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Cultural diversity representation in Hollywood
Cultural diversity representation in Hollywood
Cultural diversity representation in Hollywood
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In the article written by Margaret Lazarus, All’s not Well in Land of “The Lion King”, the author starts off by talking about her trip to the movies with her sons to see The Lion King. She then goes on to express her hopes that Disney had moved away from movies that “Reinforce women's subordinate status”. Once the author finishes her clear disapproval of previous Disney Films, she starts to identify the different stereotypes in The Lion king and how they reflect the stereotypes in our society. Starting with how the lion and how they are the king of the land and all others bow down to them. Then she moves on to the animals who live outside of the kingdom who are a pack of hyenas who live in a elephant graveyard are clearly african american and live in a ghetto. After that she describes the king's evil brother,Scar, as seemingly gay and therefore banished from the …show more content…
pride lands. As the article pathetically rolls along, she describes how bad the times are in the kingdom after Scar kills his brother to take power. The first born son of the king returns to take back the kingdom. He kills scar, who again is portrayed as gay, and then sends the “black” hyenas back to the “ghetto”. Stating that the film is not about animals, but a metaphor for our society. She then concludes her idiotic rampage by explaining her confusion with the “Hollywood Jungle”, and the hidden messages Disney sends to millions of kids to harm themselves and us. I do not agree with the author of this article.
She was not very logical in any of the reasons she used to make a great movie sound like a horrible message filled with hate and stereotypes of our country. The Movie was a great side step from most disney movies about princesses, but it certainly is not as Margaret Lazarus describes in her article. When she starts to get into the Stereotypes that she thinks are hidden in the movie, one of the first is about the land outside the pride lands where the hyenas and scar, the uncle of simba, live. She correlates this place with the ghetto in our society and that it's packed with (black) hyenas. Where in reality the movie just shows a scary graveyard where the antagonist of the story lives, in a easy way to show the young audience of the film that the hyenas and scar are the bad guys in the movie. The author also points out that one of the main hyenas is voiced by Whoopie Goldberg with a clearly black inner city dialect. When in all reality all the characters in the movie should have african american sounding voices, after all the movie does take place in
Africa. Along with the hyenas in the “ghetto” is scar, who is the brother of the king who the author describes as seemingly gay and therefore not able to be the king of the pride lands. Personally i always thought scar did not infact sound gay at all but spoke in a very dark, gritty tone which made it easy for the audience to dislike him which makes since because he is the evil brother and evil characters done usually sound nice. Once the author talks about scar killing his brother for power and then sends the only child into exile only to return to take it back from him. She says how it shows that only the first born male child would be able to do such a thing and why didn't the other lions fight back. Well first off Simba was the only born child because his dad was killed before they could have any other kids so obviously he was going to be the only child. Second, the other lions were not aware that scar killed his brother. As far as they knew he was killed by the stampede of wildebeest in the valley. No one had any reason to fight back besides Simba because he was the only one who knew what really happened. After the crazy fight at the end of the movie the author again clearly does not get the meaning of the story. She talks about how the hyenas are sent back to the graveyard and only the privileged can live in the pride land, she writes about how you can only be born into being the king and how awful the movie destroys kids ideas of society. But it actually shows how no matter what happens or what has happened in the past, you should never run away from your fears and fight what is right. That is the message sent by Disney in The Lion king.
In the book Of Mice and Men, the author,John Steinbeck, uses stereotype characters to convey his message. He wants to empathize with his characters as human beings. He uses stereotype characters such as Lennie, George, Curly, Slim, Candy, Crooks, and Curly's wife. Steinbeck's goal is to inform people how life was like for a migrant worker in the 1920's to 1930's.
Native Americans have been mistreated and taken advantage of as time went on in United States history. I remember when I was a kid sitting down eating my Cheetos watching Peter Pan and Pocahontas singing along to all of the songs in the movie. Since taking diversity classes in high school, I rewatched those movies and realized how awful they make Native Americans look and act. It’s been throughout the whole United States history that we have treated them unfairly from the Dawes act, stealing their land, and the way we use them in movies. We have falsely portrayed their views for our entertainment, which is wrong. The Native population are an important part of United States history that has been misrepresented due to pop culture being shown
To conclude, film has an intrinsic duty to “provide a face for the faceless [… it] creates the life and times that American society has only heard about or researched but never lived” (“The Role of Native Americans in Film”, n.d.) therefore it is influential over audiences who are educated by films. This is particularly relevant when considering the representations of race; Disney’s representation of Native Americans began as highly offensive and problematic with examples such as Peter Pan highlighting all the negative stereotypes. In contrast to this, Pocahontas is a more recent production from Disney Studios which represented Native Americans in a much fairer and just light, showing that Disney Studios have developed over time to show a more accurate and responsible portrayal.
What do stereotypes add to a film? Are they for the best? Are they different than archetypes? Disney Pixar’s film Cars (John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, 2006) plays with both stereotypes and architypes. Though, this film has no humans it instills human ideals of gender, love, race, and even class into these characters. Lasseter and Ranft specifically make use of stereotyping and archetypes to bring these characters to life. Not only does the use of archetypes provide a personality within each of these characters but the stereotypes also connote negative traits as well.
Transformation is necessary to adapt to any situation. The main characters in American Born Chinese transform their identities in order to deal with and fit into the society they live in. Jin Wang desperately wants to transform from Chinese background to an American. The Monkey King wishes to transform from “just a monkey” to a God. Danny transforms in order to deal with cultural criticism. These characters use these transformations in order to deal with the life they live in and understand who they are.
