European Stereotypes

I had seen one of these maps before. A colleague last year had one of Hungary. They are interesting because they hit home at the simplistic ways people think of countries. The American one is pretty classic:

Hits our Cold War way of thinking about the world, how racial stereotypes of other places get projected upon the wrong nations, and how consumerism fundamentally defines our popular relationships with nations. It's not too different with the Germans either:

That Russia is basically Gazprom for most of Europe is pretty right on and all the more so after they cut off gas supplies a couple of winters ago, letting Europe freeze.

Obviously this kind of thing has limitations, but there's real value here too.

Carnaval in Brazil 2010 (III) - Stereotypes in Narratives of Brazil

Certainly, Carnaval is renowned for its sexualized atmosphere and the sense of partying going on, something that reflects more the puritanical attitudes of much of the English-speaking media than it does Brazilian society. Each year, reports on Carnaval manage to fall to base stereotypes of Brazil, as if this is the only time the country matters and it is simply as a land of sexual abandon. It happened last year, and probably every other year, and this year is no exception.

There is, of course, the understanding of Brazilians as only being serious about partying. Economics, social policy, education...none of that matters to Brazilians like partying.

Even stories that begin to delve into the very-real negative economic and social effects of Paes's policies can't help but close on the trope of Rio as site of forbidden sexual activity and sexual tourism. You do occasionally get decent stories that focus simply on Paes's policies and how they aren't as easily enforced as he would like, but these stories of what is effectively grassroots resistance are the exception that prove the rule on journalism during Carnaval.

Then there are stories that don't even bother to pretend to be serious, instead chronicling how many people kiss on the streets. Because really, that's what matters to all Brazilians.

Of course, some of the reports don't actually focus strictly on sexuality. This report on Eduardo Paes' obviously wrong-headed policies decided it would be nice to throw in a random, uncontextualized murder statistic, relating that "there were 4694 murders in Rio in the 10 months to October 2008." Of course, nothing in the report had been even remotely related to violent crimes; plus, while 4694 deaths is depressing no matter what, there's absolutely no mention of police violence, or even the fact that a majority of those murders are concentrated in the favelas. And nevermind the fact that the one incident of violence against a tourist this year didn't even result in his death, and that officials are worried about it. Nope - Rio is just a a den of sexualized sin and murder, and is to be portrayed as such.

Sure, some of these images reflect some aspects of Carnaval, but they're problematic for so many reasons. They rely on a very stereotypical exoticism of one city to equate it to all Brazilians (when there is Carnaval throughout the country, often with major regional differences). It treats Brazil as if this is the atmosphere all the time, rather than for one week a year. And by focusing on the party/sex/murder meme, it doesn't even begin to delve into the positive aspects of Brazil, nor the complexities of the society.

Why do research, when stereotypes are so easy?

Shorter English Parents - We Want Our Children to Be As Bigoted Towards the Physically Challenged As We Are!

Dear parents in England,

Instead of trying to pass on your own prejudices towards and fears of people with physical differences, why don't you use Ms. Burnell's television show as one more way to help your children learn that people are different, but that doesn't make some better than others. In a world where people still mock individuals with special needs to reinforce unfair stereotypes and create fear, rather than educate and unite, the BBC's hiring of Ms. Burnell is admirable.

Get over yourselves and let your children grow up to be more decent, respectful, and understanding people than you are.

Cheers,
Mr. Trend

The Blood of Chihuahuas Will Be on Disney's Hands

Well, this certainly looks astoundingly awful. I caught a preview prior to Wall-E (which is, in a word, outstanding), and words cannot describe on how many levels this movie looks awful. First, there’s the aforementioned fact that it’s full of Chihuahuas. Why I would want to waste an hour and a half of my life seeing that ridiculous creature on the big screen is beyond me. I suppose it’s supposed to appeal to some universal “cuteness” factor, but (and I love dogs) the Chihuahua has all the cuteness of syphillis to me. However, if other people want to waste 10 dollars per person seeing these films (or taking their children – I’m so glad I don’t have kids right now), whatever.

