Racial Stereotypes In The Media

From Tiana from Disney’s The Princess and The Frog to the titular character from the upcoming film Moana, representation of minority groups in children’s animated media is improving. However, despite the promising leads, representation is barely reaching the heights it should have by this day and age. Racial stereotypes and whitewashing of black or Asian characters is still exceedingly common in both animated and live action films and, of course, misogyny still runs rampant on television. As a rule, animators and artists are given very little creative leeway when developing characters as most design requests come from managing executives. Regardless, something must be done in order to preserve comfortable spaces for all children who enjoy television.
A large amount of characters, while definitely not as aggressively stereotypical as in the past, still conform to vaguely stereotypical patterns. Another noticeable occurrence is the addition of European attributes for characters that would not typically have them, especially in the case of eye shape, nose shape, or skin color (Askonen). Whitewashing in the media is perhaps the most common problem; it is controversial and many cartoon and animation fans are displeased by its use. This became especially apparent after an online petition, specifically requesting Disney select an Asian lead for their upcoming live action film adaptation of Mulan, gained over 30,000 signatures in just a few days. Natalie Molnar, a Disney fan and the founder of the Mulan petition, believes whitewashing has a “direct, harmful impact on not only the movie itself but the audience” (Denham). Molnar says “Whitewashing implies that people of colour cannot be heroes (although they may at times be villains or supporting characters), leaving it far more difficult for countless children around the world to see themselves in the stories they love and think that they too can make a difference”
Button noses, reed-thin limbs, abled bodies, and flowing hair are all very simple to draw, especially when compared to their opposites. A reasonable solution to propose in order to begin mending the lack of good, diverse characters is better training in schools for aspiring artists and animators. Artists should feel a much larger push in the direction of learning how to draw any character, rather than churning out clones of the same young, thin, white boy or girl. Teachers in art-focused colleges should be required to lead a crash course in drawing diverse features and characteristics, as an added focus during character design or general art courses. Having a secure background in designing a wide range of characters may provide the push artists and animators need to design unique characters, or at the very least encourage the inclusion of an occasional large nose on a female