What are children really learning when you sit them down to watch movies such as Shark Tale, Aladdin, Snow White and many more children’s classics? Stereotypes are everywhere in children’s movies, or even children’s shows such as Sesame Street, Fairly Odd Parents or even Mr. Rogers.
"I come from a land.... where they cut off your ears if they don't like your face. It's barbaric, but hey, it's home."
- Lyrics from one of the many songs in Aladdin.
Is this what you really want children to learn about Arab’s, that if they don’t like you; they will just cut off your ears?Aladdin, the ‘hero,’ who is Arabic, asks people to call him ‘Al’ which is not Arabic at all, but more Americanized. Also, the ‘bad’ guy Jafar looks very Arabic and is dressed in all black clothes making him look ‘bad.’ Aladdin looks right for a good guy, and Jafar looks right for a bad guy but, how do we know the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad?’ It’s all stereotypical, bad – dressed in black with darker skin, and good – dressed in white clothing, with lighter skin. Is this really how we want children to portray the difference between good and bad?
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"May whoever did this die a thousand deaths," says Giuseppe, a
hammerhead – taken from the animated film Shark Tale, after two of his friends have been killed. Sharks bow down to the ‘codfather,’ Don Lino with the voice of Robert De Niro. This movie is based around the Italian mafia, "It's negative stereotyping at its worst; the sharks all have Italian names. They use Italian expressions and they are violent, criminal, and racist." says Lawrence Auriana. This movie leads many to believe that Italians are or have had something to do with the mafia, but a recent poll by the Reasearch Analysis Corporation of New Jersey ‘found that 74% of all Americans link Italian surnames with crime. Yet, according to the FBI, even at the height of the Mafia's power, no more than 5,000 out of the 15 million Italian-Americans have ever been associated with the Mafia or any other crime group.’ Then why does Shark Tale relate all the sharks, which have Italian accents, to crime, and revenge? Mother of eight year old Jacob Cantretras stated, “You can't take all those Mafia references too seriously, if you can't laugh at that 'Don' culture, you're in trouble.” Sure, it is just an animated film, and many young kids will not completely understand all of the stereotypes in this film, but how do you think the Italian children feel, when they see ‘Italian sharks’ killing, and hurting others do they consider themselves bad people?
Of course, you wouldn’t think of it, but Snow White is very stereot
ypical. Women cook, and clean all day, and need to wait for a man to come sweep them of their feet and give them life! Snow White doesn’t ‘mind’ doing house work because she is positive a man will come and save her, when she is scared – she cries, and when she finds a little house in the woods (where the seven dwarfs live) she immediately cleans the whole house acting as a ‘mother.’ Is this true though, all women wait for men to save them? Lots of women work in normal business’, do what they want, and don’t have a broom in there hand every minute of the day. As of 2004 - 72 million women age 15 and older worked and 59% worked all round, full time. Not all women are set out to be house wives/stay at home moms.
"May whoever did this die a thousand deaths," says Giuseppe, a
hammerhead – taken from the animated film Shark Tale, after two of his friends have been killed. Sharks bow down to the ‘codfather,’ Don Lino with the voice of Robert De Niro. This movie is based around the Italian mafia, "It's negative stereotyping at its worst; the sharks all have Italian names. They use Italian expressions and they are violent, criminal, and racist." says Lawrence Auriana. This movie leads many to believe that Italians are or have had something to do with the mafia, but a recent poll by the Reasearch Analysis Corporation of New Jersey ‘found that 74% of all Americans link Italian surnames with crime. Yet, according to the FBI, even at the height of the Mafia's power, no more than 5,000 out of the 15 million Italian-Americans have ever been associated with the Mafia or any other crime group.’ Then why does Shark Tale relate all the sharks, which have Italian accents, to crime, and revenge? Mother of eight year old Jacob Cantretras stated, “You can't take all those Mafia references too seriously, if you can't laugh at that 'Don' culture, you're in trouble.” Sure, it is just an animated film, and many young kids will not completely understand all of the stereotypes in this film, but how do you think the Italian children feel, when they see ‘Italian sharks’ killing, and hurting others do they consider themselves bad people?Of course, you wouldn’t think of it, but Snow White is very stereot
ypical. Women cook, and clean all day, and need to wait for a man to come sweep them of their feet and give them life! Snow White doesn’t ‘mind’ doing house work because she is positive a man will come and save her, when she is scared – she cries, and when she finds a little house in the woods (where the seven dwarfs live) she immediately cleans the whole house acting as a ‘mother.’ Is this true though, all women wait for men to save them? Lots of women work in normal business’, do what they want, and don’t have a broom in there hand every minute of the day. As of 2004 - 72 million women age 15 and older worked and 59% worked all round, full time. Not all women are set out to be house wives/stay at home moms. Goodale, Gloria. The Christian Science Monitor. 01 Oct. 2004. 15 Apr. 2008 http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1001/p12s01-almo.html.
Elliot, J. Associated Content. 19 Apr. 2007. 15 Apr. 2008 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/211826/the_importance_of_avoiding_stereotypes.html?page=4&cat=4.
Maio, Kathy. New Internationalist. 03 June 2002. 15 Apr. 2008 http://www.newint.org/easier-english/Disney/diswomen.html.