And it would be fine if the stupidity stopped their, but it actually only begins to scratch the surface. What human should we have voice over for the Chihuahua? Why, George Lopez, of course! Everybody knows that Chihuahas are from Mexico, and so are George Lopez's ancestors, and Americans like George Lopez! It will work great!

And from there, the stereotyping only gets better. The basic plot appears to be that Papi (the Lopez-voiced dog) has been repeatedly jilted by Chloe, a snobby rich Chihuahua who belongs to a painfully-rich owner (drawing an obvious and uninspired example from Paris Hilton). The owner goes to Mexico to vacation, Chloe gets lost, and Papi mobilizes all his efforts and troops to find Chloe and, doubtless, win her heart over (I’ve yet to see anything about this movie beyond the trailer, but I’m willing to bet they end up together at the end, with everybody learining some valuable life lessons). Aside from the fact that the name “Papi” already seems a bit…umm…stereotypical?, Lopez either chose to or was directed to throw out any subtlty, giving Papi a blatant “Latin lothario” accent. And in case we really didn’t get the point, Papi is brown, while Chloe (voiced by Drew Barrymore) is white. So just to sum up: sterotypically macho brown dog with generic “Latin” accent named “Papi” tries to rise up from poverty to win the heart of white rich dog. Awesome plot, even more awesome racial imaging.

And of course, the long-term effects of this film could be disastrous. If people see this film in large numbers, it will almost inevitably lead to a temporary explosion in the demand for Chihuahuas. People will take their kids to the movies, everybody will want the “cute little doggy,” and they’ll run out and by them. And then they will find out that Chihuahuas, like any pet (especially dogs), require a lot of attention, are high-maintenance, and, just to mix things up, are the most human-aggressive breed of dogs. Without question, hundreds, if not thousands, of people may end up adopting Chihuahuas, thinking they’re getting the little ball of fur they saw in the movie. What may particularly alarm new Chihuahua owers whose decision derives solely from the movie is the fact that Chihuahuas (not pitbulls, as the sensationalist media would have you believe) are the most human-aggressive dog breed. When they learn that Chihuahuas in real life are nothing like the movie showed, they’ll end up in shelters and large numbers of Chihuahuas will be euthanized.

And while I don’t love the Chihuahua, I really hate when people who have no business owning pets due to lack of preparedness or understanding get pets because of some movie, only to find that the pet is nothing like the sanitized version they saw in the theater, and they end up abandoning the pets (usually dogs) to shelters to be euthanized by the hundreds or thousands, all because of some stupid movie. Certainly, "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" is setting up this probability for Chihuahuas. This pattern is not without precedent; after the live-action version of 101 Dalmatians (and its sequel) came out, Dalmatian ownership in the US skyrocketed, as everybody wanted the little puppies they saw on the big screen, all without knowing that Dalmatians aren’t the greatest “family pets” and often go deaf early. As a result, rescue organizations had to work overtime trying to save Dalmatians and find them new homes, and thousands of Dalmatians still had to be euthanized, all because the families that bought them that actually owning a dog was far different from what they saw in the theater. There’s no reason to expect a live-action Chihuahua movie to not have the same effect, particularly given that some people actually do culturally and/or ethnically identify strongly with the Chihuahua in ways that I doubt anybody really could culturally or ethnically identify with the Dalmatian (save, of course, for that small number of people with ties to western Croatia and Montenegro).

I can’t explain how badly I hope this movie bombs. Based on how the preview looked (and they can be misleading), I fail to see how there won’t be some public outrage or even protest over the racial stereotyping of this film. And as sad as that will be if it’s the case, it will dwarf in comparison to the number of dogs that get euthanized, all because Disney sold some new sanitized, fluffy image on the big screen that had virtually nothing to do with reality, and people bought it hook, line, and sinker. Disgusting.