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Hunter Hayden Haag
Prof. Watkins
History of Animations
10 February 2019
Cartoons: Stereotypes or Just Characters?
Stereotypes are defined as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or the idea of a particular type of person or thing. The history of racial stereotypes in older cartoons is extremely prominent. Stereotypes were exploited by animators in order to portray a certain type of person without needing an abundant amount of description of who they were; they are very easily interpreted. Without the use of some stereotypes, the animators would need a rather large explanation of the characters background. It is basically a useful trick they use to get the audience familiar with the character almost instantly. That being said, more often than not, a lot of the stereotypes are on the controversial side. But no matter how wrong they are, they are an important part of the history of animation. They must not be judged by today's standards. What we need to do is try to understand the time in which they were made.
One of the most recognizable uses of a racial stereotype in older cartoons is the crows in
“Dumbo”. Many believe that the crows are very obvious “black” stereotypes. Speaking in very thick accents and one preaching a sermon, which is believed by some to be racial stereotypes.
The fact that the head crow was voiced by a white man did not help the fact that many people were offended by it. However, many think that everybody was overreacting about the crows.
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According to them, the crows were some of the best characters in the movie, if not the best part of it. One thought is that the crows are simply black characters, not black stereotypes. See Figure 1: My New Caricatures:
It is an interesting thought on stereotypes overall. How can we really tell the difference between character portrayal and racial stereotypes? Well, in dumbo, The crow characters do not seem very off-putting or mean. They just seem friendly and fun as characters. So I do not believe it should be considered racist since they are perhaps just over-the-top characters.
That being said there are plenty of other examples of “black” stereotypes in older cartoons. For an example, see Figure 2: “Scrub me Mamma with a Boogie Beat.” : This is an excellent example of how not to do a character. There is a distinct difference from this compared to the crows of “Dumbo.” As you compare the two animations you can tell that one is simply more sophisticated than the other. When you watch
“Dumbo,” you feel something good in the character design and personality about seeing these very
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You can tell that the people who made it either were being discriminatory or had no idea what they were animating race-wise. Though I would still argue it is the former of those choices.
Animations like these are with utmost certainty racist. The use of “Blackface” in this cartoon just feels bad to watch.
There are many types of people that can be stereotyped. One of the other most common stereotypes is the “hick” or “hillbilly” stereotypes. Many of the stereotypes include being incredibly undereducated, toothless, only wear overalls, and all drink moonshine. See Figure 3: The First Mountain Dew Commercial
This image is from the very first Mountain
Dew commercial. You can clearly see that he has one tooth and the soda is in the shape of a moonshine bottle. When you watch the commercial, it is much easier to understand the stereotypes as many of the
“hillbillies” are chasing after an attractive girl and hollering with a very thick accent.
This commercial even breaks the cultural stereotype and moves on to gender stereotypes as each of the men are willing to do anything to get this girl like wild hound dogs. However, the real question is, are these offensive stereotypes? Or just over-exaggerated character design? I think it
Haag 4 all depends on how we as a society perceive them. I do not think it is necessarily racist. I do think they are very fun exciting characters, and since this is just a quick commercial; you can tell that they are using the generalization of a “hillbilly” to their advantage. It lets you know everything about the commercials characters immediately.
Another common stereotype that was commonly used in older cartoons was an Asian stereotype. Which usually was portrayed as having, large buck teeth, extremely squinted eyes, round glasses, big ears, and an unintelligible Asian accent. Most of the cartoons that had hard
Asian stereotypes were during the 1940s at the time of World War II. See Figure 4: Tokio Jokio This was a Looney Tune cartoon in 1943 in the middle of
World War II. Since it was made in the middle of the dispute between Japan and The United States, there is absolutely no other reason to make these outrageous stereotypes than to make fun of Japanese people and promote propaganda. This is a great example of a cartoon with no excuses for why they used all of these terrible stereotypes. It served no other purpose than to produce hate, which is inexcusable in any circumstance.
Looney Toons seem to be a very bustling place when it comes to stereotypes and things that offend people. Even so that they have something called the “Censored Eleven.” Which is a collection of old Looney Tunes and Merrie Melody cartoons that were restricted from broadcasting by the United Artists Corporation in 1968. These cartoons were pulled from broadcasting because of ethnic stereotypes that were deemed too offensive for usual audiences.
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This doesn't mean there aren't any more of their cartoons that could be deemed offensive, but these are really bottom of the barrel. In fact, on the “Looney Tunes Golden Collection” DVD box set and some other of their older cartoons, there is an introduction card explaining the possibly offensive content of the cartoons. See Figure 5: Looney Tunes racism disclaimer
This disclaimer is a brilliant example of how to treat something of this nature. Just the last line, “ Because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.” This is an amazing line in and of itself. We know that some older cartoons are not easy to watch from some of the content that they can hold. However, we cannot forget that they exist.
It is still obvious that there are many animations today that have stereotypes. Most of them, however, are much more subtle and I doubt that they are being used to promote racism or anything likewise. Today's cartoons are incredibly more diverse than anything in the past. They use some generalizations, yes, but, they are used in such a way that shows to the audience the experiences the characters have felt. It is quite odd seeing stereotypes used in a “positive” way, but I think if the people making them know what they're doing, it can open up a wide world of character that many people can relate to without feeling offended or feeling like they are bashing their culture.
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There are many things that we as artists must know. For artists, certain stereotypes can help make sense of the character and the world that they live in. It can be used in order to make a lot of information much more concise and presentable. It can help drive a story and make the audience immediately know who the character is and begin relating to them. All of that being said, using generalization like stereotypes can be extremely dangerous. It requires something that is very hard to make a stereotype appropriate. So working out the ways to use generalizations are very tricky and delicate situations. Most of the examples I have shown were terrible caricatures of some peoples culture. The historical misuse of the races and cultures are almost unforgivable and should never be recreated. However, we cannot just throw away the idea of using a generalization just because some people think that any generalization is bad.
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Bibliography
Dobrow, Julie, et al. “Cartoons and Stereotypes.” Tufts Now, 7 Mar. 2018, now.tufts.edu/articles/cartoons-and-stereotypes.
Joseph, Ben. “The 9 Most Racist Disney Characters.” Cracked.com, www.cracked.com/article_15677_the-9-most-racist-disney-characters.html.
Marshall, Jack. “Ethics Quiz: The Looney Tunes Cartoon Disclaimer.” Ethics Alarms, 25 Aug. 2015, ethicsalarms.com/2015/08/25/ethics-quiz-the-looney-tunes-cartoon-disclaimer/.
Peterson, Erin. “Why Not All Stereotypes Are Bad.” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University, case.edu/think/fall2017/stereotypes.html#.XGTua1xKhhE.
“Stereotypes in Cartoons.” The Trial of Galileo | HTI, hti.osu.edu/opper/stereotypes.
Wainer, Alex. “Reversal of Roles: Subversion and Reaffirmation of Racial Stereotypes in
Dumbo and The Jungle Book.” Ferris State University: Michigan College Campuses in Big Rapids MI, Grand Rapids MI, Off Campus Locations Across Michigan, www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/links/essays/reversal.htm.
Wikipedia contributors. "Censored Eleven." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 20 Dec. 2018. Web. 14 Feb. 2019.
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Wilkinson, Signe. “My New Caricatures.” The Trial of Galileo | HTI, hti.osu.edu/opper/lesson-plans/stereotypes-in-editorial-cartoons/images/my-new-caricature
s.
Scrub me Mamma with a Boogie Beat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UacUR7bPnMM&t=1s
Tokio Jokio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlUld1yXKRo