The Incredible Art of Trailers Mbali Mashaba
Animation can easily be described as a medium that represents the furthest reaches of imagination. In many instances, it has served as one of our very first encounters with representation that we consume as children and come to love and associate with the deepest nostalgia as adults. While several several animated TV series in the past years years have featured a diverse cast of characters and underrepresented communities, there is much to be said about animations that did the opposite and may have carelessly went as far as perpetuating the erasure of minority groups or simply embedded the representation of these populations with stereotypical and bigoted representations.
The early 2000’s saw a burst of commercial cartoons with the arrival of centralised satellite television and channels like Disney, Nickelodeon, KTV, Boomerang and Cartoon Network entered many homes. Along with this came some representation of non white characters in childhood cartoons such as Vince from Recess, Number 5 from Kids Next Door, Susie Carmichael from Rugrats, Gerald from Hey Arnold, Miranda Killgallen from As Told By Ginger and Flora from WinxClub. There was also an introduction of more mature cartoons featuring people of colour such as the Boondocks, Avatar and Samurai Jack.
However, a retrospective look at some of these cartoon characters reveals that inclusivity did not necessarily equate to unproblematic racial and ethnic character tropes and stereotypes. Miranda Killallen, a darkskinned teenager’s inclusion on As Told By Ginger came with a stereotypical characterization often seen in darkinned women representation as filled with jealousy and manipulation, Flora’s blackness came with meltdowns about the natural state of her afro in Winx Club and Vince’s egoistic nature arose among his group of friends in Recess, due to his superior athletic abilities. Some of our most popular cartoons featured almost no women, apart from romantic interests for men.
In the Boondocks, the adult animated sitcom’s protagonists, Riley and Huey Freeman are notably voiced by a black woman (Regina King), yet the women that exist in the realm of the show are portrayed as loud, fat, ratchet single moms, prostitutes or video vixens and often reduced to just that. The representation of women, particularly Black women, often centred around misogynistic representation. Several characters namely Robert Freeman, also known as grandad, continuously voice their dislike and issues with Black women referring to them in derogatory slurs. Grandad’s dating life cycles on finding an attractive woman, discovering that she is “crazy”, a gold digger or a prostitute, often framed as a problem, and ends with him chasing them away (). Similarly, In the animated comedy film, The Emperor’s New Groove, following a young Incan emperor, Kuzco, women are stereotypically portrayed as homemakers while men are almost always adventurers. Kronk, the most masculine presenting man’s comedic role is portrayed in homosexual stereotypes that are placed in comparison to his masculine appearance and his feminine demeanor. He likes to cook, go bird-watching, dance, skip, and other ‘girly’ things.
Although many cartoons are filled with problematic stereotypes, a few offer interesting and complex representation. Gerald, in Hey Arnold! Plays Arnold’s street smart best friend who is loyal and shares his worldly knowledge of many legendary stories in the city to his friend Arnold. He is also a cool and geeky class president. In recent times, animation seems to be coming right with representation as seen in the 2020 Academy Awards recipient of Best Animated Short, Hair Love, following the story of an African American father learning how to do his daughter Zuri’s beautiful natural hair. Similarly, Doc McStuffins, the animated television series centres around a 7 year old black girl who is a doctor with the ability to fix toys through her stethoscope that has several supernatural abilities. Although representation and diversity in animation is important, as in any other medium,it is only half of the journey of a much longer race.