
stalker’s apology, even though they established that he was still weirdly
attached to Mabel and still sends his thugs after anyone who messes with him?
But Mabel is the one who’s not good enough? It’s definitely kind of
sexist for everyone to be patting Gideon on the back while trashing Mabel, who
was, at the very least, not directly and intentionally evil.
Now,
for the easy arguments. The obvious ones. The belles of the problematic ball. “Nathan
Higgins” says that maybe if they hadn’t been so determined to write a strong female
character, she would have been a better, more likable person. This is… this is
obviously bad. If you can’t see why that’s bad, you could probably stand to
work on yourself a little. Yikes. Yes, weak women are so good and responsible
and care for the children and don’t stay out after 7:00.
“Shy Fly” essentially says that she’s a bad person because
she’s a preteen girl, and that almost all preteen girls are terrible so that’s
just how it is. Again: YIKES. Do I really need to unpack that any further? No?
Good, let’s just throw away the entire suitcase.
Literature Review
The internet hates preteen girls,
and everything associated with them. It hates the boy bands, it hates the
makeover stuff, it hates the fashion, the books, the movies, anything that preteen
girls like. And even when girls try to protect themselves by saying “no, I’m
not like that, I’ve never read Twilight, see?” the internet will mock
them for trying to form an (albeit problematic) defense against the waves of
toxicity that bombard them. In 2012, Gravity Falls, an animated series
owned by Disney and created by Alex Hirsch, first aired. The series focusses on
the Pines twins, Dipper, who is eager to grow up, anxiety-prone, sometimes
fully paranoid, and nerdy, and Mabel, who is deeply afraid of change, outwardly
goofy, looks for goodness in everyone she meets, and is going through a
boy-crazy phase as hormonal 12-year old girls often do. Both of the two make a
lot of mistakes over the course of the series, but the Gravity Falls
fanbase seems to be a lot harder on Mabel for her shortcomings. The creator
even acknowledged this in the comic sequel, Lost Legends, in which the
almost-apocalypse from the series created a fault line to open up, which was
named “Mabel’s Fault,” which references that much of the fanbase blames Mabel
for that almost-apocalypse happening, even though the fault technically lies
more with the Author of the Journals for starting this whole thing. Mabel, to a
certain extent, is the epitome of all things preteen girls are associated with.
She loves boy bands, she wants a vampire boyfriend, she loves fashion (even if
her ideas of what that is are a tad unusual), she wants to have fun and party
and do karaoke and have loud, obnoxious sleepovers with her friends so they can
talk about cute boys and read books about werewolves. I think that there’s a
connection here between the way that the internet hates all things that preteen
girls are supposed to like, and the way that the internet also hates Mabel
Pines. And, given the all-to-often unfair world we live in, it’s important to
call out societal narrow-mindedness where we see it.
But perhaps some of you are still wondering, “Wait, the
internet hates preteen girls?” Unfortunately, yes. A lot of this sexism has
risen to the surface with the internet’s whole “not like the other girls” phenomenon.
I began my research into this specific area by watching some heavily researched
video essays by YouTube essayists and active feminists, Tiffany Ferguson and
Sara Z. Sara Z discusses how it’s hard to define what an NLOG is because
they’re defined by what they’re not: stereotypical girls. From watching both
video essays, I found that, because they’ve seen their whole life that that’s
bad, by the way that people bash boy bands and Twilight and wearing “Too much
makeup” apart, and by the way that media portrays this “normal girl” as being
bad not only because she’s mean and abuses her popularity, but also because
she’s girly and stereotypical. Everyone is taught from an early age that the
“other girl” is bad, and the only way to for a girl to be viewed as herself is
for her to break away from that, even if perhaps one was a little bit curious
about Twilight or cheerleading. And now, even girls who try to form an
identity around not being that are shamed for trying to not be the thing
that society and media told them not to be. Furthermore, academic writers Kim
Barker and Olga Jurazs discuss how online misogyny can get so bad that women
are not able to participate in online spaces with the freedom that men are able
to. This follows everything else we’ve discussed in this essay so far. I mean,
just from the amount of data we’ve looked at, which is incredibly small when
you look at the internet as a whole (pretty small even if you look at the
entire comment section rather than a sample), anyone should be able to see how
an environment like this creates hostility towards women, and makes it to where
they have to be extra cautious about where they make their voices heard on the
internet.
Last Note on Analysis
So then, how do we put together
these pieces to look at how Mabel represents not only sexism towards preteen girls
on the internet, but how that spreads? Well, let’s start with media. As
mentioned in the Literature Review section, everyone is introduced to the
terrible “other girl” from an early age. And, whether or not it’s a result of
growing up with things like that or just pure unadulterated sexism, things such
as makeup and cheesy YA romance books get bashed on the internet. The “other
girl” is born and everyone hates her, therefore, everyone dislikes things
associated with her, which also tend to be associated with preteen girls. And
so, even when Mabel is supposed to be a likable girl, heavily based off of the
writer’s own sister when she was a preteen, internet culture, if not society,
has been trained to hate her. A few people raise their voices and say, “Hey!
She’s terrible!” and then everyone else says, “Hey! That’s right!” and now
we’re here. This isn’t data that I examined for this essay, but just as a long-time
member of the Gravity Falls fanbase, I’ve noticed that obscure Instagram
users can’t even make a post about liking Mabel without a bunch of people screeching
about how awful she is in the comments. This show ended four years ago, and
people still won’t give it a rest. Just seeing what so many people are saying
about her, you’d think she’s a dangerous, unhinged maniac, rather than a
sweater-knitting, boyband-loving, selfish-in-the-average-way child.
Conclusion
Keep in
mind, in case it wasn’t clear from the Methodology section, I was definitely
working with a lot of limitations. For one thing, since I’m a college student,
the amount of time I had to put into this project was limited. Also, rather
than a team of people, it was just me. I had really hoped to look at a much
wider sample from various social media, but, due to the aforementioned
restraints, that wasn’t something I could do. However, I do think that the
sample I took, however small, is still a decent representation of the internet
phenomenon I decided to study—the internet’s bizarre hatred of Mabel Pines, and
the rabbit hole of sexism that topic dragged me into. In other words, the
internet does indeed hate Mabel, and we can look at her as both a reflection of
how the internet hates teenage girls, and as a tragic example of the way sexism
towards teenage girls is able to spread like wildfire.
Sources
International Affairs, vol. 72, no. 2, 2019, p. 95.
EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.26760834&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Sara Z, “I’m Not Like Other Girls,” YouTube, Oct. 31, 2019,
28:47, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNCWW80WTPY&t=501s
Tiffany Ferguson, “I’m Not Like Other Girls,” YouTube, Oct.
31, 2019, 28:27, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nL-kgbbcBA
CC West, “Mabel is Terrible,” YouTube, Oct 3, 2017, 17:40
CC West, “Mabel is Terrible 2-The Apology,” TouTube, March
3, 2020, 21:52,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygZbQ1k-vH0&t=981s
