Pa ‘was the character of Pepé Le Pew

Pepé Li Pew, the stinky skunk of French origin created by Warner Bros. in the animated stories Looney Tunes and characterized by chasing a kissing cat convinced he can not resist his charms, is out.

The cartoon is one of the latest animated characters to face a review due to the undue messages it “normalizes”. If so, violence against women.

In recent days, Warner announced a decision to pinch the character precisely to “normalize” incorrect messages. And now, the director of the movie “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” Malcolm D. Lee, edited the scene in which this character appeared.

According to reports, Pepé Le Pew would be in a sequence of the animated film that opens on July 16 in which he emulates the film “Casablanca” in which he represents a bartender flirting with a woman. In a sequence repeated since its creation in 1945, the skunk begins to kiss the woman’s arm, but she pulls it away and hits him with a chair; he throws her a sip and slaps her, letting her turn around in her seat.

At this point Lebron James and Bugs Bunny arrive, who are looking for Lola Bunny. Pepe tells them that he knows where she is and in passing tells them that the cat Penelope (the character who suffers her harassment on the dolls) filed a restraining order against her. Then Lebron James warns him that he cannot touch others without his consent.

The decision to remove the scene was not to the liking of Holy Greice (“Jane the Virgin”), who gives voice to the character of the woman facing Pepe, because as a victim of sexual harassment he considered that in the ‘scene the fox finally received his due.

Although it is said that it is not a related decision, the truth is that the news of the removal of Pepé Le Pew from “Space Jam 2” coincides with the publication of an opinion column in The New York Times last week of the week, to which Charles Blow assured that Pepe Le Pew “normalizes the culture of rape” and that he has raised a discussion about the social representations that puppets make in popular culture.

In recent days, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that it will stop selling six of its books that “represent people in a hurtful and erroneous way.”

In her column, Blow claims that Le Pew kisses the other character repeatedly and without her consent, and no matter how hard she tries to run away, he doesn’t give in and even locks the door.

The columnist also criticized the portraits of puppets such as Speedy González, which helps “popularize the corrosive stereotype of drunk and lethargic Mexicans”; or that of the supporting character who appears in “Tom and Jerry” known as Mammy Two Shoes, stigmatized as “a stout black maid who spoke with a strong accent.”

The removal of Pepé Le Pew isn’t the only change in the upcoming “Space Jam,” as Lola Bunny’s character will have a less sexualized image.

Director Lee was responsible for the change, as while the rest of the anthropomorphic drawings looked childish, Lola Bunny’s attributes and attire highlighted her sexual characteristics.

“Lola Bunny was very sexualized, like a Betty Boop combined with Jessica Rabbit,” the filmmaker told Entertainment Weekly magazine.

Details that surprised Lee from the previous film, released in 1996, include the rest of the characters calling Lola Bunny by nicknames such as “hot” and “basket-breaking”, as well as her costumes were noticeably shorter than the rest.

“We’re in 2021. It’s important to reflect the authenticity of strong, capable female characters,” the director noted.