Animorphs and Discrimination

[blue_rampion]

Before we get into the minor character discussions, there is a topic I've been wanting to bring up here - discrimination and how they are dealt with and portrayed in the books. We see examples of racism, speciesism, sexism, and discrimination against the disabled, but they're all examined to different degrees and in different ways.

With racism, we see that most prominently with Cassie ("I can turn white" indeed). Marco gets all of one line about being followed by mall security, but they're both characters that would have both dealt with racism in their lives. But overall, while it's brought up on occasion we don't really go too heavily into this issue.

Now, speciesism - that we see a ton of, and I'd argue that a lot of the issues that usually come up in a discussion of racism are in fact explored through speciesism. All of the various aliens have opinions and stereotypes of the other aliens - the Andalites are 'arrogant', the humans are just meat to the Yeerks, the Yeerks are all 'evil', and Hork-Bajir and all nice and sweet and stupid. They've all got preconceived notions of each other, some of them good but a lot of them not good.

Sexism isn't gone into too much, but the series touches on it every now and then - Rachel's got some strong feminist leanings, and we have the Axis of Awesome assuming that the Governor is a man.

And as for discrimination against the disabled...well, we definitely go into that, and this is definitely one of the major failings of Andalite culture.

There's probably also other forms of discrimination in the books that I can't think of, but my questions to you are: Do you think the series do a good job of depicting these issues? Could it (and should it) have gone into more detail on any of them?

Comments

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

As it often is for me with Science Fiction and Fantasy, I see other species as being an analogy for how us humans see race.

I don't remember what book it was, but Rachel and Tobias were talking about their frustration with their relationship, and Rachel makes a comment around the lines of: "this isn't like how Jake's white and Cassie's black. Only idiots care about that." This one line was super powerful to me to show how much K.A. considered (human) race a non-issue. I think she also sees sexism in a similar way, but she does touch on the issue a little bit more. I believe she encourages the reader to judge the characters based on the content of their, well, character, this way.

By taking out "race" and moving on to species, we the reader get the chance to see how stupid an idea of racism is. We see this as we slowly see the broader views of each species explored. The best example of this is the Andalites, I think, because in the beginning they are painted as the saviors. It isn't long before we start seeing cracks in this facade, but how much more crushing is it to the Animorphs when these are the people they were putting their hope in? Elfangor gave them the power to buy them time, not to win the war. While he believed that kids could have a profound impact, the odds were overwhelming.

I guess, for me, one of the biggest messages of the books was how damaging speciesism (and within that analogy, racism) is, how stereotypes hinder understanding, and how if you're going to solve a problem you're going to need to keep an open mind.

[blue_rampion]

I did very much get the impression that while all of the characters had all these notions about the different species and what sets them apart...when you look at the actual members of each species, and their actions and thoughts, they aren't actually that different from each other. People often talk about how really all humans are the same, and yet in a way the message is in fact the same - all sentient creatures are, at core, the same. Some are good, some are bad, most of them are in that grey bit in the middle, and all of them think and feel and hurt.

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I think that this is my very favorite thing about Animorphs, and that's saying something because I totally love so much about this series.