Is this dress offensive?

[freezingpompoms]

This dress was bought in America 20 years ago. It's a Disney Small World dress that depicts differing nationalities. It's age 2-3.

Someone said they didn't think it's very PC so I just want to check. I'm happy to be told either way.

How should the eyes of Asian cartoon characters be depicted?

@StarDolphins

Same importance.

Wow.

Imagine a room with 5 men and 1 women in, where a joke is made that the woman finds misogynistic, which makes her uncomfortable and upset. Imagine that even after she explains her reasons for feeling that way, the men say they'll continue to use the joke because they don't find the comment personally upsetting and their opinion is just as valid as hers.

Wouldn't you think they were dicks to say they won't stop using the joke?

@StarDolphins are you of that culture as well? (If so, ignore the next question) Why do you think your opinion on things which directly affect a member of a minority group more important than the opinions of a member of that group?

I absolutely 100%wouldn’t complain if there was an image that negatively resembled me. Not at all. Some people are just less offended than others.

Where did I say my opinion is more important?

I am 54.

OK, I apologise for reading your post wrong. Why do you think your opinion holds the same weight as members of that minority group about matters which affect them much more than they do you? (assuming you are not a member of that minority group, as I said)

@StarDolphins Why do you think your opinion has the same importance? I’d be interested to understand why you think that way, when you’ve seen on this thread how this kind of stereotype can negatively affect East Asian people, can lead to racial abuse etc.

Sorry. Cross post with @NameChange005

It’s been covered plenty of times in this thread already, but they should be depicted like eyes. Not like lines. Because East Asian people actually have eyes that look like eyes.

Because opinions are just that, thoughts & viewpoints. My opinion is no less valid than anyone else’s, regardless of experiences.

Again, imo!

I am Irish and I honestly never feel offended by a stereotype Irish. I'm s tongue in cheek it's funny. I respect im totally in the minority here but I really don't understand the big offence. What's wrong with a stereotype. In 20 years our cultures will be so merged there won't be any difference between us. Which is fine. But I actually like being able to still feel Irish, with all the stereotypes that go with it! I don't even know if this is totally unacceptable ti say. Im a good person! I promise

The world has gone mad!

It raises an interesting debate about whether cartoons as an art form are offensive. Because cartoons are characterised by exaggerated features - whether it be freckles, big eyes, big heads, etc. Or is it only offensive where the characteristic being exaggerates pertains to one's race?

E.g. would giving a white cartoon character snow white skin be offensive because it exaggerates their whiteness? Or would an elderly cartoon character depicted with a humpback be ageist? Or what about a black character with an oversized afro?

What's wrong with a stereotype.

My God.

My East Asian friend draws eyes like that when she's drawing for her children and commented that it's funny that I draw eyes differently when drawing a smiley face. So I think she'd likely be bemused at the suggestion that the eyes are racist.

I used to work in a school where for some reason loads of the staff were racist. They made comments and did ‘impressions’ about things like black women’s hair and Asian girls eyes that were based on these stereotypes and which they were using to bully the children they were supposed to be looking after. They had a golliwog keyring and used it to tease the one black female student. If there weren’t people like that around then maybe ‘old fashioned’ stereotypes could be less of a big deal, but sadly there are still a lot of people like that around, so it’s best not to give them the ammunition and cover.

This is probably a stupid idea, but could you just add some thread to destereotype the features and clothes a bit?!

So do you think that this has never been used as a negative and harmful racist stereotype because your friend has been fortunate enough not to have come across that as yet? The history and usage exists, whether or not any one specific person is aware of it.

@RoseslnTheHospital no? I was just adding to the conversation, I don't think that at all.

I promise I'm not being disingenuous, but could you give some examples of where depicting East Asians with narrow eyes has been harmful? Do you mean in some kind of propaganda?

@CrimsonPostBox you're joking right?

As in, are you speaking from experience as an East Asian? Or referring to a specific moment in history? Or current stereotypes in pop culture?

As I said, I was not being disingenuous. So I was not implying that such imagery has not been harmful. I was just asking for examples because you seemed to know a lot about it.

I have to admit that the first thing I saw was the eyes others have mentioned which did make me cringe. But apart from that, I dont think its offensive.