Feminist Disney

I don't know how often it airs anymore, but I loved Little Bill as a kid. I can't remember how the female representation was, but the racial diversity was pretty good I believe.

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:48:20 -0400

I remember watching Gullah Gullah Island as a kid. According to Wikipedia, it was "the first show designed for preschoolers to feature a black family." It teaches things like eating healthy and telling the truth using songs and dance. Sounds good for a 3-year old.

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:48:12 -0400

I do a lot of babysitting for young kids. Dr. McStuffins (Disney) is fantastic, as are Little Bill, Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go and Ni Hao, Kai-Lan (all Nick Jr.). I also like Bubble guppies (Nick Jr), which has 6 merpeople characters, 3 of whom are obviously POC and a 4th who is a little more ambiguous (I could see him as a lighter-skinned latino).

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:48:04 -0400

This might be reaching a bit for your diversity in kids' shows question, but what about Lamb Chop? She's a girl and of course so is Shari Lewis, who did her voice. I loved what a smartass she was. Even if she was just a sock puppet.

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:11:13 -0400

haha well the original question was about diversity PLUS female representation…

a female lamb can count for some level of female representation, but not for like. Racial diversity? Since it’s a lamb, and a white woman.

Also we had a cassette tape of Lamb Chop and the land of bad manners that we must’ve listened to 200 times in the car… oye

Seeing this whole discussion is making me think of Zoom. It was racially diverse, had plenty of female representation, and the cast was entirely young kids. I also learned how to make a lot of snacks for myself from watching that show so that was a huge plus. I told my aunt and she's actually taken to showing my little cousins clips of it on youtube and they can't get enough.

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:08:08 -0400

About Teen Titans Go. The commercial shows Beast Boy wearing what looks like a war bonnet so... yeah.

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:07:57 -0400

really?? :(

Also I’ve only caught episodes of this show back when I was a nanny for my cousins in HS- “Teen Titans Go” is that a different version or the same one?

(reply in comments plz if you know)

iwouldlovetoeatyourtoast replied to your post: When it comes to television shows, I’M BURNING MAD,...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:06:46 -0400

iwouldlovetoeatyourtoast replied to your post: When it comes to television shows,

I’M BURNING MAD, I’M STEAMING MAD. ~Gooey Gus

that makes me cry more than 4000 anon messages

When it comes to television shows, PBS is always a good bet in my opinion. I don't know what age kids would start watching these shows but I would recommend Cyberchase, Maya and Miguel, and Word Girl. And of course My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is absolutely great with female representation, though they are ponies.

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:00:56 -0400

true, they’ve had a lot of gems. I want to watch word girl now that so many people have mentioned it. This came via fanmail:

What about Ghostwriter. that was a very diverse cast and was city kids, rather than the suburbs, which you don’t see very often.

— thatpeacefulvalley

quite true though I will never forgive them for the episode with the purple blob… ~shivers~

Blue's Clues is aimed at really young kids, and I really liked that. The only human character that I remember was a white guy, but the main character, Blue, is a girl

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:52:25 -0400

and a dog, so I would say that half counts at best for female representation :P

I would guess from their post though that they seemed to be looking for shows with a lot of diversity, not just, yknow, a lack of people that nullifies the ability to look for that.

But I’ll post this anyway

Has anyone suggested Out of the Box yet? Because that one is GREAT. I watched it when I was a kid, and my 3 and 5 y/o siblings watch it now.

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:50:28 -0400

Ouuut of the box, OUT of the box! Haha that was around when my brother was little.

And no, no one has suggested it yet :)

(just fyi if I get repeat suggestions I will not publish them.)

For angel-kato: there used to be this show on called The Puzzle Place, and it was really racially diverse, but I have no idea if you can find it on DVD. There's also Arthur, My Little Pony, The Magic School Bus, Dragon Tales, and Wishbone, but I have no idea if these are still on TV. Some of them are on Netfilx though.

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:41:59 -0400

Oh, how about Dragon Tales? I'm not sure what age it's geared towards exactly, but I remember watching it when I was really young.

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:41:49 -0400

(for angel-kato) Teen Titans Go! has a pretty good mix of diversity. Robin's white Cyborg's African American (and half robot) Beast Boy's green Starfire's an orange alien and Raven's... actually I don't know what Raven is, she's half demon though and her skin's purple. Also it's just a comedy show so it doesn't require a lot of thinking.

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:41:43 -0400

yeah, true, though I think that might be a little beyond the 3 year old level they were requesting.

Not that I think it would be BAD for a very small child, but some people prefer the more simplistic stuff for their kids. I mean I’m basically just writing this out to remind people this is not a conversation about ALL shows because that would be a very very long list (so dont send me asks listing everything, heh)

In regards to a previous question about racially diverse characters or interesting female characters, WordGirl is where it's at. She's smart, a woman of color, strong, and the protagonist of the show where she displays brains and brawn. My daughter and I love that show.

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:40:03 -0400

thanks for letting us know!

I’ll just publish all the posts I received on this, and just keep in mind (readers) that I have not seen most of them myself, so me posting them is a suggestion, not a nod of “yep I agree” (maybe I would, just saying, I don’t know!)

"oh believe me, it is completely possible for racism to be subconscious." I love you for this line. In my Women's History class, we covered Disney as a whole and just as everyone was declaring Disney as a racist company, our professor stepped into the discussion to tell us that racism isn't always a conscious decision. It really opened a lot of people's eyes in that class and I'm thrilled to see that more than just those students know that.

