Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / Jan. 13, 1993, edition 1 / Page 7
Part of Meredith College Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
January 13, 1993 page seven Campus News WAITSTAFF NEEDED - 2nd City Grill in Waverly Place, Cary. Call 851- 2282. Ask for John or Chip. GREEKS & CLUBS — $1,000 AN HOUR! Each memeber of your frat, soror ity, team, club, etc. pitches in just one hour and your group can raise $1,000 in just a few days! Plus a chance to earn $1,000 for yourself! No cost. No obligation. 1-800- 932-0528, ext. 65. EDITORIAL continued from page two can j-sound instead of the more ethnic y, and she has very Western ideas of love and female rights. Such infidelitj^ to cultural setting is puz zling, especially now when Americans are so consciously nurturing diversity and the na tional motto is “Multiculturalism!” Calendars note the dates of Tet, Kwanza, Bastille Day and YomKippur as well as Valentine’s and Christ mas. Television offers whole cables for the special interests of African-Americans and speakers fo Spanish of German. Eastern per spectives broaden the traditionally Western curriculum in schools. Toy manufacturers show dark and light-skinned versions of nearly every new doll and an old favorite, Mattel’s Barbie, now comes in Malaysian, Hispanic and Afri can-American. That Disney wants to share in this bur geoning ethnic appreciation seems apparent in the company’s choice of a tale from The Ara bian Nights to follow its two recent animated hits. The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Jasmine is Disney’s first real ethnic heroine, yet Linda Larkin gives no Arabian accent to Jasmine’s speech. The princess eats no food more Eastern than an apple. She cuddles a pet tiger. Raja, whose features are less believ ably tigerish than even Disney’s own Shere Kahn. The most ethnically treated figures in her story are the most negatively portrayed. The obsequious peddler of the opening frames chases us crying, “Don’t go! Don’t go!’’ A foul- mouthed parrot, the voice of Gilbert Gottfried, tags Hazim the thief “a bozo.” Dark-skinned Jafar is an evil vizier skilled in black magic. Keystone-style palace guards smash bug-eyed holy men into their beds of nails and coals. One wonders if Disney’s ethnic animated figures must always be villians, oafs, or second bananas. Witness Dumbo's drunken Irish clowns and jazz-singing Jim Crow, all shunned by the elephant “in” crowd; The Jungle Book's “flat nosed, little-eyed, flaky” apes, whose jazzy music has a very black sound; l/idy and the Tramp's spaghetti-twirling Italians and wicked Siamese cats; and The Little Mermaid's Sebastian, the king’s West Indian “gopher.” Even in Beauty and the Beast, set in France, the only characters with French voices are minor figures: Lumiere, the stereotypic lover, and the equally amorous dustmop Cherie. Nor do Disney figures cross cultural lines. The mermaid Ariel can marry human Eric only after Triton’s magic makes her human as well. Belle can love the Beast because, with his groomed locks and courtly manners, he is more human than the brutish and hairy Gaston; she can marry him only after magic returns him to the human shape which we see is a castle por trait. The underlying racism of such portrayals is alarming given Disney’s influence as an insti tution of American life. It undercuts the pro fessed morals of so many Disney features—be yourself, be kind to others—and seems to sug gest that the best people of other cultures should speak Standard English and espouse Western codes of thought and behavior. Too bad. LETTERS continued from two fasts, lunches, and dinners here at hair, plastic and tin foil, not to mention mold found on a slice of tomato. Don’t get me wrong. I still eat at the cafeteria only because it is the only place I have to go because I am broke. The utensils that have been used have been known to have food specks scattered across the center. Once there was lipstick around the edge of a glass that my friend Jenn retrieved from the rubber tray that is assumably clean. I feel that unclean food is a problem at Meredith College. There are many women who are paying tuition that are not getting their money’s worth. Is it too much to ask to make sure the plates that are put out for students to eat from are clean, and that the lipstick smudges are at least rubbed off so we don’t lose our appetites before we even drink? While I’m on tlie subject about the food. I’m wondering if some of the money we are giving to tliis school could invest in name tags for salad dressings? I think I am eating Ranch when all of a sudden I chomp down on a hunk of cheese. I hate Blue Cheese! What can be done about the cafeteria? Laura Clayton RA outraged by theft I think it is apalling what happened Friday, January 8, around 3:30 a.m. For those unaware, every last door decoration from 1 st Barefoot was stolen! I am disgusted at the immaturity and lack of respect for others that these Barefoot residents displayed. We all took the same oath at the Honor Code ceremony. I guess some of us chose to abide by it while others did not. I used to feel that my belongings on my door were safe. Now I must think again. It was bad enough that this immature act occurred. Even worse is the cow ardice of those responsible to come forward after the concerns of the residents were made known. When I applied to Meredith I thought it was a women's college, not a little girls'. Act your age, not your flip-flop size. Kelly Kiernan First Barefoot Residence Assistant Student writers urged to compete in writing contest “We’re looking for a few good writers!” That’s the word from fiction writer and instructor Suzanne Newton, who is encouraging Meredith students to try for the Hubbell Award for Creative Writing. This cash prize is given on Awards Day each year to a student who demon strates a sustained interest and effort over a period of time in writing poetry, fiction or essays. It differs from the Acorn prize in that it takes into account the writing a student has done through out her college career rather than focusing on one particular piece of writing. Contestants submit three to five pieces of writing. These may be all of the same literary from (fiction, poetry or essay) or they may be different. All compositions submitted must have been written during the student’s college career or, in the case of re-entry students, during the past five years. Complete rules for submission may be found on Suzanne Newton’s bulletin board across the hall from 201 Joyner and on other bulletin boards throughout campus. All entries are judged by a professional writer who is not associated with Meredith College. Deadline for submissions is noon, Friday, March 12. Anyone with questions can call New ton at 851-4710 or leave a message with the English Department secretary (829-8507).
Meredith College Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 13, 1993, edition 1
7
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75