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

[tobiahawk.livejournal.com]

I was surprised by how much genocide were discussed in these books--the Quantum virus in the Hork Bajir Chronicles, the plots of use similar viruses against humans, the Leeran homeworld and the bomb, the Kettran, etc., etc., and than what was brought up in MM3 re: the Holocaust. What makes it particularly interesting is that the killing is not done, at least not primarily, for the reason of supposed "superiority" in KA's examples but rather for reasons of the "benefits" of mass killing seemingly to outweigh the costs (e.g., "If we kill all the humans/Hork Bajir, then it will hurt the Yeerks" or "The Kettran/Yeerks are obviously a violent, dangerous species, so it would be safer to kill them en masse."). Then KA flips it around by showing us the "them" individually, making us see Toolin, or Aftran, or Dak Hamee, or any of the Animorphs as individuals, thus changing how the "cost" of such actions is viewed and also showing how the broad-based generalizations can be misguided, wrong, or at the very least, overdrawn. She does a similar thing with the Howlers, a species that seems utterly irredeemable but are revealed to be just "children" in the end.

I think it was designed to show the problem of "othering" people and thus desensitizing yourself to them as individuals. OTOH, the Animorphs did engage in mass killing at times, though it was always shown as being particularly haunting and conflicting to them.

Was anyone else a bit bothered by the implication in the Hork Bajir Chronicles that the presence of Hork Bajir of "normal" intelligence was a big reason why the species was worth saving (with the reserve implication of the matter of their mass slater being a lot less pressing if they had all been of the same "below average" intelligence)?

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

I have a way different reading of the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, so no.

[tobiahawk.livejournal.com]

How so? *curious*

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the Andalites deliberating that the presence of Dak did anything to redeem the Hork-Bajir, and I really don't believe that the decision to use the Quantum Virus was due to race or any other factor except cold pragmatism.

And to be honest, I don't believe there ever WAS a decision to use the Quantum Virus.

I've talked about this before, and part of me wants to save the bulk of it for the Alloran discussion, but basically I don't believe the Quantum Virus was made with the intention of being used, just like I don't think the vast majority of atomic weapons are made with the intention of being deployed. I think Alloran wanted to start a cold war where the stakes were biological instead of nuclear and dumbasses Aldrea and Dak got in the way.

BUT MORE ON THAT LATER. Or just look back to this runthrough's discussion of the hork-bajir chronicles, idk

[tobiahawk.livejournal.com]

Well, when you're planning to kill off an ENTIRE SPECIES, then, yes, race (or rather species) enters into the equation. You have to believe the benefits of killing them is worth more than the survival of that species, so you're making a judgement as to the worth of the species, relative to the benefit to the war. And the Hork Bajir were seen, IIRC, as a dim-if-well-natured species, not of particular use to Andalites as a group.

As for whether the Quantum virus was meant to ever be used... interesting point.

[devimelete.livejournal.com]

Except the Andalites at large didn't deliberate on the virus, didn't they? It was all Alloran's choice, or rather a small number of them. One Andalite even snapped back at a newly-freed Alloran that Alloran operated alone and therefore his prince-status is in jeopardy even though he's been lol a controller all this time.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

well I'm not arguing that point at all--certainly Alloran made an autonomous decision, I think he was just blamed for making the wrong one. Yes, it's not in dispute that he chose to MAKE the Quantum Virus, I just believe the fact that he inteded to USE IT is.