The internet has been buzzing this week ever since a New York Times columist set forth the cancelation of cartoon character, Pepé Le Pew.
The Looney Tunes character has been accused of “adding to rape culture.” While a lot of people agree with this character backlash, one person who adamantly does not is the creator’s daughter, Linda Jones.
Come see what she had to say.
Earlier this week, *Looney Tunes* character, Pepé Le Pew, was dragged by cancel culture.
It all started when New York Times columnist, Charles M. Bow, called out Pepé Le Pew and Speedy Gonzales during his piece on racism in children’s culture i.e. books and TV shows.
“Some of the first cartoons I can remember included Pepé Le Pew, who normalized rape culture,”
“Speedy Gonzales, whose friends helped popularize the corrosive stereotype of the drunk and lethargic Mexicans.”
On Twitter, he carried on with his sentiments, writing that Pepé Le Pew “added to rape culture.”
He then shared the devastating effects this can teach young boys.
“This helped teach boys that ‘no’ didn’t really mean no, that it was a part of ‘the game’, the starting line of a power struggle,” he wrote .
“It taught overcoming a woman’s strenuous, even physical objections, was normal, adorable, funny. They didn’t even give the woman the ability to SPEAK.”
Since his piece came out, a lot of people took to Twitter to agree with his statements.
The character’s scene from the upcoming film, Space Jam: A New Legacy was also cut from the film . Although this decision was made before the New York Times piece came out.
He had starred in the first Warner Bros. Space Jam movie in 1996.
But one person who “strongly disagrees” with Pepé Le Pew’s character backlash is Linda Jones.
She’s the daughter of the character’s creator, Chuck Jones.
In an interview with TMZ , she said that she doesn’t believe that Pepé’s actions inspired people to go out and rape or harass people.
She also pointed out that Pepé never raped anyone on the show.
She did, however, admit that Pepé constantly grabbing Penelope the Pussycat doesn’t look good in today’s culture.
But that this wouldn’t be seen as normalizing rape culture during the ’50s, ’60s, or ’70s. Regardless, she doesn’t believe that Pepé should be canceled.
She told *TMZ* that the character’s running joke of him being grabby was never meant to be predatory.
She also defended her late father by saying that he was a “super liberal dude” who would never intend to hurt people.
That Pepé was simply created for comedy.
Linda then spoke to *Entertainment Weekly* to provide more context to her opinions.
She linked Pepé to Charles Boyer, a popular French actor who was known for playing suave characters.
She doesn’t believe that the character meant harm when aggressively pursuing Penelope the Pussycat, who he mistook for a skunk.
“There’s a difference between the decision to identify these cartoons as not being appropriate now, and that they contributed to the rape culture then,” she said.
Despite everything, she said that she has no problem with Warner Bros. deciding to cut Pepé’s scenes from the upcoming film.
The 83-year-old is “an advocate of being sensitive to these kinds of issues…”
“…seeing as she’s been through a lot herself working her way up as an executive of her own company,” the outlet reported.
But she does hope that the character can be brought back in a different fashion down the line.
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“The essence of the character might be carried into something that’s more acceptable now,” she said.
This could be possible, considering Warner Bros. updated the look of Lola Bunny in the new film to make her appear less sexualized.
What do you think of Pepé Le Pew’s cancellation? Do you agree with Linda? Let us know in the comments!