Date:  Sun, 23 Nov 1997 14:36:38 -0500
From:  "(Dale F. Coye)" <Dfcoye[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
Subject: Lippi-Green's Eng with an Accent

I'm reading Rosina Lippi-Green's new book, English with an Accent, with great
interest. Lots of good stuff here, but I had to pause in the section where
she analyzes the Disney feature-length cartoons.  I have no quarrel with the
basic point that stereotyping in some cases reinforces negative stereotypes
that we should all be working against.  But I can't help thinking - so what
does this mean?-- are we aiming for a society without any stereotypes at all?
 or one where we recognize that it's a human trait to stereotype and we
should simply be aware of it. Should we protest when French accented
characters are used for coquettes and lotharios (her example, Lumiere in
Beauty and the Beast- we could add Mel Blanc's skunk Pepi la Pyoo) or can we
just have a laugh at the same time acknowledging that not all Frenchmen are
like that? And by the way, I think the RP speakers get the meanest parts in
Disney these days: Jaffar in Aladdin, Shere Khan in The Jungle Book, Scar in
The Lion King are the RP arch-villains. Note also two errors: She refers to
Jock in the Lady and the Tramp p. 96 as a lower class 'rough lover,' where
she means the Tramp himself (Jock is the Scotch Terrier- what accent should
he have if not Scottish?) and she quotes Herman and Herman's actors' guide to
dialects (which is a pretty good volume by the way, despite the stereotyping)
"it can be said of the French...that when they are good, they are very, very
good-- but when they are bad, they are-- Apaches." p. 98, as an instance of
racism- referring to the Native American tribe in a negative way. An Apache
(ah PAHSH) is a street tough of Paris (who could forget Bluto and Olive Oyl's
Apache Dance, since we're on the subject of cartoons).

Dale Coye
Dept. of English
The College of New Jersey