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

[taira602.livejournal.com]

I mean, exactly, right? I think all we do know is that she speaks Spanish.

I mean, I dunno tons, but people tend to have strong feelings about this. In particular, the language and culture are very different - when I went to Spain I'd be speaking the Mexican Spanish I learned in school, and people would look at me oddly, or I'd have a hard time communicating. A lot fewer cognates (so different words!), using the "th" instead of "c", and in fact, like four different dialects, a couple or so of which don't sound like Spanish at all. In contrast, when I went to Peru, the Spanish was a lot more similar to what I learned and I had a better time understanding it.

Anyway, there's a whole lot more to it and I'm not the best person to ask, heh, but that may give you some idea.

...I wish I knew what the more general term is too, if there is one.

[blue_rampion]

Really, this is all a subject that I know very little about, so I guess this is a conversation between two people who don't really know at all XD

Though really, it makes sense that they are difference. I mean, think of the range of cultures you get for caucasian or asian nations. And...well, pretty much ever race ever. None of them are uniform.