Parents who read their kids stories about happy, human-like animals like Franklin the Turtle or Arthur at bedtime are exposing their kids to racism, materialism, homophobia and patriarchal norms, according to a paper presented at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Most animals portrayed in children’s books, songs and on clothing send a bad message, according to academics Nora Timmerman and Julia Ostertag: That animals only exist for human use, that humans are better than animals, that animals don’t have their own stories to tell, that it’s fine to “demean” them by cooing over their cuteness. Perhaps worst of all, they say, animals are anthropomorphized to reinforce “socially dominant norms” like nuclear families and gender stereotypes.
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Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).
2 comments:
This is what we deserve after they took away our "violent" cartoons!
Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Road Runner, etc.
Does cartoon violence make kids more aggressive?
http://www.schoolatoz.nsw.edu.au/technology/using-technology/does-cartoon-violence-make-kids-more-aggressive
I always thought the Berenstain Bears represented black people? Seriously. I thought they were cartoon BET, so never even considered reading them. Didn't see it as targeted to me or mine. Much as I don't listen to NPR, it's not American, just happens to be broadcast here.
Hmm, NPR... the voice of the ghost of the U.S.S.R?
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