A Feminist Approach to A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973) – Feminist
Happy Thanksgiving, darlings! I hope you all are having a wonderful day and were able to indulge in some sweet thing that makes you happy. For me that means watching Love Actually synchronously with my brother as we talk on the phone from different states – a tradition we started about 10 Thanksgivings ago when I first moved abroad – and making some sides and a pumpkin pie to share with my husband, stepsons, and our blended family for dinner. But while my pie is in the oven, I wanted to make sure to write this week’s review, as Review Roulette (and all of its lovely readers) is something I am deeply thankful for. I love this newsletter and I hope you do too!
So, this week, we’re talking an absolute classic because I ran out of Thanksgiving movies I wanted to watch (after last year’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) and 2023’s Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)): A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973). The Review Roulette wheel landed on Feminist for our approach this week, and while this TV special is a crisp like 23 minutes, I have some thoughts.
First of all, for those of you who haven’t seen it in years, as I hadn’t, the plot is low-key crazy. Peppermint Patty invites herself and TWO other guests to Charlie Brown’s house for Thanksgiving dinner despite the fact he is going to his grandmother’s, so Charlie Brown feels compelled to host these children by forcing Snoopy and Woodstock to prep, cook (toast, popcorn, candy, and pretzel sticks), and serve a seated meal. Which is actually ludicrous, right?
I think I will go so far as to say this holiday special paints girls as hardcore users in a most un-feminist way, save for Charlie Brown’s grandmother who is a G.
So, for starters, the first scene is traditional: that rude motherfucker Lucy questioning Charlie Brown’s patriotism and appealing to his ego by suggesting it is an honor for him to kick a football on Thanksgiving Day. You know, you just KNOW Charlie Brown is on his ass in seconds when she pulls the football. For these transgressions, Charlie Brown rightfully sets the boundary of banning this little sadist from Thanksgiving.
So, then Peppermint Patty calls Charlie Brown and suggests to him that because he is so clearly in love with her, she is allowed to invite herself for dinner because her dad told her the day before the holiday that he’d be in Boston or something – which is also crazy and kind of explains why Peppermint Patty feels the need to con Charlie Brown into filling that masculine void in her life. And also, perhaps, why Marcie follows her around calling her “Sir” all the time.
When Peppermint Patty arrives for dinner, she is absolutely beside herself with indignation that this bitch Charlie Brown would serve non-traditional food by way of his indentured dog, and she makes her truth known, infuriated that a fellow child and dog can’t make a Thanksgiving feast. Marcie does convince her she needs to apologize by telling her to listen to Linus’s history lesson on the meaning of the holiday, but because she’s a manipulator, Peppermint Patty makes Marcie apologize for her.
And none of this is great, right? Maybe this reading is too close, but Lucy, Peppermint Patty, and even Marcie are pretty poor representations of femininity, let alone Sally who is debasing herself to be appealing to Linus who is not even slightly into her. Each in their own way has some extreme version of undesirable societal stereotypes of women: manipulative, aggressive, meek, and vapid. And a full decade after The Feminine Mystique? Do better, Charlie Brown et al.
Maybe that’s because they’re children and also, crucially, fictional animated characters, but it’s a stark difference from the portrayal of the boys. Franklin is too cool to speak, Linus is too smart to shut up, and Charlie Brown is lacking confidence to stand up to the women in his life, allowing them to absolutely dog walk him which, in turn, forces him to take his pent up enraged agency out on his actual dog/servant whom he, ironically, never walks.
Ultimately, they are children, so the gendered analysis is already a bit sketch, but the creators certainly had stereotypes in mind when they assigned them in these overwrought ways to the fictional animated children, and that’s fair game to analyze.
But, as said, the true baller in the whole show is an adult woman whose influence is so strong we don’t even experience her beyond her beautiful tromboned invitation to the rogue Thanksgiving orphans. So, maybe the anti-feminist children are redeemed by the grandmother living up to her own positive stereotypes of kindness, generosity, and hospitality.
I hope you all have some sweet hospitality to embrace today, or at least a chance to connect with your loved ones! Happy Thanksgiving!
Because I’m Never Done When I Say I Am
Ben’s Thoughts
Here are just some quotes from Ben while we watched:
About the extremely long sequence in which Snoopy fights a sentient lawn chair to the death: “For a 23-minute show, this is certainly a choice.” and “This thing is the Jar Jar Binks of the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special.”
“This lack of a three act structure is bold and experimental, I grant you, but I’m not sure that it pays off”
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