Animating Difference

Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Contemporary Films for Children

By (author) C. Richard King, Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo, Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo

Publication date:

16 January 2010

Length of book:

204 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

228x148mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780742560819

Animating Difference studies the way race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender are portrayed in recent animated films from 1990 through the present. Ranging from Aladdin to Toy Story to Up, these popular films are key media through which children (and adults) learn about the world and how to behave. While racial and gender stereotypes may not be as obvious as they may have been in films of decades past, they often continue to convey troubling messages and stereotypes in subtle and surprising ways.

Introduction
Chapter 1 "A Whole New World": Animated Films in an Unsettled and Interconnected World
Chapter 2 "Look Out New World, Here We Come"?: Racial and Sexual Pedagogies
Chapter 3 Colonial Claims: Indigenous People, Empire, and Naturalization
Chapter 4 Other(ed) Latinidades: Animated Representations of [Latino] Ethnicity and Nation
Chapter 5 Beyond Snow White: Femininity and Constructions of Citizenship
Chapter 6 Negotiating "Difference": The Racial Politics of Transgressive Sexualities/Families
Chapter 7 Screening Resistance: Commodity Racism and Political Consumerism
Conclusion
Bibliography

Animated films have increasingly become not only a major source of entertainment in American society but also a vast and complex mode of education. Animating Difference is one of the best books we have to enlighten, critique, and engage animated films through the intricate interplay of politics, education and entertainment. This is beautifully written and an immensely important book and should be read by everyone concerned about how we learn, watch, engage, and invest in our understanding of ourselves and others.