ABSTRACT
Bob's Burgers explores multiple modes of female childhood through the lens of comedy, rendering it a landmark in the history of primetime animation. Bob's Burgers subverts the appearance-centrism, binary oppositions, and rocentrism, and gender entitlement that have shaped representations of girls in television animation for decades. This chapter examines the developments in the American animation industry and conceptions of girlhood between the 1980s and the 2000s, which created a space for animated girls on television. It argues that the Belcher sisters' representation moves beyond appearance-centric, binarized, androcentric, and gender-entitled views of girlhood in television. The chapter shows this by analyzing the Bob's Burgers episodes Bad Tina, Boyz 4 Now, The Horse Rider-er, and Bye Bye Boo Boo in comparison with more conventional girlhood representations in both children's and primetime American television animation. The chapter explores how Bob.s Burgers creates new possibilities for depicting comedic girl characters.
