The first episode of Kim Possible premiered on Disney Channel in the summer of 2002, soon after the events of 9/11. The TV show outlined the everyday life of a high school cheerleader who also happened to be a renowned international spy. Kim is accompanied by her best friend and sidekick Ron Stoppable and his pet Rufus, the naked mole rat. Together they face a myriad of challenges including burgeoning romantic relationships, undermining cheer teammates, and threatening super villains like her nemesis Dr. Drakken and his henchwoman Shego. In the political and cultural environment of the post-9/11 world, different characteristics of the show have interesting connections to the Cold War ideas of “Americanness” and themes of containment.
In many ways, the show promotes examples of gender normatively for the young audience of the show. All the members of Kim’s family fit nicely into classically defined gender roles. The character design seems to reflect this rigid adherence to those cultural standards. Kim is a character who, even in her somewhat masculine role as a successful spy, is portrayed with large doses of femininity. While she embarks on exciting missions in each episode, she also deals with the mundane problems of any typical teenage girl. Her success as a spy evolves from her talents as a cheerleader, and she is always drawn wearing a crop top, which serves as a constant reminder of that extracurricular background. This choice is also significant because of the the crop top’s uniqueness to women’s fashion. Within the Possible family, hair stands out as a distinctive indication of gender: Kim and her mother both have straight red hair while the males of the family have brown hair. The Possible family acts as a sort of celebration of American values; they are the perfect family. Both of the parents are highly educated, high-achieving professionals in their fields, and their relationship is largely without strife; her little twin brothers are mischievous little geniuses; and Kim herself is a cheer captain and international hero. Their family motto, “Anything is possible for a Possible”, reflects the essence of the American Dream, an idea and image that was widely circulated through the media in the 1950s and 1960s whether it was real or not and whether it was universally achievable or not.
The show also serves to familiarize spy culture. The events of 9/11 resulted in a return to an emphasis on surveillance that had been prevalent during the Cold War, especially surveillance by the government. The US Patriot Act, for example, was passed in October of 2001 as a response by the Bush Administration to combat the threat of terror. Through the show, children are exposed to positive representations of spying agencies. The show teaches its audience that spies are heroes with the capacity to save the world by fighting threats both domestically and internationally. At the same time, the portrayal of Kim Possible as a normal teenage girl encourages active citizen participation in the act of surveillance.
Images:
Walt Disney Television. Kim Possible. Disney Channel. 2002-2007. Television. Screen Captures.
The Rhetoric of Containment 