Dora the Pre-Teen Hoochie

It is funny how much media attention is being paid to the newer “slightly more grown-up” version of Dora the Explorer by disgruntled parents and children’s advocates. It’s just a fictional character people! They are all up in arms as if it were a real little kid – almost as if it were their own child being exploited. Heck, since they personalize it so much, shouldn’t they be proud that the dumpy, androgynous daughter that they are so emotionally invested in has grown up pretty? All the press releases have been very specific that the children’s television program will remain unchanged, and that particular character merchandising effort will also go unchanged. The new pre-teen character is a parallel toy marketing scheme aimed at older kids who grew up with the preschool-aged Dora and are now in the same “tweens” demographic. I bet the same people who are going nuts over this fictional character would be the first to speak out about how unhealthy or sick it is for otaku to be obsessing over fictional annie-may characters!