The Qualification of Imagination

Although foster homes may be associated with orphans and a place for abandonment,  the message in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is very much the opposite. Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends encourages freedom and the support of imagination since it is imagination that both creates their adventures, and what literally made tangible imaginary characters. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends primarily tackles the social issue of equality in ethnicity, disability, and gender in a satirical, yet child friendly way.

When it's a mansion purposely made to accept, house, and take care of used, disposed imaginary friends, Foster's imaginary residents easily mimic many social problems children may face from going into foster homes. To bring these social issues to light, the show's main character, Bloo, arrogantly, superficially, and condescendingly bullies his emotionally damaged friends Edwardo, Wilt, and Coco. Edwardo is a giant scary purple monster, who is actually very sensitive, so much so he cries at least once per episode. Wilt is disabled, through having only one arm, and he is very apologetic. Coco is a bird/plane/tree that is very maternal and only says the word: "coco".  For Bloo, all these features become the fuel for his insensitive name calling. Although this may sound very negative for child viewers, eight year-old Mac, being Bloo's creator, acts as Bloo's moral compass, in that he suppresses Bloo's ego and has him follow the rules (most of the time). Even if Bloo's personality never changes, by the end of each episode through some form of adventure, negotiation, or 'learning from mistakes', Bloo's bigotry is flipped to accepting his friends for who they are (although Bloo still maintains his sarcastic humor). In the episode, "Bad Dares Day," this was no exception. In the episode, Mac and Bloo start of daring each other small dares that eventually escalates to making an all out dare competition between everyone in the Foster's mansion. In the nature of daring, both characters competitively and even sadistically exploit many other imaginary friends' weaknesses, secrets, hobbies, and personalities until there's one final victor. It wasn't until the final round that Bloo and Mac could see that these dares were driving them apart and were crossing the emotional line. Because they recognized friendship overcomes competition , they both then are declared the victors of the competition. Dares, in this episode, symbolize counter equality, through the humiliation, and ultimately hatred for others because they broke emotional boundaries. However, because they learned from their mistakes, the moral of the story is that daring may be fun, but you shouldn't cross emotional boundaries.

On the other hand, through the nature of imaginary friends looking alien to the audience, this message of equality may be lost. In fact, several characters challenge racism vs. equality. For example, a few characters have foreign accents, such as Eduardo's Mexican accent. Although the writer may have intended this accent to give Eduardo more character and quirkiness, it can bring upon racism towards Mexicans and how they speak English, or that through Edwardo showing weakness and sensitivity, Mexican people may be interpreted as also being weak. Similarly, every human character in Foster's Home is white, except for Goo, who is a black girl with ADD. Although it may be unintentional, all the white characters, Mac, Madame Foster, and Frankie, all share authoritative, and respected roles in the house. On the otherhand, in "Go Goo Go" Goo is banned from Foster's, and is originally detested by most of the imaginary friends for having an hyperactive imagination which makes her create imaginary friends from the top of her head. Just as silly has her name is, and the fact that her family allows her to follow Mac everyday, shows Goo's parents have no real handle on Goo's life. This may be sending a bad interpretation of how Black families are run. Conversely, it can also be interpreted as not being racist, but merely recognizing other cultures/races. Goo and Eduardo may represent that in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, they accept people of all colors, sizes, and looks. Because of Mac in "Go Goo Go", Goo was un-banished from the house, and Mac helped Goo become respected and liked. Not to mention, Eduardo overcomes his sensitivity to help his friends. I would like to interpret the show as not being racist, because although initially it appears biased, in end of each episode, the antagonized character is accepted.

Foster's Home for Imaginary's Friends also tackles the equality of genders. In the hour-long movie, "Destination Imagination", Frankie (the granddaughter of Madame Foster) is the mansion's maid, daycare, and chef for the entire house. Mr. Harriman, being the house's business man, and authoritarian, treats Frankie ungratefully for not doing her chores well enough. As a symbol of feminist activism, and rebellion, when Mr. Harriman receives a box with a trapped imaginary friend and puts it in a closet because of a note saying "Don't open", Frankie breaks the rules and opens the box, and falls inside into her ideal dream world. She opened the box because she saw it unjust to trap an imaginary friend based on a note. In her dream world, she is treated like a princess, and decides not to return to her job for how un-thankful it was. The house then descends into dirty chaos without her, and no matter however many maids Mr. Harriman hires, Frankie was irreplaceable. Finally, after a large adventure to save Frankie from her dream world, Mr. Harriman admits Frankie was needed. Upon her return, Frankie makes a policy that every imaginary resident shall be given chores. I interpret this as feminism, in that Frankie was able to stand up for her job, even if her job is typically a female job. This also sends a message of activism for employees, that they should stand up to their employers if they want rights as workers.

Foster's Home for Imaginary friends is a balanced show of having both satirical humor, and liberal morals of equality. The writers are not afraid to tackle moral issues such as race, gender, and public appearances because it is in the sequence of each episode, and implicit message of the title that all the characters learn to accept each other's differences. So, though it may have a blue arrogant bigot, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is socially just in how it encourages equality.