My 11 year child has been asked to re write a Disney story of his choice but without the sexist/racist aspects. AIBU to write back..

[SecretsInSpitalfield]

That I will not have the teacher pushing her views on my child?

As far as he (and his younger DB) Disney has always been a POSITIVE thing! Fun films , cinema days and even a dream once in a lifetime trip to World Disney World.

I wouldn't have minded if they said 'do you think any Disney films are racist or sexist? If so, please elaborate why. But this has been set as if it's FACTUAL that they are and my child is just 11.

Please give me your honest opinions

Thank you 😊

Thank goodness for the comments on how silly and 'woke' this all is.

Also fail to understand how it has anything to do with Religious Studies?!

Teacher in question is very 'woke' , 'trendy', loves a good debate and sets homework on things that seem totally irrelevant to Religious studies.

Disney/sexism/racism surely doesn't fall into religion?

I think this is the first time you've suggested it's homework for a Religious Studies class. If that's true, why were you suggesting having students read newspaper articles on domestic violence instead? Weird.

And I wouldn't suggest the Daily Mail comments section as being a great resource for nuanced debate on whether anything is racist, sexist or otherwise politically correct...

@picklechips

I can re send the screen shot of the h/w and you'll see its 'religious studies'

No reason to lie.

I mentioned 'dv' as an example. But I don't agree with such things being set for h/w especially when it's RS

Critiquing of Disney and indeed of Grimm is a long way from 'woke'. There are lots of papers on exactly this topic in scholarly journals. It's not the latest fad that everyone with a bleeding heart is falling over themselves to hop aboard.

And a big fat 'What did you just say?' to the comment, 'Disney/sexism/racism surely doesn't fall into religion?'

I would love to know what you understand Religion, and religion for that matter, with a small r, to be all about.

Wow OP just wow! That's what you got from 19 pages on this thread...the 5% that "side " with you. Thank goodness for people like @sarahnade who can keep an open mind. If not supporting racist tropes (which is racism in itself not an opinion or "view" as it denies people of their humanity beyond racist stereotypes) is a "view you don't want pushed on your children", no wonder we are in the state we are in. Good luck world.

If it is anything like my children's school, Religious Studies actually covers Religion, Philosophy and Ethics so racism and sexism definitely fall within that remit. Besides which this piece of work is asking the students to think critically, look beyond the surface and re - examine something which they have probably been exposed to since early childhood childhood and which has a large and often uncritical following. That all sounds extremely relevant to Religious Studies to me.

Late to this, but I think it’s a great way of approaching stuff and I like the Disney + “this may contain outdated cultural references”

It’s a much more healthy attitude to go back and ask “how would they have done this if it was made in modern society/ culture” than it is to simply say “ban all old Disney films because they are racist / sexist”

I didn't let DD watch films (Disney or otherwise) till she was old enough to notice the stereotyping in them consciously. Lucky this only took about 5 years.

She loves a good disney movie these days, but she does tend to tell you the representations she thought lacked depth particular for female characters.

I wish primary teachers would set this homework to themselves regarding the reading material their kids are learning to read from. Its till all working dads, SAHM and football mad boys and ballet mad girls. Total shite.

As above, it’s probably religion, philosophy and ethics...which you should know really.

Yanbu, that’s all I’ll say as I think the whole thing is fucking ridiculous.
The whole “woke” thing makes my skin crawl

It is not such an odd homework. I was at school in the 90s and we had a similar homework back then (although it was more on political correctness than sexism and racism). I remember re-writing 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'.

You can still enjoy the Disney movie for what it is whilst realising how dated the views are. Disney himself was a well known anti-Semite and there is a massive amount of anti-black racism in the films.

They have to an extent changed and have much more realistic and strong women of all colours in the films now, but that does not mean we should not address and consider how different times were when a number of these films were released.

Of course you read the mail.

Student slams Disney for being 'horrendously outdated and offensive'

King Louie is offensive, he's clearly coded as black. It's a white voice actor putting on the accent usee in minstrel shows. Louie and the other monkeys are also into jazz It's pretty poor.

This does not mean that the film is wholly 'bad' or that no one should watch the Jungle Book. You just need to engage your brain and critical thinking skills watching it.

Wow, that's a brilliant piece of work to set IMO, but quite stretching for a 11yo?

Your child is 11. You seem to not understand the inherent racism etc of historical Disney productions.
You're either disingenuous, or obtuse.

OP have you ever watched a movie or tv programme years apart and been shocked?

In the 90s I loved Friends. I was 17 when it started and thought it was an absolutely brilliant show and remember laughing out loud and quoting the characters etc.

I have teenagers now who have watched Friends and I can't help but notice how much it's dated. I don't mean the characters having pagers rather than mobiles but stuff like the jokes about Chandler being gay or Rachel hiring an assistant based on his looks before dating him further down the line.

I'm not a bad person for having laughed at Friends but I can see with with my 2019 eyes why so much was problematic. The same is with Disney - attitudes were different then and it's a positive thing that we know better. The homework isn't saying that Disney is bad so don't watch it. Many of the movies are from a long time ago and could be done with updating eg the song "What makes the red man red?" from Peter Pan.

The Disney Company accepts that some of their films are racist in places and I think it's better that they show this in full rather than delete scenes. They suggest that adults talk to kids about the questionable scenes. Considering that they own up this why are you hesistant to accept this too?

All you posters bleating on about how the world has gone PC-mad, how it's just cartoons and leave us alone to enjoy what precious few tidbits of pure joy remain in this post-liberal era, read this and then speak. You hark for days when white people did rule, at the expense of black people. Those days are gone and your taxes are being used to employ teachers who will teach your children as much. THANK FUCK.

The Good Ole Days

Thank you for that article, 7salmonswimming

For those who insist that all criticism of Disney is modern PC claptrap running amok, maybe this will interest you - from the article:
An important point to make about Song of the South – and a lot of controversial art, for that matter – is that it’s not an act of PC revisionism to call out its prejudices, because plenty of people were doing so at the time, too. Disney produced the film over the objections of the NAACP and the American Council on Race Relations, and rejected efforts to soften the script by the southern-born writer Dalton Reymond. And it was released to picket lines in some cities and some scathing criticism from reviewers, politicians and other black advocacy groups.

There is a long history of serious questions accompanying Disney Studios' output.