Sinister: random thoughts

[Suzanne Schroeder]

I thin maybe the overpriced japanese dog on wheels release could mean they
only gave the country so many albums.  I don;t know. Since I'm in the
United States, had no problem finding the album, and don't work anywhere
near a record label, my thoughts are probably invalid.

As much as I used to like the fraggles, I realized one day (I can't
remember when, but definitely a few years ago) that the doozers are
definitely a racist metaphor.  Or, if we want to go tame, the bourgeois
fraggles turn their nose up at the underpaid workers.  Occasionally, the
doozers show that they "are people too with a heart of gold" by helping out
a poor trapped fraggle.

Not that I stopped watching it for that reason.  I find it boring these
days, anyway.

Why do I bring this up?  I finished watching Robin Hood, Prince of Dweebs
for the 1st time in 5 years with the benefit of having one too many
cultural studies courses. So, I'm going off on a tangent....just for the
heck of it.

You know what I'm talking about.  The movie or TV show that tries to show
how enlightened it is by bringing the token black character on and saying
"gee.....youre a minority but you're just like everyone else" and everyone
wipes a tear away and we all barf, the end.  It basically presents said
character in very stereotypical fashion.  For example, Azeem in Robin Hood
is basically the wise old fatherly black man whose only worth in the film
is protecting Kevin Costner and all the poor white families.  Sort of like
what turn of the century films such as "birth of a nation" that presented
blacks in 2 forms.  Either the loyal servant or the evil rebel.  On the
same token, doozers are about the same.  They're evil unless they're of use
to the fraggles, then mystically they are just like "everyone else."

Then again, this is all coming from someone who generally regards Walt
Disney films as some of the most racist, sexist, and stereotypical of any
film out there, yet they get the aura of being harmless family movies just
because our parents grew up with them.  Especailly some of the later ones
like Jungle to Jungle, or like Mighty ducks type movies where they've
always got the fat kid running around saying "I'm hungry!"  and its funny
because, hey, its a fat kid and boy that fat kid can eat.  

s.s.

...the culturally sensitive one.....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
.     This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list.
.        To send to the list please mail "sinister at majordomo.net".
.  For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see
.             http://www.majordomo.net/sinister
. For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister at majordomo.net
.             Listen, this is pish, I think I'll leave
-----------------------------------------------------------------------