Little, white me was addicted to Thomas the Tank Engine as a 4-year-old. My family lived a block from a real-life train station, but those trains didn't talk, or have names like Gordon, Percy, Douglas or Neville. I'm not from Britain, on which the show's made-up island of Sodor is based, but it still never occurred to me that those anthropomorphized choo-choos were foreign, or different in any way (though maybe they're what got my young mind fancying a more "proper" name, like Maxwell). That's presumably because -- besides Henrietta, the homely caboose and only female character I still remember (there were a few others) -- all the trains were all modeled on white guys.
Back in those early days of the show, Thomas and his friends were only being watched by British and American kids. To be fair, both countries have relatively heterogeneous populations, most of which saw no representation. But now, the franchise is chugging along at over $1 billion in annual retail sales, and is eyeing new global markets with 14 new engines (four of them female), pulling into Sodor's stations from 12 distant countries or regions.
This move comes at a time when long-time purveyors of children's entertainment, from Disney to Sesame Street, are grappling with how to approach audiences that might not be white, American, or English-speaking. The process is a minefield of ire and offense, particularly when introducing new characters, and some brands are navigating better than others.
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Sesame Street, perhaps, has an unfair advantage because its characters have always been eccentric, and multi-colored -- blue, green, you name it. But the program, which was started in the United States in 1969, now runs in 25 countries, including Afghanistan, where it is beamed over the radio, gets funding from the U.S. State Department, and is the country's most popular children's program.
Currently entering its fifth season, Baghch-e-Simsim, which translates from both of Afghanistan's two main languages to "Sesame Garden," is focusing on the themes of "cultural identity" and "women's empowerment." To that end, they introduced a purple-skinned, orange-nosed, precocious, 6-year-old girl named Zari. In one upcoming episode, she'll interview a doctor because she is interested in becoming one herself. The fabric that she wears is made up of designs representing the country's four main ethnic groups (Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek). She is one of a growing cast of Sesame Street characters in places like India, South Africa and Egypt, whose lessons go beyond basic arithmetic and spelling and into weightier questions that confront young audiences in those countries (though they are typically slightly older than the average American Cookie Monster fan).
Despite the noble goals, some see sinister motives. For instance, the conservative blog Breitbart introduced its readers to Zari on Twitter with the following headline:
Comments on that article and across the Internet mocked the idea that feminism can exist, or be heard of, in Afghanistan. They speculated how long it will take for her to be sentenced to death by stoning. They construed the hijab as a symbol of oppression, not as something that Afghan girls might recognize and relate to (not to mention that Zari will only wear hers to school).
While some on the far right are up in arms about Zari, others to the left seem more perturbed by Thomas the Tank Engine's multicultural makeover, especially in light of its perceived delay in awakening from a colonial-era mind-set. The primary concern is that, while well-intentioned, the new characters seem to perfectly embody old tropes about people in the countries from which they hail. Here are some of the words used in the marketing material for the film in which the new characters debut:
Ashima, of India: "Fun, feisty and likable," "Happy to help out;" Rajiv, her counterpart, has "beautiful colors"
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Gina, of Italy: "Sweet and stylish," "Gina will be turning a few heads"
Frieda, of Germany: "Beautiful and strong"
Yong Bao, of China: "Kind and faithful," "He may not be the biggest tender engine or the strongest," "Driven to achieve and make progress," "These qualities make Yong Bao a Really Useful Engine"
Carlos, of Mexico: "Proud and happy" "Always wearing a smile," "This engine continues to please the crowd"
Shane, of Australia: "Loves to have fun," "Carefree ways"
And, finally, Racing Vinnie: "All the way from North America, this big engine is not to be messed with. He is big and strong but his competitive nature could be his downfall."
I wonder which country in North America Vinnie belongs to.
Christopher Keenan, a senior vice president at Mattel Creation overseeing the release of the film, titled "The Great Race," told WorldViews in an email, "We've built and added on this original story, to the point now where we can put an Indian engine as a protagonist, we have come a long way from 1942 in terms of diversity and we hope fans will see that," adding later that he "would ask critics to watch the film to see how each engine plays a role in this story that celebrates international diversity and individual respect."
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