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Friday, March 03, 2006
Beware of the monkey
There's an opinion piece in today's Statesman Journal of Salem, Oregon about the new Curious George animated film and its misrepresentations of archaeology and history and how it seems to promote Western cultural supremacy. I fear many parents won't pick up on this unintended message which I feel is far more dangerous than what is found in any video game or rap video. Ann Nicgorski writes:
My concern with this story line, in which The Man in the Yellow Hat is an archaeologist and museum curator (as opposed to the gun-toting, pipe-smoking animal poacher of the original book series by Margret and H.A. Rey), is the insidious underlying assumption that one simply can go to Africa and transport significant cultural artifacts to a museum in New York. Granted, this is fiction, but even so, it provides our children with a clear lesson in Western cultural hegemony, a lesson that contemporary American children definitely do not need.
Posted by Will at March 3, 2006 02:30 PM in In the News