Call of the Cutie = Girl going through Puberty?

[DiscordAnarchy 770]

Alright. Back in the late 80s, early 90s during th Cosby Show, there is an episode where Rudy no longer wants to go to school because she hasn't "Developed" and many girls of her class have already started "Developing." She is encouraged to go with her friend who is in the same situation only do discover that over the summer, her friend "Developed" leaving Rudy discourged and depressed. Ther est of the episode is about Rudy's friends and her trying different ideas to get her to speed up the process.

 

http://youtu.be/laL8RAinW4A

 

I bring this up because this is exactly how I felt watching the Call of the Cutie episode. The whole episode really seems to revolve around a girl's struggles going through puberty and other girls giving her a hard time for being a "Blank Flank" or "Flat Chested."

 

A lot of phrases and lessons revolve around this. AJ talking about how she was the last in her class to get hers, how Bloom's friend got hers first which upset Bloom, how other girls were "Blank/Flat" and the two girls who developed first were considered the more "popular" or at the very least, the leading "experts" in being "Developed".

 

Did anypony else notice this hidden meaning behind this episode?

Edited December 21, 2013 by DiscordAnarchy

[MLPForums Phanact 1,374]

I never noticed this but well done to you for spotting it! It actually makes a lot of sense now I'm thinking about it.

 

 

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700th post! YAY ME

 

[Shanks 10,816]

Yes, there are some similarities there no doubt about it, but they are not quite old enough to be going through puberty just yet so this similarity might not be intentional. Alot of kids do want to grow up fast even before they go into puberty so the message of not trying to force this is one that a lot of young children need to hear.

[Sugar Pea 2,682]

GAWD DANG *covers ears* I HATE DAT WORDS. MAKE IT STAHP.

Ahem....anyways, I think I heard something like this in one of DigiBrony's videos. He mentioned something that getting their cutie mark is almost as equivalent as hitting puberty. 

[SharpWit 2,760]

I'm pretty sure that's not the hidden meaning of the episode considering the age group it's directed is still a few years away from that kind of thing. But it is easily understandable to look at it that way. The message of that episode is that it doesn't matter what others think of you when you have friends who accept you for who you are, or something there other.

[hawkflame 3,310]

I'm surprised most older fans didn't notice right away.

[Sweet Dreams 1,893]

I'm surprised I didn't notice this from the start! Definitely a credible theory, I'd believe it.

[ReverseFaller 2,484]

There are definitely some similarities, but I think the CMC are still a little too young to be going through puberty.

[CT-1138 3,183]

Kale ash saw the cutie marks as a puberty analogy, and the CMC just being late bloomers.

[Flank 14]

Ye i didn't think of this either that's pretty crazy

[Princess Lona 382]

I think the analogy is more specific than just general puberty. Puberty is usually regarded as being solely about physical development, whereas getting a cutie mark is about personal/emotional/spiritual development. In the real world, even though we only think of puberty as a physical thing, it really is a time when you are learning a lot about yourself and defining yourself. The physical changes in your body definitely affect that to some extent, so I think cutie marks are more specifically a metaphor for the inner growth that occurs during puberty, with a physical manifestation in the form of a butt tattoo.

[Zygen 6,066]

Well if you want to you can compare the whole getting a cutie mark thing to puberty, i don't know if thats really the actual correlation the writers made, but it can be compared. getting a cutie mark is a milestone in life for young fillies and shows development like puberty as well.

 

If we wanna be technical about this, technically horses go through puberty (which means ponies do aswell since ponies are essentially smaller horses) and considering a cutie mark isn't really a physical thing, and doesn't really seem to come at the same time as the physical growth that is associated with puberty(Although i'm pretty sure that as far as animals goes puberty refers to sexual maturity, but i could be incorrect.) 

 

I dunno how old we'd place the CMC at, and whether we'd go with the age of humans or the age of horses, but apparently horses go through puberty anywhere from like 2-4 years old, possibly more. (There was alot of variations in the research i quickly did.) Where as humans it is quite varied, however females tend to go through puberty much earlier and males later, males also don't stop growing till much later.

 

The other thing that makes relating Cutie marks to puberty a bit odd is that puberty is more of a process atleast in humans, you typically don't just wake up having finished puberty, but you do however more randomly get a cutie mark, you don't just gain parts of your cutie mark. Sure its a process to find what your talent is, but the actual cutie mark is an instant thing.

 

But really while i don't know if the original intention behind cutie marks is a secret way to refer to puberty for the ponies, its certainly a possible theory depending upon how you look at it. 

 

Of course that leaves me to wonder the inspiration behind cutie marks...

 

Anyways, if you want to associate it with puberty, then theres nothing wrong with it, i see it as a fine comparison, its more of a perspective thing. I just kinda see it how it is in the show, as the ponies discovering their talent, but i have theorized it as being possibly comparable to puberty.

[Binary Blast 27]

That's what I thought originaly too, all though there are males in that classroom, just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

I wonder how ponies parents explain cutie marks to there children,

Pony Mom: "When a pony hits puberty, she gets a mark on her butt that tells her what she has to do for the rest of her life!"

Pony Child: *starts crying*

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

I guess there are some parallels there. Although 'Call of the Cutie' was more about a state of mind, in the end, than physical development. It was sort of a coming-of-age episode, like 'Dragon Quest' where Spike set out to meet some of his peers and had to decide whether to stay with the dragons or the ponies he had grown up with. He found himself, in a way, because by the end he called himself a pony and did so without irony.

 

Arguably, he learned a better lesson from his situation than Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle did, because while their friendship strengthens them against Diamond and Silver's teasing, it is still built entirely around what they don't have--i.e. their cutie marks. I guess that's always bothered me a little. When one of them does get a mark eventually, it's going to be very jarring for the other two.

Edited December 24, 2013 by TailsIsNotAlone

[Wingnut 7,005]

I have read about the cutie mark-as-a-metaphor-for-puberty before.  It's been pointed out as long as I've been a Brony.  But as some of the respondents here pointed out, the meaning of the cutie mark is more than mere physical maturity.  Puberty says what you are.  Your cutie mark says who you are. 

[~Brenden~ 11]

Well, I never noticed the meaning behind this episode but now that I think about it and saw this thread, everything about that episode is now making me think differently about that episode and a little bit of CMC.