YMMV / The Powerpuff Girls (S3E10): "The Headsucker's Moxy"/"Equal Fights"

• Anvilicious: The moral of "Equal Fights" is that men and women should be treated equally — unfortunately, it has nowadays become a divisive episode since there's been arguing over whether or not the episode sends out a positive message of feminism, or alternatively sends a good moral but gets a bit too ham-fisted and expositional about it for a kids action cartoon. Writer Lauren Faust now considers it as an Old Shame for her since in retrospect, she finds Straw Feminism too touchy a subject to discuss in a lighthearted cartoon like this.
• Broken Base: Some agree with Lauren Faust that the topic of feminism was too dense to be discussed in a lighthearted family show like this. Others, meanwhile, say that while it's not perfect, it's at least a good introduction to the basic concept of feminism (ie, that it's about women wanting the same treatment as men, which also includes being punished for crimes, like what happened when Susan B. Anthony got in trouble for trying to vote).
• Fridge Horror: Near the end of "The Headsucker's Moxy", the Leech goes after Blossom. Had she remained frozen in place rather than going to the Mayor, she would've been drained of her smarts. Since she's the smartest one of the girls and basically knows all their fighting techniques, the Leech could end up evading their tactics with ease had he drained Blossom's brain.
• Glurge: A big criticism of the episode and why the show is ill-equipped to tackle a subject like feminism is that the world of The Powerpuff Girls is an idealistic one free of such real-world evils as systemic oppression and sexism.^note Some episodes like "Members Only" do touch on sexism within the show's universe, if in a more characteristically light hearted way. As such, introducing those concepts to this world comes off as hollow and insincere.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Femme Fatale notes that the girls don’t even have their own movie...which they would get two years later.
• Ron the Death Eater: While there's no denying that what the girls did during the middle half of Equal Fights was mean and sexist, some fans often overlook the fact that they were manipulated by Femme Fatale in addition to their genuine remorse when Miss Keane and Miss Bellum called them out for their actions as well as showing them that Femme Fatale was just as cruel to the other women in town as she was to the men.
• Unintentional Period Piece: These days, Femme Fatale would have a much harder time finding Susan B. Anthony coins to steal.
  • Even at the time the episode was produced Anthony dollars were used mainly in vending machines and mass transit systems. Most of her robbery targets likely would have had few if any on hand.
• Values Resonance: While criticized back in the day for it's attempt at a complex view of Feminism, it has been cited in recent times as an example of the negative effects of "White Feminism," or feminism that only benefits one type of woman (white women) at the expense of others (women of color and trans women, particularly).

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