Today, racism is a problematic situation that can break nation apart. Discrimination on one’s personal characteristics can sway a community's opinion greatly. Harper Lee was indulged in numerous racist encounters in her life, many of which transpire into her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. In the novel, one is seen as an animal when enduring the venom of racism. Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, racism leads to the dehumanization of both the victims and the infectors.
What images come to mind as one reflects upon his or her childhood? Playgrounds, blackboards, and soccer balls may be among the fondest of memories. Yet, for many, mermaids swim their thoughts, princesses get swept off their feet, and lions roar to their royal place in the animal kingdom. Disney films have captivated the American culture for years and have become a pivotal part of popular culture as well as a form of education. However, these films have devoured the youth of America and, in the process; have perpetuated an institutionally racist society based on harsh stereotypes. Minorities are often underrepresented, and even completely left out, of many Disney films such as Dumbo (1941), The Lion King (1994), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995). As students enter the doors of schools, they bring with them the notion that white characters and people are superior to blacks or other minorities because that is how they are depicted in Disney films. However, is the “magical world of Disney” a true depiction of the world? Or is it more of an extremely limited perception?
A little girl sits on the floor with her gaze fixed on the television screen in front of her, watching magical images dance before her eyes and catchy songs flow through her ears. Even though she had seen it at least twenty times before, she still loved The Little Mermaid just as much as she did the first time she watched it. As she watched it, she longed to be a beautiful mermaid with a curvy body and wonderful singing voice like Ariel. She longed to be saved by the handsome Prince Eric, and fall in love and live happily ever-after like Ariel did. In today’s society, women strive to achieve equality between the sexes. Despite the tremendous steps that have been taken towards reaching gender equality, mainstream media contradicts these accomplishments with stereotypes of women present in Walt Disney movies. These unrealistic stereotypes may be detrimental to children because they grow up with a distorted view of how men and women interact. Disney animated films assign gender roles to characters, and young children should not be exposed to inequality between genders because its effect on their view of what is right and wrong in society is harmful to their future.
...ed by its culture just as it affects its culture, but its underlying worldview contains patriarchal and racist dimensions. In addition, the portrayal of Scar and the hyenas as having a dark mane and dark coats in the Lion King seems to be a symbolic coding. Our society has associated it darkness and evil and it has become an issue that is very offensive to AfricanAmericans. In addition to sending conflict messages about valuing all races, Disney implies that in Pocahontas, certain personality types are not considered and valued. Similarly in Hercules, the one and only Muse who is not beautiful stereotypically is the one muse who is the comic. What this means is that only the extremely beautiful and fun loving people are valued in our society (Booker 38). The mixed message brought out is that all people are valued, but really only fun and lively people are valued.
The monkeys of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book are a very unique group of characters. They are viewed by the other animals of the jungle, or the Jungle People as they call themselves, as outcasts and outlaws. The most prominent chapter they occur in, “Kaa’s Hunting”, shows their lawless, shiftless, and uncivilized way of life. This image in itself does not give off any racist undertone. However, Disney’s adaption of The Jungle Book carries this view of the monkeys, while also giving them strong attributes that are commonly associated with African-Americans.
“I am a rare species, not a stereotype.” This quote from author, Ivan E. Coyote explores the fact that nobody is something and one thing only. That we can’t just go around labeling people because of what we think they are. Labeling people shows us nothing about who they really are. Someone could be labeled “cheery” because they smile in the hallways, but really, they cry all the time. Someone could be labeled “dangerous” just because they look mean, they could never hurt a fly. Nimona shows that nobody is completely bad or good, that certain labels that are given to some of the characters do not apply. Blackheart is labeled bad and the institution is labeled good. When we look into the book, we find that these labels really do not apply at
(4) Conventional is easy. Whenever an idea is generally perceived by society as standard or traditional it becomes very easy to display to the public without the raise of an eyebrow. This is the basis on which stereotypes appear in films. You’d think in the 21st century where what once were radical notions like same sex marriage and recreational drug use are being legalized that something uncalled for like the constant portrayal of character stereotyping would come to an end. Alas, stereotypical characters continue to emerge in film and unfortunately have become a staple of Hollywood because they’re simple and straightforward, requiring little effort on the part of the writers or thinking from the audience.
The movie Black Panther offers different philosophies regarding global responsibility. T’Challa, the King of Wakanda, wants to keep Wakanda safe at all costs, while his girlfriend Nakia believes they should share their resources to help others. I agree with Nakia because sharing their resources could expose the significance of their country and its cultures. Break stereotypes and miseducation about the importance of their culture amongst people all over the world. It helps define and exemplify the intellect of the people in their country.
My childhood was just like every other kid growing up in the 20th century. It revolved around the Disney story’s that were filled with magic and dreams. From Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty, my beloved children 's stories seem to stereotype women and be controlled by male characters. At a young age, this showed me that women are not as useful as men are. These stories set the foundation of what it means to be a boy or a girl. The ratio of men to women as main characters was so outstanding it led me to question how these stories affected how I view males and females.
In a lot of ways, this is a more cryptic form of what Robert Moore defines as “Ethnocentrism (or from a white perspective)” in “Racist Stereotyping in the English Language.” He aptly puts that “the psychological impact of the statement referring to ‘the master raped his slave’ is different from the impact of … ‘the white captor raped an African woman held in captivity” (Moore 372). By disguising different races/sexes as animals, the connotation of any prejudice content is even more muted than just using common language. In “Beauty and the Beast,” for example, the Prince is literally a beastly animal who is literally beastly in character, while Belle, a normal human, is supposed to continue to try to woo the beast despite his brute and abusive character. In “The Jungle Book,” however, animals have been used to represent non-white races in many cases.