Do you remember Dinosaurs, the Jim Henson TV show from the 90s? I loved it as a kid, and though I didn’t retain any of the plotlines I do have vibrant memories of shouting “NOT THE MAMA” at the top of my lungs and continuously insisting that everyone in my house “Gotta love me”! I was precocious, true, but mostly I was imitating the catchphrases of Baby Sinclair, much to my parents’ delight, I’m sure.
Well, life is hard, and in a bid to return to the nostalgia of simpler times, I recently began re-watching Dinosaurs to unwind after work. I mean, what’s not to love? It’s a sitcom in which the principal actors wear incredibly sophisticated – yet deeply endearing – animatronic dinosaur costumes. Look at them!
The problem is, the show is much better than I remembered. It seems that while baby-me was beguiled by an adorable pink dino-toddler, the incredibly acute (and sadly still relevant) grown-up plotlines flew right over my little head. It deals with environmental catastrophe, the capitalist motivations of war, racism, sexism, and more – all through the allegory of a cute, down-to-earth dinosaur family just tryin’ to get by. It even uses the tropes of sitcoms to undermine sitcoms themselves.
And you know what other difficult topic the show explores?
Forced marriage.
I kid you not.
It occurs in the episode ‘Scent of a Reptile’ (S4.E8). In it, fourteen-year-old Charlene’s scent gland comes in, and her mother Fran explains that the one boy who is attracted to her scent is the one she’s destined to marry. But Charlene has the fragrance of burning rubber, and repels all the boys she would like to attract. Then, the school janitor catches a whiff of her and finds her scent deeply appealing. He, however, is not attractive to Charlene: he is stupid, misogynistic, unambitious and, frighteningly, just like her father. Worse, he is a grown adult and he is pressuring this teenage girl to marry him because no one else will have her. It is their dino-destiny to be together. And in case we are unsure of whether or not this is true in-world, Fran explains that she and Earl got married precisely because he was the only one attracted to Fran’s scent.
Charlene is horrified, and refuses. But her parents are compelled by tradition, and invite the janitor to dinner. He and Earl immediately become best friends, burping over beers, and Fran looks on askance while trying to reassure her daughter that things will probably work out for the best.
Charlene is furious.
(And so was I. We expect this kind of thick-headed cruelty from Earl who is routinely selfish and stupid, but Fran, that classic put-upon sitcom spouse who is smarter than her husband gives her credit for? Do better, Fran! …but I digress.)
Thankfully, there’s Ethyl.
Ethyl is Charlene’s maternal grandmother, who hates that Fran married Earl and doesn’t like the idea of Charlene getting married to the janitor, either. So, she tells Charlene the legend of a plant that is said to change a dinosaur’s scent. The MacGuffin Lily.
Determined, Charlene researches the legend, finds out where the plant is said to grow and quests up a mountain to find it. However, in the heart of the wilderness, she finds a Photo Shack where the lily is supposed to be. The company, anticipating that one day the site would be developed, built their business there and destroyed all the lilies in the process.
Yes, friends. They literally paved paradise in Dinosaurs. Of course, the lilies will ultimately have the last laugh, as photo development businesses have gone the way of the dinosaurs. Eh heh heh.
Sorry.
So Charlene is crestfallen and returns home, anxious that she will be forced to marry the janitor after all.
But! Once she gets home, she summons some heretofore untapped source of courage and tells the janitor she will absolutely never marry him. She discovers in the process that her scent has completely changed and that the janitor now finds it hateful. He abandons his claim to Charlene and leaves in a huff, much to Earl’s chagrin. Fran, Ethyl and Charlene have a chat in the kitchen, and Ethyl offers a possible solution to the riddle of the changed scent: Charlene is not the same girl after her adventure. She is bolder, smarter and more self-assured than when she left. Her scent has changed because she has changed. Obviously, she couldn’t attract the same dinosaur.
Which leads to some philosophical questions. Are these scents reflective of character? How can a scent be destiny if a person’s scent can change? What happens if someone’s scent changed mid-marriage? And if scent isn’t destiny, does Fran have to remain married to that boor, Earl?
Charlene had a lucky escape. I hope her parents would have supported her if her scent hadn’t changed, because of her wish not to marry. But I wonder – would the cultural notions of destiny and The One have won out? Would Charlene now be married with a clutch of little dinosaurs of her own, and no education to speak of?
Scent and destiny act as metaphors for real world practices in the show, standing in for traditional drivers of forced marriage. “Because that’s the way it’s always been done”, or “because that’s how I met your father”, or “because no one else will have you”. This was a fun and whimsical piece to write, and watching animatronic dinosaurs stomp about a soundstage is wonderfully entertaining. But some actor got to remove their Charlene suit, and I get to turn off my TV. We have the privilege of leaving these questions of Charlene’s forced marriage behind, and going about our lives.
Unfortunately, though, there are teenagers and children out there who aren’t being protected by a hateful scent, who haven’t the power, agency or awareness to stand up to their parents or their prospective spouse. But we’re here. We can be allies to young people less fortunate than Charlene, because their suffering isn’t fictional like hers.
And as ever, education is the key. We can teach young people, we can educate ourselves, and we can be vigilant against forced marriage wherever it may occur.
In short: we can be Ethyls.
Drawing on Forced Marriage 
Leave a comment