Stereotypes In Margaret Lazarus 'Essay' The Lion King Has What?

The Lion King has What? In Margaret Lazarus essay “All’s Not Well in Land of “The Lion King”” she points out all of the all the stereotypes she sees in the movie The Lion King. The stereotypes she talks about are racism, sexual orientation, and feminism. This essay is a summary and response over her essay and all of the stereotypes she points out, using the movie as our evidence. One of the stereotypes Margaret Lazarus states in her essay about the The Lion King is racist. She states in her essay that the hyenas are “blacks ruining the natural order.” Her evidence for stating this is the hyenas are mostly black and are nasty. She points out that the hyenas menace with Simba and Nala when they wander into the elephant graveyard which is …show more content…
When she says the hyenas represent black people because their fur was black and they are nasty, we thought the fur is black because hyenas are a darker color in real life. We also believe they are black because they are part of the problem in the story and this is a way too show they are an antagonist. She then goes and mentions the hyenas menace with Simba and Nala when they wander into the hyenas territory like black people would do in the ghetto, almost any animal would defend their home if something were to walk into it, also hyenas are evil and mean animals so Simba and Nala would be easy prey for them. When she describes the elephant graveyard as the ghetto we can kinda see where she comes from because ghettos are normally not nice looking, but we wouldn't say they are trashy and all dirty. The elephant graveyard also stands for a place that is bad and to show that the writers of the story make it a dark place. We totally don't get why an inner city dialect would make someone from the ghetto, if you are from a certain region like the south or the Boston area they have their own dialect so it doesn't mean they are necessarily from the ghetto. The second stereotype Margaret Lazarus points out in her essay is the sexual orientation of Scar. She says he is gay for multiple reasons. The first reason she says she is gay is because he doesn't have any cubs or a lioness in his life. …show more content…
I don't think that she has good evidence to prove whether or not a character is gay. Just because someone has feminine characteristic does not mean they are gay or if they speak in a certain way doesn't mean that they are gay. I think that she was taking the whole thing about Scar and just making things up because at a young age, you wouldn't be thinking about which character is gay or not. The fact that she pointed out that he had no children or a wife shows me that she really doesn't know much about lion and their way of life. In reality, one the alpha male can have a wife and children because they live in a monarchy so there for only the alfa can have the lioness and kids. I feel that she should really know the basic fact about the animal before she starts to make accusations. Especially if it is something that you say that can be explained by the true facts of the animal's way of life. One of the main points that Margaret Lazarus make is on the movie and how it is against females. She states that “Why doesn't the female lions fight the enemy?” in her essay. She thinks that they shouldn’t have to wait for Simba to come save them. She thinks that this makes the movie against the help from females. Making it to where the children would think that it is not okay for women to fight back and that they are worthless. Even when the movie shows Nala and the other lionesses help fight at the end