Lady And The Tramp Stereotypes

In 1955, The Lady and the Tramp was released by Walt Disney. The movie was met with praise due to the family friendly humor and light hearted tone of the movie. In 2017, this movie still holds up as a classic Disney movie that warms the heart, yet has been picked apart and demonized as a racist and stereotypical period piece that has been taken out of context and framed in today’s elevated standards. The Lady and the Tramp, while featuring many racial stereotypes and potentially offensive themes, is still a movie intended for children. It frequently blurs the lines between satirical humor and blatant racism. The humor and stereotypes are quite frequent throughout the movie, whether it is a scene with only dogs or only humans, the issues are noticeable. In scenes such as the arrival of Aunt Sarah and her two cats emerging, to another scene with Pedro the chihuahua, it is easy to tell the intent of the “humor” that is utilized is a facade for a more racist undertone. …show more content…
In the instance with Aunt Sarah and her two cats, she is meant to be an upper class English female, but that is not the racist part. Once her two cats emerge from the basket Aunt Sarah brings into Lady’s home, Si and Am, the cats, break into song. The first attribute of the cats that you notice is their eyes and accents. While Disney chooses to accentuate many aspects of their characters, Si and Am do not resemble their real life counterparts. With extremely slanted eyes and an Eastern tone in their voice, they are meant to be portrayed as either Japanese or Korean and the villains of the entire movie. With the conclusion of World War II in 1945, these racial sentiments may have stuck around for the next decade. Another possibility is that Si and Am are Korean as a result of the Korean War which ended in 1953. It is hard to determine which ethnicity was intended, but either choice is