Linguistic Attitudes Perpetuated By Children's Media
By Jasmine Medenard
Language is an integral part of not only culture but also identity. Languages can bind individuals together, or they can fragment a group by othering those with different dialects or accents. Although many people think language, dialects, and accents are the same, they are not. A language is a standardized form of verbal and written communication, whereas dialect is the specific vernacular or variation within a language. Though an accent is a way people pronounce words, it is different from a dialect because a dialect is all-encompassing, including pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.
The way individual languages, dialects, and accents are viewed is a direct result of the implication of social stereotyping. Some may say that serotypes are normal or inevitable as they are the brain’s way of simplifying “complex incoming” (Azad 4) information to understand our social environments just as we categorize objects to understands them. Therefore, the social stereotyping of groups or individuals, such as Spanish (or foreign) speakers are judged not only through their physical appearance but through their dialects and accents. The close relation between language stereotype and socials stereotype means that dialects and accents can have a socially assigned meaning. For example, Puerto Rican and Dominican Spanish are considered more popular due to the fame of singers from those areas. However, these dialects of Spanish are far from the preferred dialect to teach. Many schools prefer to teach Mexican Spanish as it is considered more “refined” (Azad 5), being that one of the headquarters for the Royal Spanish Academy resides in Mexico. The dialect of a language changes one’s accent, yet, to the common ear, accents and dialects all sound the same. But in fact, one’s accent is individual to the dialect and culture. For my final project, I analyzed Hispanic/Latinx representation in children’s media, i.e., movies, and shows. I will examine two popular children’s films and one Tv show, Lion King, Dora the Explora, and Aladdin, to analyze the accents or dialects used concerning the aspects of the character with which the accent or dialect is associated. I hope to prove that the linguistic viewpoint depicted by stereotypes and perpetuated by children’s media plays a substantial role in creating and maintaining “linguistic attitudes” (Azad120).
I choose these particular examples, as they satisfied two requirements when research this topic: they possess clear, undeniable character rolls (hero, villain, sidekick) and try to express cultural backgrounds through either language, dialect, or accents.
The Lion King, though created and released several years apart, share the universal themes of hierarchy, social class, and the negative portrayal of characters with African American dialects. For those who don’t know, Zootopica an animated children’s movie that depicts a utopian metropolis where predator and prey can coexist. However, there is a reoccurring theme where animals with African American dialects are negatively depicted compared to those with a standard American English dialect, which will be examined further in this paper.
Aladdin is set in the fictional land of Abribba. This movie is well known and highly distributed “collecting $ 217 million in the US”, depicting an Arabian culture through setting and accents (Rierola 122). The language for the film is deliberately scripted to establish a character’s background and help the inferable audience judge the character’s nature. Due to the setting, characters should speak with an accent. However, the three main characters, Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie, speak in a standard American English dialect while the antagonist and ordinary people all have notice accents variety in thickness. Dora, the Explorer, is an educational children’s show with a pan-Latina main character. This show is well known, widely distributed, and depicts a day in the life of this pan-Latina. She, however, will provide a comparison as to how a character that was intended to be Latinx and educational, generalizes culture instead of embracing diversity. Both will be used to show how linguistic stereotypes lead to social stereotypes.
The negative depiction of minorities through linguistic stereotypes is a continuous trend in mass media. In several popular children’s movies and shows, minorities with accents are characterized by negative qualities or traits, whereas admirable traits define characters with American or British accents. Accents “convey particular histories” (Rosa 120), which is to be interpreted by the listener. Hence, associating characters with accents to negative traits further supports a negative linguistic stereotype that manifests into a social stereotype.
One example of linguistic stereotypes that manifest into a social stereotype is in the movie The Lion King. This movie exposes social class and hierarchy among animals, which symbolizes the new social classes and hierarchies today. Though, when analyzing this movie, there is a clear distinction that animals with an African American Dialect of English, are stereotypically characterized as the villain. In The Lion King, The hyenas are described as villains and speak with an African American vernacular or dialect of English (Soares 30). In contrast to the main character, Simba and Nala speak with standard American English. The hyenas are not only negatively depicted as sinister but are also described as incompetent as they are subjected by Mufasa, and used to enforce his will.
The second example of linguistic stereotypes that manifests in social stereotypes is in the movie Aladdin. The three main characters, Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie, all speak with American accents, and the other supporting characters are heard with an accent, all ranging in their density. One aspect I want to point out is the characterization of Jafar, the villain, as he is physically the most authentic to the cultural background of the movie set in the fictional land an Agrabba within India. Jafar, the merchants on the street, the guards, and the ordinary low-class people are not only physically the most authentic to the culture; all have accents. They are also characterized as either “threatening, sinister, vicious, deceitful,” low class, coarse, uneducated, or dirty (Rosa 137). Not only does this lead to the correlation between accents and negative straits, but it also instills a subconscious belief in children that people with accents by default are people with which to disassociate. This depiction of characters with accents further adds to the linguistic stereotype, which manifests into a social stereotype supported by the fact that the main characters in the story rarely interact with any of these characters, and if so majority of these interactions are not favorable.
A final example of linguistic stereotypes that manifest in social stereotypes is depicted in the television series, Dora the Explora, one of the first animated educational children’s programs with a Latina main character. Dora is a pan-Latina character with no specific ethnicity to represent the diversity of Latinx culture. Although a pan Latinx concept is appealing, it neglects the specific cultural variations that add variety. As a result, this mainstream show taught children that Latinx culture is, all the same, adding to the othering of Spanish speakers as a whole without regard for cultural differences. Spanish, similar to English, is diverse, meaning that according to the birthplace, immigration history, community structures, educational level, socioeconomic status, the accent or dialect of a language will give regional markers. However, the Spanish used in Dora The Explorer is a standard English influenced Spanish with English pronunciation. Due to the generalization to include as many Latinx cultures in one show. Unfortunately, these characters are stripped of any cultural identifiers that show variety and diversity within Latinx/Hispanic culture, which would mainly be depicted in one’s dialect of Spanish.
Although many people could say that children’s programs are innocent, I, however, see the subtle but general attitudes toward those of different cultures and linguistic backgrounds. The mainstream linguistic practice, specifically American English, “prioritize” its dialect above others (Soares 30). Many producers are not only aware of the negative stereotypes but exploit them in the development of characters. Mass media not only contributes to the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes but indirectly furthers its distribution. Mass media effectively contributes to the development of negative linguistic stereotypes that materials into social stereotypes.
Works Cited
Azad, Sehar Banu. Lights, Camera, Accent: Examining dialect performance in recent children's animated films. Diss. Georgetown University, 2009.
Lippi-Green, Rosina. "Teaching children how to discriminate: What we learn from the Big Bad Wolf." English with an Accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States (1997): 79-103.
Rierola Puigderajols, Ana María. "A linguistic study of the magic in Disney Lyrics." Als PDF-Datei aufrufbar unter der Internet-Adresse: http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/35003/4/TEXTOTESIS. pdf (2001).
Rosa, Joao. "Discourse, Linguistic Production, and Subjectivity: Disney-fying Language." Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education 10.2 (2006): 28.
Soares, Telma O. "Animated films and linguistic stereotypes: A critical discourse analysis of accent use in Disney animated films." (2017).