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 😊

A lot of kids nowadays haven't seen the older Disney's.

My 7 year old isn't interested in Disney at all, just gets bored or annoyed with them with a lot of "why" and "how" questions! so it wouldn't be spoiling anything for him personally. I think he'd find this fascinating now and he's only in year 3 and one of the youngest.

I think it promotes positive discussion and example. This was Disney then, this is Disney now. There's still a long way to go but look how far we've come.

YABVU

It's all gone straight over your head hasn't it.

Oh please @littlehappyhippo you sound like you've read too much of the Daily Fail and swallowed Nigel Farage's life lessons. Are you Katie Hopkins?

@SecretsInSpitalfield why is that a "funny" thing to say? I presume you did realise I was being sarcastic.
Oh and by the way plenty of people choose not to go to Disney. An awful lot of others choose to enable their children to have awareness when watching things.

Anyway, what the teacher is trying to do- it's called "education". Looking more closely at something your son may take for granted is an educative experience and develops critical thinking. That's something that you use to look at something from all sides in a rational way, rather than, say, leaping to conclusions and making sweeping statements about "common sense" and "PC gone maaad".

What 8 year watches Toy Story and looks out for anything other than laughing and having a fun time watching the film.

I was watching Frozen with my friends son, who is black, when he was about 4 years old. About half way through the film he said with a lot of emotion “I hate this film”. When I asked him why, he said It was because all the people in the film had white faces.

I’m sure your sons enjoy Disney films and haven’t thought for a second about how they are gendered or racialised. Why would they when they are in the fortunate position of being represented, and represented positively, in these films. Meanwhile they will subconsciously be consuming the films’ racist and sexist biases. That’s why discussing and learning about these things in school is an excellent educational project.

Sounds like you could have done with a teacher like this yourself OP.

YABU.

OP are you a white man? Cause I can't see why you cannot comprehend this is a brilliant homework!

People find racism and sexism in everything today, its their mission in life, very sad and stupid people

Er... because it is. I mean I hate to be woke, but you can't just unsee it.

Why do millennials/millennial way of thinking have to ruin everything FFS - they are bloody cartoons - I don't think watching Aristocats or Lady and the Tramp is going to damage my child. FFS we all grew up watching it and am assuming we've turned out ok???

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

Her views being what? That racism and sexism are bad. Why wouldn't you want your DC to be learning about that.

If you want to police everything your DC read, watch and learn about in school then you need to Home Educate.

To belittle them as bloody cartoons shows that you have little to no idea exactly what you are watching. The goose step is just a way of walking...

To be fair, I think the OP probably was socking as Happyhippo

If you give me 2 minutes I will illustrate to you why YABU

And if you still think that people are “picking on Disney” and they “are just cartoons” then I guess trying to show you why YABU it is a lost cause.

@Bizawit
But I also hate the way that adult tv programmes feel the need to diversify programmes to meet the cultural diversity quota

Isn't frozen set in a Norway type country hundreds of years ago (hence the sleigh and ship modes of transport) when there would have been zero likelihood of having any black residents???

I don't recall there being any white characters in Moana......

People saying Disney isn't racist, have you seen Dumbo? There's a scene near the start with a chain gang of black slaves working on the railway, singing about how they can't read or write but that's ok because they're happy...they're literally faceless. Is that not racist enough for you?

I don’t know why you approach this from the angle that the teacher is pushing some views. She is also not asking a 4 year old to discuss the existence of Santa. She is asking an 11 year old to look at something they presumably know very well and do some critical thinking. Seems perfectly educational. I mean even Disney themselves went through this obvious process when they started diversifying their heroes somewhat the past decade.

I don't recall there being any white characters in Moana......

No, but white people aren't exactly under-represented in film are they? That's the difference

It’s not ‘picking on Disney’ not us itvadjing anyone not to watch them, or to boycott them.

It is to use films with which children are very familiar and to use their own judgment and critical skills to identify racist and sexist elements and find a creative way to tell the story without sexism and racism.

It gives kids confidence that they can identify s&r ism, the confidence that they can write free if it, and it gives them the protective veil of fiction to which to identify and expose things which might be happening amongst the kids as undesirable behaviour. E.g if kids in the class are doing silly accents or that silly ‘stretch your eyes ‘ thing. It might help some realise.

I would be heartily impressed by a teacher who facilitated this with that age group.

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted if you look at the racism issue and the sexist issues we still have today - not sure we have all turned out ok.

Snurk at I mean when and where has this actually happened outside of Sht I Just Made Up, Dailymail Bollockshire? and happy Winterval

I had an extremely inspiring history teacher at school. Her lessons telling us to examine the reliability of our sources, check for bias and use critical thinking were the most useful I've ever had (short of actually learning to read).

Sorry if I'm missing the point but weren't Cinderella, beauty and the beast, sleeping beauty all fairytales before Disney made them into films?
The original stories were handed down by mouth and used as tools to help children cope with a frightening world through fantasy. Read Uses of Enchantment by Bettelheim.

As to All that pc nonsense and children growing up before it was a thing What tosh, quite frankly. Is this the thoughts of Farage’s concubine?

Im not into possessions particularly but I wear with great pleasure a beautiful brooch with an amethyst, emeralds and pearls. It belonged to Constance Lytton and was bought for me by my husband. It’s relevant because every time I wear it, I am reminded of the struggle many women faced Tom give us all suffrage. Their recognition of injustice and inequality changed the world for us. They suffered and even died for equality. It’s really isn’t pc nonsense and with ‘chaps’ like Farage and Johnson seizing control of our nation, it couldn’t be more important than now.

As for consideration of racial stereotypes being pc nonsense, thank goodness you are very small minorities. We could sweep it aside and move to Stepford but we’d be doing our children a huge disservice. We’ve had a black president of the USA, Mary Seacole is at last gaining recognition alongside Florence Nightingale but there’s still a way to go. Luther Kings dream has yet to be realised.

Until everyone has equality, nobody has equality and dismissing it as pc nonsense tolerates the hatred and division it leads to.

Let him write the piece then show him Roots, take him to Beth Shalom National Holocaust Centre, let him read The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. Go for a weekend in Liverpool and visit thevSlavery Museum.
You might learn as much as him.

He isn't weak minded enough to let an 80 year old film brain wash him**

Aaaaahhh... I think this is a bigger issue than you have given credit. You don't want to believe that exposure to casual racism, sexism etc could POSSIBLY affect your son. Because he's what? better than that?

Look at it as another brick in the wall (you're all welcome for the ear worm) one story with racist or sexist undertones, perhaps not. Multiple, viewed on multiple occasions? Well. You tell me. It's not to do with being feeble or weak minded, it's about what slowly and quietly becomes "normal" or "typical"

And yes. They are all taken from traditional fairy tales. Told in a time before suffrage and equal rights. They absolutely have their place but so does the conversation with your child after watching it.

My 2yr old and I discuss themes like this FFS. But, she's a girl. I guess parents of daughters notice this more because it's not the boy being subjugated is it?

The teacher isn't saying that the kids shouldn't watch Disney because it's sexist and racist.

There's lots of things that people like that are not really good for them- tv, computer games, alcohol, junk food... It's fine to enjoy the age-appropriate item. Disney is entertainment.

They’re bloody cartoons with no racist intent.

They are films which are deeply entrenched in racism and other discrimination.

Why do you feel that being given the opportunity to think critically about a film prevents a child from enjoying it?

Yabu.
I've pointed out some pretty dodgy stereotyping in the older Disney movies when we've watched them.