Punky Brewster « Girls will be boys »

No, Punky Brewster is not a [tom]boy.

The episode could have been called «Punky and gender stereotypes». Because if Punky Brewster is disguised as a boy, it is to defy the ban cast upon her playing the same games as boys.

Beyond the colorful outfits so 80’s, it is especially abandonment, adoption, jealousy, absence, breasts that grow, integration, pride, friendship, money, the first emotions, which are among the very serious subjects, treated with humor and tenderness by the series Punky Brewster. In this 1986 episode, Punky will fight for the right to play with what the boys consider their field of play.

Punky is a 7 year old girl who was abandoned by her mother in front of a supermarket. Life and his dog Brandon take him to Henry, a photographer and widower, 60, who is also the manager of his building. After many episodes and adventures, Henry legally adopts Punky.

In this fifteenth episode of season 2, Punky participates in a contest, and a draw makes her win, by mistake, a gift initially intended for a boy : a radio-controlled car to mount. Henry’s first reaction is to think that this toy is not at all for a girl.
Fortunately, the friend and neighbor Betty, insists that Punky can keep and enjoy her toy, and Henry ends up accepting.

Punky proves she can ride her car like a boy AND use it perfectly. What makes Henry proud of her.

A neighbor, Mr. Massey, is organizing car races for his son’s friends, and Punky would like to participate.
She goes there with her friend Alan. But Punky gets sexist mockery to her face. Matsey refuses to let her play with the boys.

Punky returns home to tell this injustice to Henry, who reveals himself rather for, gendered activities for children. Disappointed, Punky then turns to her teacher Mike, to talk to Henry into taking her side, but Henry not only resists, but he finds that Punky is of age to feminize and that boys have the right to play without girls. To have the right to play without girls yes, discriminate against them no. Punky does not approuve.
She is mischievous, independent, intelligent, and above all pugnacious. She decides not to let them exclude her, and for that, she disguises herself as a boy. She is accompanied by her friend Cherry who also plays the game. The girls come to see the boys to have fun with them at Mr. Massey, who organizes a race. The girls overplay the manly guys to integrate: finally, it is easy when you have the codes to integrate a group.

Punky is having fun, she plays little boy, but she reveals herself by mistake. Once unmasked, she immediately faces the rejection of the boys.

Fortunately, Henry, who had just arrived, finally defends Punky, and she is finally able to compete. And she wins !

Henry obviously represents traditional America. He wants Punky to «finally feminize», but she is only 8 years old ! What can you feminize in a little girl as young as 8 ?

Of course he does not think badly, but he shows how much genrer children’s toys, and therefore their education, serves only to divide them, and to limit them in their personal capacities. By braving the forbidden, Punky learns emancipation.

The topic of gendered parenting is so rare in sitcoms or series. But Punky Brewster is one of those characters, after Laura Ingalls for example, who embody the girl power before the time, this form of resistance to gender stereotypes that prevent girls from receiving the same education and therefore the same future as boys. These gender stereotypes mark our lives, and feed our traditions. They are not bad in themselves if they do not hinder the freedom to build oneself, to flourish.
Unfortunately, and because conformism is reassuring, gender stereotypes often become injunctions: girls have to behave like this, boys have to do that, women are judged like this, and men are judged like that.

The American channel NBC made a bold bet, in 1984, to bet on the very young Soleil Moon Frye, to bear a family sitcom, which already takes the risk of addressing many sensitive themes related to childhood. A successful double bet, which left its mark in the 80s with 88 episodes, and which I hope, gave some hope and courage to the female viewers.