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

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

It's doubly ridiculous in light of one passage of Tobias'. He's waxing poetic about Rachel in eagle morph, and he's quick to assure that he's not physically attracted to the morph, because it's a male eagle that she'd acquired. (He then says something about it better representing her inner strength than her weak, oft-objectified female human body, or something like that.)

So the gender differences can be mentioned, but ONLY if they species line is crossed? WTF?

I blame Scholastic rather than Applegrant, though.

[blue_rampion]

Actually if I remember correctly, there's a few mentions of things like say, Jake, saying things like "Apparently Marco is cute, but I wouldn't know because I'm a guy", or Ax going "now that I have morphed human I can understand how Rachel is attractive, but I don't get it with Marco", which I always find...incredibly amusing. Especially since it tends to read more like they are secretly gay and denying it then "I'm not actually attracted to the same sex".

But yeah, I blame Scholastic for that too (not to mention the ridiculous panics people get into over any hint of gay characters in children's fiction).

It's kinda sad really, that the serious couldn't go more into things like how morphing would effect attraction and gender identity, because it would have been really fascinating. (But hey - that's what fan fic is for, right? XD)

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

Indeed! I've gotten to where I prefer reading short, well-written fic exploring an idea like that than the long-winded multi-chapter epics I was into at fourteen. Give me depth, not breadth...I don't have time for breadth, but I can mull over depth long after I've left the screen. =)

It's funny, the loudest people pitch fits against gay characters, and yet when Rowling was all "Actually, I always pictured Dumbledore as gay..." the actual fans were all "OMG YEY!" and the world at large/media was all "Well, good for him then." (And the slashfic writers were all "I told you so! =) )

And lol. Seekritly ghey Aminorphs. Reading as a kid, to me it just came across as how teenagers talk--girls giggling over "OMG -actor- is SO hot!" and one girl's boyfriend being all "IDK. I guess." But rereading them now I can see...shall we say, Alternate Character Interpretation? =)

[blue_rampion]

I like both still, but it all depends on how it's done really.

Sadly, the Moral Guardians tend to yell the loudest - and publishers end up thinking that they have to cater to their whims.

Well, when you look at the characters over the whole of a series, I don't think any of them are actually gay. Though, some of them might be closer to the middle of the Kinsey Heterosexual-Homosexual Scale. (Certainly I don't think they were incapable of being able to tell how attractive people of the same sex are. I mean really, even ridiculously hetrosexual people could still look at someone of the same sex and go, "yes, they are in fact better looking than that person over there". Possibly it's a case of not wanting to admit that they can even see the attraction in the first place.)

As for Alternate Character Interpretations...hey, as long as it's justified and believably written...why not? XD

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

See, yeah--I don't think anyone is incapable of determining relative attractiveness in a person of the gender they're not attracted to. It's whether or not they perceive admitting this as a "gay" thing or not. (...hm. People are childish.)

No, I don't think any of the main characters are canonically gay. (Gafinilan and Mertil, probably. But the Anis? Not so much.)

Heehee. I think Alternate Character Interpretation is what fandom does best.

[blue_rampion]

That is true! Also teenagers are childish, and I believe a lot of teenage boys spend a period where they don't want to be seen as "gay". (A knee-jerk reaction most will hopefully grow out of eventually...)

I don't think Grapplegate specifically wrote any of their characters as gay? Even Merlin and Gafinilan aren't completely canon, because it's not explicitly mentioned. (Still, they have enough subtext that it's pretty much accepted as practically canon anyways :P)

That is does :P

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

I don't worry about the ones growing up so much as I hope that their kids will just not ever hit that phase to begin with.

(Subtext is just an anagram of buttsex!)

[blue_rampion]

Hmm, yeah. Sadly, I think we're a while off that ever happening.

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