Dropping Pepe Le Pew Isn’t Cancel Culture

Dropping Pepe Le Pew from the newest Space Jam film isn’t cancel culture. It’s just…culture.

Culture evolves.

As a child, I always looked at the cartoons depicting Pepe Le Pew as a cautionary tale: no matter how many times you try, “no” will remain “no”. I saw the lady cats in the cartoons as strong-willed females who stuck to their guns and refused the overtures of a character who thought his caricaturesque romantic sensibilities would be enough to woo his favored one. Pepe Le Pew, as a self-important idiot, who never understood why women didn’t like him, symbolized for me the lesson that young males watching should adhere to: you’re embarrassing yourself. Observing that no matter how many times he tried, whatever pursuits he employed, he still didn’t “get” that the ladies didn’t want him-I took it as a lesson to young men to “read the room” and understand that sexual advances unreturned left women turned off and disgusted. At the time, I didn’t know what rape was, so my understanding of what was happened was left at that. I thought it was funny-it was as if to say, “look at this idiot who can’t see that he isn’t as awesome as he thinks he is.” I laughed at him, not with him.

I also recall watching with horror in the sixth grade the classic film Gone with the Wind. I recall vividly watching Scarlett being lifted by Rhett Butler and swiftly carried upstairs as she pounded his chest demanding to be put down. Cut to the next scene, we see a blissful Scarlett languishing in bed with a joyous and beatific smile the following morning. The lesson conveyed was all she needed was a good raping and things would be A-Okay.

Even then I knew it was a crock of shit.

Setting aside the blatant racial themes threaded throughout the film that grossly celebrated slavery and the relationships between slave owners and their property, we hear Rhett say to Scarlett that she needed to, “be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how”. This, THIS, is rape culture. That a seemingly petulant woman must be brought to heel and the only way to do so is to forcibly sexualize her to subvert her independent tendencies is the hallmark of what rape culture is. Beyond the forced sexual behavior, it is the insistence of the “hero” of the film that not only that there was a problem, but he had the solution, he was to the the provider of the solution AND that the solution was found to be lying in wait in his dick.

As if.

I’ve literally never had any problem whatsoever solved by someone’s dick, but at least 99 problems that came from one.

Looking at yesterday’s culture through today’s lens is a helpful way to shape the culture of the tomorrows to come. But looking at the intent and impact of yesterday’s culture also offers a nuance to discussions today-Pepe Le Pew was a character that satirized the aggressive don Juan and showed the disgust of the character’s targets. Rhett was a rapist that ended up being loved more because of the rape.

And that was never okay.

It should have been canceled then, it should be canceled now.

Now turning to the but, but, buts and pearl-clutchers who will gasp at this idea that our culture is being attacked by leaving out these characters, let me share this earth-shattering and groundbreaking idea: we are not entitled to a company’s intellectual property.

I’ll leave a moment for folks to recover from this revelation.

Leaving a cartoon character by the wayside is a healthy way for a corporation to help The Culture in general, and its culture in particular, move forward and introduce characters and themes that are appropriate to reflect the general understanding that (gasp!) women shouldn’t be touched without their permission and that such behavior shouldn’t be introduced to young children as a thing that occurs. The same is true about the Dr. Seuss books that the company which owns the rights has decided to no longer publish. Self-monitoring and decision-making to evolve to reflect the culture that exists, despite potential loss of a publication revenue stream, should be celebrated.

Perhaps sending a gilded invitation to the owners and consumers of the cultural touchstones that pay homage to slavery and rape that indicates these things no longer have a place and space in our society will encourage them to evolve with the culture too.

And that will be quite a thing to celebrate.