Lady and the Tramp, and Cultural Stereotypes in the 1950s
Mary Beth Strickland
Professor Boze
English 1120
13 February 2012
Lady and the Tramp and Cultural Stereotypes in the 1950’s Cultural Studies is the study of shared patterns of behavior and the evolution of them over a period of time. Cultural studies are important because it plays a huge part in social transformation and informs us on the world’s view of certain topics like race, and through race, stereotypes are naturally created. The cultural of race has been a huge phenomenon of great importance over the last one hundred years. Culture today is different than it was a one hundred years ago, or even just a mere decade ago; It’s constantly changing and/or staying the same. Race has been a constant global issue and has evolved through the decades and changed how different races were viewed and treated throughout generations. Although Race is defined by physical and/or geographical characteristics, the culture of race is determined by the ‘world’s view’ on a certain nationality. Lady and the Tramp was a film that was produced in 1955 where, in that time period, where great amounts of racial tension. Throughout the film, Lady and the Tramp, there were many examples of how the culture of race and stereotypes were depicted in the 1950’s by being shown through the personality and characteristics of the fictional characters. Anyone who has seen Lady and the Tramp knows her friendly and trusty confidant, Jock, the Scottish terrier. Obviously, with him being a Scottish terrier, he is characterized as being Scottish in the film. Not only can you identify his race by his breed, but also you can easily distinguish his race by him repeatedly calling Lady “lassie”, which is the scots word for a young female, and by the popular Scottish tune, “The Bonnie Banks o Loch Lomond”, that he sings in the beginning of the film when he arrives at his secret bone burying location. When Jock arrives at his secret burying location, however, it is evident that he has been stockpiling
Professor Boze
English 1120
13 February 2012
Lady and the Tramp and Cultural Stereotypes in the 1950’s Cultural Studies is the study of shared patterns of behavior and the evolution of them over a period of time. Cultural studies are important because it plays a huge part in social transformation and informs us on the world’s view of certain topics like race, and through race, stereotypes are naturally created. The cultural of race has been a huge phenomenon of great importance over the last one hundred years. Culture today is different than it was a one hundred years ago, or even just a mere decade ago; It’s constantly changing and/or staying the same. Race has been a constant global issue and has evolved through the decades and changed how different races were viewed and treated throughout generations. Although Race is defined by physical and/or geographical characteristics, the culture of race is determined by the ‘world’s view’ on a certain nationality. Lady and the Tramp was a film that was produced in 1955 where, in that time period, where great amounts of racial tension. Throughout the film, Lady and the Tramp, there were many examples of how the culture of race and stereotypes were depicted in the 1950’s by being shown through the personality and characteristics of the fictional characters. Anyone who has seen Lady and the Tramp knows her friendly and trusty confidant, Jock, the Scottish terrier. Obviously, with him being a Scottish terrier, he is characterized as being Scottish in the film. Not only can you identify his race by his breed, but also you can easily distinguish his race by him repeatedly calling Lady “lassie”, which is the scots word for a young female, and by the popular Scottish tune, “The Bonnie Banks o Loch Lomond”, that he sings in the beginning of the film when he arrives at his secret bone burying location. When Jock arrives at his secret burying location, however, it is evident that he has been stockpiling
Cited: Bakhtin, Mikhail. Discourse in the Novel. Malden, Mass: 2006. Blackwell Publishing. Brode. “Beat of a Different Drum: Ethnicity and Individualization in Disney”. Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment. 79. Vala, Jorge, Cicero Pereira, and Rui Costa-Lopes. "Is The Attribution Of Cultural Differences To Minorities An Expression Of Racial Prejudice?." International Journal Of Psychology 44.1 (2009): 20-28. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.