Dora is cool because Dora is independent, interactive and bilingual. She’s a smart kid and she encourages her viewers to be smart kids. I don’t like the Wikipedia entry on Dora very much, because they make too much of an issue of her supposed tomboy-ish ness and her lacking “feminine side.” PUH-lease. First of all, she is a CARTOON created for pre-schoolers, how complex and gendered of a personality is she supposed to have? Secondly, who is this Wikipedia author to say what does and does not constitute femininity?

I find this statement particularly irksome: “Dora is somewhat tomboy-ish, not letting her status as a girl (if any disadvantages to that) hinder her progress in exploring and/or helping others.” HER STATUS AS A GIRL? WTF?????

Ok, I don’t want this to turn into a long rant about the Wikipedia entry on Dora, so let me get back to how cool Dora is. She’s got a talking monkey named Boots for a best friend. And a purple talking magical backpack. The talking backpack pure genius as far as I am concerned. You could probably give a plain old purple backpack to Dora obsessed kid and they would have fun with it, but give them a backpack with Dora’s image on it, and they will go bonkers.