"The Ghost and Molly McGee" employs archives stereotypes with basement archive [Part 1]

Entering the archives which is…behind a heavy steel door, of course

Recently, I was watching one of my favorite animated series, The Ghost and Molly McGee. When I saw the two protagonists, Molly McGee and Scratch, go to the local library to learn the truth behind a town legend, it seemed like standard fare in animated series. Usually, the story goes like this: characters to go a library or archives to learn about something, they find the answers somehow, and ta-da, problem resolves itself. This episode appeared to follow that same pattern, reminding me a little of The Simpsons episode "Lisa the Iconoclast," which Sam Cross analyzed on her blog. However, I was intrigued when I saw Libby, Molly's friend, hilariously dressed in a trench coat, tells Molly and Scratch that "you have no idea how deep this rabbit hole goes. You need to visit...the archives." Warning that there will be some spoilers for this episode ("Monumental Disaster") discussed in this post so I can analyze it here.

Reprinted from my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks WordPress blog. Originally published on Nov. 18, 2021.

My concern grew when it was clear that in the episode, the archives clearly has a lot of mystique around it. For one, it is only accessible when Libby pulled out a book of a shelf aptly named Secret Levers 4 Secret Doors, causing a huge metal door to open. In the archives itself, it is portrayed as spooky, dusty, and dirty, with cobwebs on the ground, even with eerie music playing. This portrayal is not unique, although some shows have archives above-ground, not in a "dank dungeon of a basement surrounded by cobwebs and dust. For example, in an episode of Phineas & Ferb, another Disney show, Heinz Doofenshmirtz travels to the secret vault, in the basement of city hall, filled with documents, lit by torches, and having cobweb, to find the deed he is looking for. In Amphibia, also a Disney series, Anne Boonchuy and the Plantars travel to the town archives, happens to also be underground and is described by one character as "dustier than Dusty's dustbin."

Like the basement archives in Phineas & Ferb and Amphibia, no archivist is seen and archives almost seem abandoned. On the other hand, the archives appears to be well-organized, despite some papers strewn on the ground, almost like the basement newspaper archives in a few episodes of Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters, one of the first series I wrote about on this blog in August of last year. It is implied that some people may care for the archives as Libby mentions, earlier in the episode, that the archives is sponsored by the Brighton Women's Historical Society which believes history should be "no mystery."

Despite these negatives, Molly does get the information she looking for, with Libby dramatically opening a box which has the "answers" she seeks. Molly pulls out a book entitled The True History of Brighton. Libby plays a vinyl recording of the book being read/sung. As a result, Molly, is like Lisa Simpson in the previously mentioned episode of The Simpsons, realizing that the town legend is wrong, with the heroine of the town being Sally Tugbottom, rather than her brother, Ezekiel "Tug" Tugbottom. Molly then recognizes that Tug, who the legend is centered around, wrote the history (almost akin to Buddy Buddwick in Steven Universe) which everyone accepts. As a result, she vows to right this injustice. Ultimately, she is successful, as Tug's attempts to cause destruction cause him to destroy a statue made in his honor.

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Whoops. No more reading at work (⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠)

ontario, oregon

posted: 06-06-23, 14:13

jon was 28 when he became The Archivist 😭😭 he should've been at the club

have you ever considered an all-avatar group chat BECAUSE I KNOW I SURE HAVE:

Jon gets added when he wakes up from his coma and spends all his time ignoring it

Micheal sends awful quality memes at ungodly hours (not 100% sure if Helen would tbh..)

Nikola and Annabelle in a war over the chat name (Helen joins the fight on Annabelles side)

sometimes elias sends pictures of jon and everyone clowns on him

^this is also what was happening when he first discovered the chat sdsghsfdsdsds

jon: "hey could i not get kidnapped today?" everyone: "hmm no"

feel free to add on idk im tired

Alice. My dear. My darling. What do you mean by that. Why do you say these things. What do you know. Please.

celia please-

there are literally the tma crew

i love you all already please stop tempting teh genre

(irrelevant but this is who is who is my mind, loosely ofc:

sam - sasha [politely curious, has history with the spooky]

celia - martin [desparate and suitable, helloo??!!?]

alice - tim [an i know everyone agrees, old employee, def has experience with the spooky]

gwen - jon [obsessed with perfect categorisation, and prickly as hell, definitly involved with the spooky in teh past])

So I just realized Neopets and Archive of Our Own both have a birthday on Nov 15th. Huh. Not sure what to do with this information other than do my dailies like normal, but it felt worth mentioning I guess.

lsdunes: can the fans get a chip??? #canigetachip

(L.S. Dunes Twitter | July 9, 2023)

The Web really just chucked that woman in “for science,” huh?

"The Ghost and Molly McGee" employs archives stereotypes with basement archive [Part 4]

Continued from part 3

A basement archive in and of itself is not a stereotype, but it is the fact it paired with other aspects, like having a library unkept, dirty, disorganized, and dusty. As some pointed out in response to this post on /r/Archivist, some smaller archives and historical societies (archives-lite) have archives in their basements. I don't, personally, have an issue with that, my issue with how that is portrayed in popular media.

Reprinted from my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks WordPress blog. Originally published on Nov. 18, 2021.

If there was a well-organized archive in a basement, then that wouldn't be a bad thing, but I haven't seen that in any media, not even in Stretch Armstrong with its basement newspaper archive.

While The Ghost and Molly McGee is obviously an animated fantasy series, it can still contain realism in how archives and archivists actually operate, and be integrated with the show's existing stories and plots. I believe that an animated series could do that, without compromising their plot, characters, or any other aspect of the show.

It is depressing to come across show after show which gets archives wrong, whether confusing archives with libraries, even in the series entitled the Mystic Archives of Dantalian, or having archivists play into stereotypes. I would further hope those working on animated shows, whether creators, animators, storyboarders, artists, or whatnot, reach out to those in the archives profession, to make sure archives, and archivists, are portrayed positively in a way that doesn't perpetuate stereotypes.

In the meantime, I'll continue wading through the cultural stacks!

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

What were some of the “uncanny” items from April 14th?

Unfortunately, some of our colleagues have developed a very laissez-faire attitude towards items from Artefact Storage that they view as ‘less dangerous’, resulting in a member of our Research department inadvertently drinking from a Starbucks cup that had been misplaced from Storage the week before.

According to Anna Romero’s account, she ‘realised it was drinking her back, panicked, and tried to set it on fire.’ Apparently, there are no smoke detectors in the bathrooms, so that was the first place she thought of.

Thankfully, Ms. Romero escaped with only a minor case of dehydration and a few second-degree burns.

Yet another day of trying not to think violent thoughts about Martin Blackwood’s mother

It’d be funny as hell if the Vatican used its archives, vaults and basements to preserve and display the remains of dead Popes, trapped in amber on display for the general public.

All T-posing, fucking bones and everything.

“There’s Pope Formosus. T-posing as usual.”

props to good omens and the magnus archives for scoring the oddly specific trope of ace gay couple abandon working for a morally corrupt organisation and instead attempt to stop their bosses from ending the world

In my head you're this super cool archivist who basically lives in the basement of a really big library where they hold The Secrets™

I WISH

assumptions ask