Now, before anybody grabs some pitchforks, I must warn ye. This is not to be taken seriously. The following is based on some observations and I'm working from a Preset Conclusion (MOTU is Racist) all the way back to a hypothesis. I WILL TAKE THINGS OUT OF CONTEXT and talk WITH ZERO RESEARCH MADE and pass off an opinion piece as fact. I shall use some ACADEMIC TERMS and make references to work by others WITHOUT giving proper sources. You shall find definitions lifted straight out of Wikipedia or TVTropes, if they are not paraphrased.
With that said, let's begin. Throughout it's many incarnations He-Man, has a huge theme of being discriminatory against other races. While I discarded the idea of He-Man being a "White Supremacist", the various incarnations of the toyline seem to lean towards White Power.
 |
| Extendar is blond |
Take a Look at the Heroic Warriors themselves. With a few exceptions (Roboto, Stratos, Clamp Champ, Sy-Klone,Stonedar, Rokkon, Orko, Mossman, etc.)Even Snout Spout and Extendar were White males before their transformations into cybernetic organisms.
So, Most of the Heroic Warriors are pretty much a bunch of white folk. On the other hand let's look at the Evil Warriors.
Tri-Klops, Blade are the only white men in the group. Skeletor is BLUE, TRAP JAW IS BLUE, EVIL LYN is REALLY YELLOW, not to mention that Jitsu and Ninjor are ASIANS. (And Jitsu's face looks almost like a WWII era depiction of an Asian Man)
White man good, Blue Man Evil... Asian Evil, White Man Good.
Now since the world of MOTU is more Fantasy-inspired we must add the other races that do not exist on our world. Beastmen, Mermen, Arachna, Caligar, etc. Funny how all of those races are being represented by the EVIL Warriors. The Snakemen are evil as well.
Man-E-Faces could be considered a special case.
He's got a good face, an Evil face and an Analytic face: Human, Monster and Robot. These are Clearly based on the Id, ego and super-ego which are the three parts of the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche; they are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and interaction mental life is described. According to this model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego.The super-ego can stop you from doing certain things that your id may want you to do.
Still the dominant face is the white male who spends too much time using Hulk Hogan's Spray tan.
Gwildor is pretty much a dwarf, who happens to be white.
Hell! They don't trust the black guy with a real weapon so they give him a pair of pincers so he can hold people.
Now, He-Man's Sister does not fare any better.
Nettossa is the Sole exception. Kowl is a pet and Loo-Kee, while unimportant, he is WHITE!!
Before anyone mentions that The Horde is 3 white women, need I remind you that the Horde was divided in two toylines: The 3 White women on the She-Ra line, the menagerie of non-white-humans in the Original MOTU Line. (The girl with MPD, the girl with braids and the crazy cat lady) Not only the PoP Ladies are racist, but they are also mean girls.
Again, they don't trust the black gal so they gave her a NET for her to TOSS!
The most racist version of He-Man is none other than:
He-Man was "Summoned to the future by the last of mankind to defend them in their hour of need."
"Their hour of need" is that non-white "Mutants" want to live in Primus.
Aside Artilla (the robot), Nocturna (the Asian), Vizar (the token black guy) and Sagitar (the weird centaur) all of the other heroes are WHITE MEN.
Meanwhile the "evil Space Mutants" don't look like white men.
Staghorn is Purple but Butthead is the closest to a white man (who tans too much) but apparently, his "mutant" eyes make him EVIL...
It's almost as if the People of Primus practice Racial Hygene...
Now with a New millennium, we got a new He-Man cartoon. THEY were aware of the Racist undertones hidden in He-Man. They eliminated the Nazi Friendly Iron Cross and Replaced it with the more subtle Asterisk Insignia. They decided in making the cast more Ethnically Diverse. Sy-Klone became a Blue Asian man. Stratos became a Sean Connery tribute and Zodac got a More Gangsta Spelling for his name, a couple of Tattoos and became black in a reverse Michael Jackson. Since the non-human roster was limited to Stratos and Buzz-Off, the Cartoon People added more "Non-human" species to the team with the Kulataks, the Qadians, Speleans, and Caligars (Making Whiplash a rogue Caligar) While the efforts were good, the changes were mostly to disguise the Racism and make it less obvious. Making Evil Lyn white didn't change that He-Man fought those who didn't fit the mold. (toywise we never got any of those new races. The only new character on this line was the "evil Slime Pit Mutant"
Now, the latest Toyline, MOTUC, we have gotten more non-white human figures as good guys, the evil black man was whitewashed to look like a white man, Jitsu was made to look less Asian and the only Middle Eastern Human we got is EVIL... This line is a hodgepodge of the most racist elements of previous lines.
The racism is made more obvious in the bios and mini comics included with the toyline.
The Blue Skinned Gar people are victims of racism on Eternia.
Real Name: Keldor™ of the House of Miro
Banished from the royal palace, in part due to distrust for the rare blue-skinned Gar race, Prince Keldor™ became an outcast. He traveled Eternia® seeking knowledge and guidance, eventually discovering the ancient spirit of Hordak™. From him, Keldor™ learned of the dark arts, and came to realize that to truly unite Eternia®, he would need to take command of the planet himself. He gathered an army of fellow outcasts and led them in battle against his brother, Captain Randor™. Eventually defeated, and near death, Keldor™ once again turned to Hordak™ who, in exchange for his own freedom, agreed to save Keldor’s life by merging him with Demo-Man™, twisting Keldor™ into Skeletor® — Lord of Destruction™!
As you can see on the underlined section of the Keldor bio. Keldor was banished out of RACISM. Therefore MOTUC is Racist.
Detractors would claim that this is baloney and that The character selection is based on classic tales and myths like Saint George and the Dragon, or the myth of Perseus. It sounds pretty and clever, but we ARE Talking about the Muscular Blond White Man wearing a loincloth and a S&M Harness with an Iron Cross on the chest who punches people who don't conform to his point of view. The very same man whose Team mostly consists of white males.
This is just a quick glance at the racist undertones on He-Man. I could go deeper and mention how Man-at-Arms and Orko interactions show Duncan's hatred of the Trollan people when he deals with Orko.
Just because the MOTU Franchise is full of racist elements,(there is some Misoginy in the MOTUC Canon, but I don't feel like ranting about that today) does not mean that you CANNOT enjoy the franchise. You can still enjoy it, but now you're aware of some insane bull that makes the toyline seem far worse thanks to some things that I found here and there and I pulled out of context while weaving a stream of lies to sully my favorite toyline in a rant that is a parody of what some "social justice blogtivists" do for real. This is just making a Mountain out of a Molehill type of thing a rant with a "controversial topic" in order to get hits due to the nature of the topic at hand. I am not approving of or condoning racism. I'm saying that if you have a certain bias against something, you can "Find" that thing you're against of in pretty much anything if you look at something hard enough and are willing to twist facts to prove your point.
No comments:
Post a Comment