*pitbulllady

UPDATE TO JOURNAL

I've seen several fan art entries here on DA, in which the artist(s) rendered their idea of how the Imaginary Friends characters from "Foster's Home From Imaginary Friends" would look if they were humans. Now, most of you who've kept up with my DA page know that I'm a HUGE fan of that show, and especially a fan of Wilt. In virtually EVERY single piece of "humanized Foster's characters" art I've seen, though, Wilt is almost inevitably(with one or two known exceptions) depicted as a dorky, scrawny WHITE teenage boy of about 15 or so. Can someone please tell me WHY?
First, let's consider Wilt's chronological age. We know, from having seen "Good Wilt Hunting", that Wilt is in his '30's, so he's not a teenager from that standpoint. Wilt was created to be a coach, a mentor, and subconciously, a father figure to a young boy who apparently didn't have a real father to serve in that capacity, which is why Wilt is by far the most adult-acting and mature of the main Imaginary Foster's characters, and it also accounts for why he often displays very strong paternal behavior towards the others. In other words, he not only is way too old to be considered a teenager, but he doesn't ACT like one, either. Now, I know some of you are bristling already, and before you choke on Skittles, let me explain that I know there are plenty of mature-acting teens, although the girls in those ranks FAR outnumber the boys, and I know from experience; I'm a Jr. High school teacher by profession. I've encountered maybe one 15-year-old boy out of oh, 2,000-that acted as mature as Wilt does. There is just nothing in his behavior that suggests "TEENAGE BOY" to me, an adult who'se observed more teens than most folks will ever meet in their entire lives.

Second, why a WHITE guy? We know that Imaginary Friends and their creators are related, genetically, though exactly HOW is not known, and we know that Wilt was created by an African-American child, living in a largely African-American inner-city neighborhood. While Wilt does not sound "ghetto" or speak street slang, but sounds quite erudite and articulate, he most definately does have a distinctly "ethnic" accent that is actually very close to the "Geechee" dialect of the Carolina "Low Country". I'm not at all trying to stereotype, far from it, but I just cannot picture Wilt as Caucasian if he was human, sorry. I dunno-maybe the notion of a beloved character that so many young girls(and some of us not-so-young ones, lol) find attractive, or dare I say, sexy(whether they'll admit it or not)-as a tall, sinewy, athletic thirty-something Black guy with a scarred face, a missing left eye and an amputated arm is somehow too threatening, so they prefer to think of him as a pigeon-chested, awkward White teenage boy. Me, I picture a "human Wilt" as looking a lot like a somewhat-younger version of the character "Warrick Brown", on "CSI", with that somewhat wistful countenance of his, someone who seems to hide behind a troubled past, or perhaps a slightly more serious(and TALLER) version of "Darnell Turner" of "My Name is Earl" fame(aka "Crabman", aka "Rubberband Man" of the Staples commercials). It doesn't bother me in the least, but I cannot for the life of me picture Wilt as a barely-pubescent White kid with a growth-hormone overload.

Anyone care to share with me their thoughts on this uh, phenomenon?