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:38:35 -0400

I think it’s not accidental that people do not make the connection that racism can be- and often is- a subconscious act rather than a willful action.

It’s basically the entire socialized act of pretending that racism doesn’t exist anymore, so long as none of us are consciously thinking “anyone who isn’t white shouldn’t count as a legal person.”

It’s easy to feel less responsible for the one part you’ve played (as all people do who do not live as hermits away from social forces) if you convince yourself that racism only hurts and affects people if your intent was harmful.

World Enough: This is all I'm going to say:

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:28:00 -0400

World Enough: This is all I'm going to say::

fdunlimited:

doggedlyjohn:

doggedlyjohn:

thedisneydifference:

Pocahontas is complete fiction. I get it. It is a Disney fairy tale. Not an actual interpretation of what happened in real life. That was never what it was meant to be. Read the original interpretation of ANY Disney fairy tale. NONE of them follow…

Sir Phillip Sidney argued in his essay, “In Defense of Poetry” (in response to people who claimed that poetry was deceitful because it was all lies) that fiction can never lie because it never claims to be truth. In the same way, Disney never claims to be giving us an accurate historical document. And, as we all know from reading the Diaries of John Smith, the actual historical documents relating to this story are also problematic, and, I would argue, much much more so. Anyone with an intellectual mind should be able to recognize what type of document they are looking at and analyze it accordingly.

I like how this guy expects six year olds to “recognize the type of document they are looking at and analyze it accordingly”

idk I mean it’s kind of funny how some of the responders to this topic illustrate exactly why it’s not okay to misrepresent native culture & history in children’s movies

ya’ll are living proof that people don’t understand, even after viewing them, how problematic there are. The real story of Pocahontas sucks a lot? Here’s a thought: don’t rewrite it in a way that makes the white guys look like heroes instead of kidnappers! Hmmm

reblogging from my personal. For earlier response that gives a more fact based argument against that type of logic/explains how it is harmful, click here.

You know what is really annoying to me? I have a niece who's three, and whenever we watch tv, I can never find a show with significantly racially diverse characters or interesting female characters. Usually, they just encourage stereotypes. Do you know any tv which can leave a good impression on a young kid?

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:14:53 -0400

for a REALLY young kid? I’m not totally sure what the current lowdown is on shows for three year olds since that tends to be under the age level of the stuff I look at, and even though my brother is younger than me (18) it’s still been a few years since I watched tv with him, so I doubt most of those shows are still airing (Dora the Explorer), though of course the internet makes that less important these days.

I’ve heard Doctor McStuffins is good. Sesame street is usually fairly solid. For retro stuff, I like Captain Planet, though that might, again, be too complex for a 3 years old

I’ve never seen it but Sid the Science Kid comes up online. He is half black/Jewish according to wikipedia, though they’re all multi(bright) colored muppets so it’s maybe harder to tell

This is all I'm going to say:

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:02:00 -0400

canonita:

doggedlyjohn:

thedisneydifference:

Pocahontas is complete fiction. I get it. It is a Disney fairy tale. Not an actual interpretation of what happened in real life. That was never what it was meant to be. Read the original interpretation of ANY Disney fairy tale. NONE of them follow the original story. Pocahontas is a Disney fairy tale like the rest. That is all.

It is a beautiful story with a beautiful message and it is told artfully. I don’t understand why people can’t just let it be that.

Look, Pocahontas is a great movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s not problematic. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. And it’s a little inappropriate to compare fairy tales to real history—-like, the relationship between European settlers and Native Americans was not a fairy tale, it’s history. So Disney can change it and make a great story or whatever—-“It is a beautiful story with a beautiful message and it is told artfully” Yes! True, but: “I don’t understand why people can’t just let it be that”. Because it’s not just that? It’s also many other things? Anyone with a questioning mind should be able to look into the things they loved in their childhood and see the flaws?

I agree with Cannon. And there is no pop up indication that reminds movie watchers that this is not the true story. This retelling is not a retelling in the way beauty and the beast is. Not only was that always a fictional tale, but the changes of Pocahontas as specifically rooted in a colonized way of viewing native cultures (see here and here2 for more details on specific problemtic cultural and historical problems).

I think it’s too blasse to go say “read a book and learn the truth” etc. If it’s a movie about a historical event, the truth should not be so hidden so as to be almost the complete opposite of the movie portrayal. People cannot be expected- and should not be expected- to google the historical context of every movie they see. Would it be nice if they did? Probably. Would it be great if schools spent more time examining the non-white, POC history of American experiences, before and after the American Revolution? Certainly.

But in examining how movies like this operate in real life, as opposed to idealized US Americana, Disney’s Pocahontas IS the dominant understanding of how that moment in history went down. That IS what happens when you tell a story about a culture that is often ignored except to be denigrated or used as visual props- you end up being the accepted narrative, because all others have been systematically silenced. And, again, given how this movie feeds into historical white washing and native erasure and presumptions and stereotypes of native cultures, this is very troubling.

It’s not just a movie… it was never just a movie

craplos: ladies. be careful when u wear spaghetti straps. it might distract the boys. they’ll start...

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:29:32 -0400

craplos:

ladies. be careful when u wear spaghetti straps. it might distract the boys. they’ll start thinking of spaghetti. they will get hungry. they will stop at nothing to get their spaghetti.

pleasestopbeingsad: Street harassment is not a compliment.

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:41:00 -0400

pleasestopbeingsad:

Street harassment is not a compliment.