Why isn’t Pebbles on the Cocoa Pebbles?

I was always kind of bored by the Flintstones when I was a kid, but the episodes where Pebbles came on were my favorite. As were the episodes with Tabitha, Samantha’s daughter on Bewitched. Probably because I was a kid and a girl and I liked seeing a kid and a girl on TV. Remember Pebbles? Fred and Wilma’s kid?

Well, guess what: She’s gone missing from her eponymous cereal. No kidding. It’s all Fred and Barney. Do you know how hard it is for a girl to get a cereal named after her? And then no picture? WTF?

I know what you’re thinking. Cocoa Pebbles is bad for you anyway. Who cares? But this is fucked up. Kids study these boxes.

The only female represented on all four sides of this box is one small picture of Wilma. She’s not in the games or activities section either. She’s not doing anything remotely fun or cool. Unlike Fred and Barney, she’s not driving  a car. I suppose women in the Stone Age couldn’t drive.

What’s Wilma doing in her little pictture? She’s pouring milk above a caption that reads: “Are your kids getting enough Vitamin D?”   See her there above the advertisement for no less than four products starring with Fred? I guess the moms are supposed to relate, but what about the kids? The female kids.

Why is Pebbles missing? Where has she gone?

Cereal boxes are yet another way the media tells kids: males are important, females are invisible.

And let’s not forget that the Flintstones is derived from The Honeymooners. All these shows, all these narratives about women and men and the roles they are supposed to play are in life are showing up to teach our kids in 2012.

Read more about gendering cereal.

One thought on “Why isn’t Pebbles on the Cocoa Pebbles?

  1. I love when smart people point things out to me that I hadn’t previously noticed. I love to think I’m pretty adept at spotting some things (like how every bride should have a huge rock and a very white dress to be considered a *real* bride) but I never thought about cereals. Thanks for pointing it out. Can’t wait to share!

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