The creation story: “Hasbro was creating a line of dolls for girls.  It was a girl product.  Toy companies have traditionally kept their girl toy lines and boy toy lines strictly separate. My mandate was to create an animation series for girls complete with the elements they viewed as girl subject matter: glamour, fashion, romance, and this case, music.”

Rio, with Jem (left) and with Jerrica (right).

Christy Marx, who had been a staff writer for cartoons like Transformers and G.I. Joe created the series and wrote the episodes. Marx would go on to write her own comic book Sisterhood of Steel, about women warriors who act as mercenaries in a fantasy realm, and the related graphic novel Boronwe: Daughter of Death.

Jem was a cartoon that had intricate subplots and even complex villains. It stood out amongst other cartoons of its time for this reason.

“I developed it that way because that's the way I think,” laughs Marx. “Seriously, I set out to write the kind of stories I enjoy writing without condescending to my audience.  Kids know when someone is talking down to them and do my best to avoid that.  Also, when you know that you'll be making 65 episodes (a standard syndication run in those days), you need to have enough layers and depth and breadth of material to cover that many shows.

Jerrica/Jem was not based on any actual singers of the day (Tiffany and Debbie Gibson have been cited as possible inspirations: good girls who sing for a young audience).

“I didn't base either character on anyone in particular,” says Marx. “If Hasbro had any particular singer in mind, I was never told about it.  My goal was to create interesting characters that fit the feel of the show and gave the writers characters of substance to work with.  Being a strong, independent career woman myself, it should come as no surprise that Jerrica is also one.”

Jem on a Unicorn!

One of the shows main sources of drama was the fact that Jerrica had her secret identity as Jem, and not even her boyfriend Rio knew the truth! Her computer Synergy would cause the “change” when Jerrica needed it, turning her from the blond Jerrica into the pink-haired and be-make-upped Jem. As a child, I often wondered how could Rio not know that Jerrica and Jem were the same person???!
 
“How did Lois Lane not know Superman and Clark Kent were the same person?” interjects Marx, “That’s a standard of the secret identity mythos.  In the case of Jem, I would say that when Synergy creates the transformation, she includes enough visual differences to at least cover that part of it.  Remember also that Rio has seen Jem and Jerrica at the time (with one as a hologram). As for the why,” she continues, “What it gets down to, from the writing side, is that I needed to have the secret identity, therefore I came up with an excuse for it.  It’s really no more complicated than that.”

Jem remains a great role model for little girls, in Christy Marx’s opinion, even today. “I think she was an excellent role model then and now. She was independent, had a career, ran a business, was successful in most ways, but had flaws like a real person.  She was a fully fleshed out character, something you rarely get in an animation series.”

Something that’s getting a lot of attention these days is the fact that female cartoon characters are focused too much on fashion and beauty. Could Jem and other cartoon characters of her day, have been guilty of this? Jem and all her friends and band mates were all attractive, and their theme song included the lyrics, “magic and glitter, fashion and fame!” 

“That’s a rather broad question,” says Marx, “You would have to do a survey of female characters in animation and fully evaluate it.  It wasn’t true of the females in G.I. Joe.  It wasn’t true of Kim Possible.  It may have been true of other female characters that weren’t as well done.  I believe it’s true of Bratz, who strike me as shallow, trivial characters in spite of the ‘message’ gloss they try to put over them.
 
I don’t think there was too much in Jem.  I think there was enough to satisfy the segment of the audience (not always girls, by the way) who liked that, but there was much much more going on with the characters than that.”

Synergy, !!!! the amazing music/computer!

And as far as hyper sexuality in female cartoon characters (as in the study conducted by the Geena Davis Institute) goes, Marx says, “That’s hardly new.  That form of hypersexualization has been going on since…forever, especially in pop culture.  It may have hit a high point in comics and videogames.  A friend of mine, Sheri Graner Ray, wrote a book entitled Gender Inclusive Game Design in which she examines the hypersexualization of the female characters in videogames.”

In defense of Jem and the Holograms, Marx says, “Jem was for kids, so it was far from being hyper sexualized.  I don’t feel the appearance alone was significant.  It was more about the characters, their needs and wants, their personalities, their talents and their relationships.

Jem's contemporaries included She-Ra, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake and Smurfette. What did Jem give kids that they didn't?

“What I did with Jem was write stories that I enjoyed.  That meant stories with layers and depth.  I believe viewers pulled more from those stories because we (the producers and all the writers) put more into the stories.  Also, there was more of a grounding in reality than the other shows, in spite of the fantasy element.

The Misfits!

Everyone in the 21^st Century has probably, willingly or unwillingly, seen or heard of the TV show Hannah Montana, starring Miley Cyrus as a teenager who has an alter ego that is a super rock star. It's pretty much exactly the same plot as JEM, except live action and with a teenager. How does Christy feel about something being that close to her original idea?

“I’ve seen a little bit of it,” she admits. “It does seem superficially similar to Jem, but different in many of the details.  I wouldn’t be surprised to uncover a Jem fan or two in the shows creators.  I think it’s terrific that it’s a successful show.  It gives another good role model to another generation of girls.  More power to them.”

Marx continues with an interesting story about someone else being sued because of a similar reason.

Marx had the idea first – with Jem. “So the lawyer asked me to testify on their behalf to show that Jem had used the concept of a rock star with a secret identity to prove that his idea wasn't unique...which is basically saying that Hannah also isn't original because Jem came first,” she laughs. “I remain highly amused about the whole thing.  The irony is overwhelming.”

Marx will be a guest of honor at the 2008 JemCon in Los Angeles, and you can check her out at www.ChristyMarx.com.