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Feb 15

Shirley Temple – Kid in Africa

Shirley Temple in the Baby Burlesk short video, Kid in Africa, is set out for an expedition to search for and civilize the Cannibals tribe members with her African tribe members. At the beginning of this clip Shirley directs and commands her tribe members to do as their told, which is fairly unusual within this time period due to the fact that there were not many women leaders. The Cannibals then invade her tribe members and explicitly add salt on each person to symbolize that they are about to be eaten. Shirley believes that she can help civilize them. Then, as Shirley is in a big pot being cooked the cannibals are sitting around her chanting, “We want food!” All the cannibals are African, in diapers and have their face painted. The cook of the Cannibals then calls a different tribe and says that they should come eat. The tribe says that they wouldn’t want to pass up this opportunity. As Shirley is in the pot she is reading a book called. ‘What to do in case of a Sunburn’ which represents a sense of comic relief. Throughout all the commotion there is a little boy that is dressed in leopard loin cloth that is supposed to depict Tarzan. He calls out for the longest time until his elephant comes to help him rescue Shirley. There is a huge satire relating to the movie Tarzan of the Apes (1918). In the movie Tarzan rescues a girl named Jane which is essentially Shirley in this Burlesk short video. As this Tarzan character is saving Shirley, Shirley, acting like an adult, powders her noses in realization that her hero has come to sweep her away. As Tarzan and his elephant scare all the cannibals away, Shirley still wants to civilize them.

Kid in Africa from Miss Shirley Temple on Tumblr

There then is another clip that shows the “civilized cannibals” wearing grown up clothes that don’t fit. The cannibals have started using “milk pumps” to gain more energy. At the end of the Burlesk short video the Tarzan character says that he is thinking about going to play golf this afternoon. Shirley quickly response with a quick objection and that he needs to do the dishes. As Shirley and the Tarzan character are at their home, the Tarzan character wants to go out and play with his lion but sure enough Shirley objects. During that time period it could seem that a woman bossing the man around is considered funny. In our reading, Kasson says, “Shirley fought the Great Depression on a number of fronts can tell us much about the emotional demands of capitalist society during one of its greatest periods of crisis and the effects these demands had on children as well as adults” (126). Through this short video Shirley does an amazing job at performing in attempt to conduct herself as an adult. Throughout the whole short video there are depictions of adult behavior that supply comic relief. Even when Shirley exemplifies an adult there is still an innocent aura about her. This innocence about her, in the Burlesk short video, is what appeals to the audience during that time period. The childhood innocence that Shirley might not know nor understand what cannibalism is might give pleasure to adults due to the fact that it could be considered cute. The motive of the Burlesk video can be a way of cheering up the country from the depression. Kasson says, “Ultimately, the progressive forces of amusement triumph over the gloom and lift the country out of the Depression, emotionally and economically, but not without a struggle” (127). Even though these videos might be a source of amusement to adults during the period there poses a question of how the child actor might feel in these explicit roles that they play. Do the child actors understand the character they are playing? Do they understand what they are saying and portraying? These are the questions that Kasson addresses in the article, Behind Shirley Temples Smile, and I believe that in the Burlesk videos the child actors don’t understand what they are actually doing. The child actors are just doing what they are told to do. In defense, children understanding the actual message of these videos might corrupt their innocent thoughts, which would cause them to lose their whole innocent aura.

 

Feb 15

The Best Books for Children

Goodnight Moon, the 2nd greatest book in the list. Picture from Wikipedia.

Books are an important part of growing up as a child. A recent article talks about the new list of the top 100 greatest books for kids. Charlotte’s Web came out on top as the best children’s book of all time, while Harry Potter and the  Sorcerer’s Stone landed spot number 6. People were surprised to see Harry Potter so far down on the list considering its impact on society, but it is also not very old while books like Charlotte’s Web and Goodnight Moon have reined as great childhood books for decades. Scholastic compiled the list of the top 100 books and looking at it most of them seem familiar or are some of my favorite books. In class we discussed how some books and comics can be considered trash to adults and it was interesting to look at this list and not see any comic books. I think they easily could have been considered in this list because they have been popular for children for a long period of time. It would have been good to at least see the Goosebumps series recognized on the list but it doesn’t seem to be deemed worthy enough for a scholastic award. For the most part though looking through the list I think that most of the books belong on there. It is strange to see such new books like The Hunger Games above books like Holes or the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Overall it is very interesting to look at the top 100 books for children and it is only opinion based, but it is fun to look back and think about some of the books I read over and over every night.

Feb 15

Shirley’s Appeal to Grown Men

Charles Lamont’s last “Baby Burlesk” short, “Kid ‘in’ Africa,” is a parody of the 1933 movie Tarzan the Fearless featuring Shirley Temple as the damsel in distress.  Shirley is on a quest to civilize barbaric cannibals in Africa.  Aiding her are a group of non-cannibal Africans (black children without face paint).  Once the cannibals (black children with face paint) attack Shirley’s party, she is taken captive and almost eaten when the brave (white) hero of the jungle known as Diaperzan comes to the rescue.  The cannibals flee at the sight of Diaperzan and his mighty elephant companion, allowing Diaperzan and the damsel in distress to wed and work together to civilize the savage continent of Africa.  This scene alludes to the main plot of Tarzan the Fearless, which is a brave (white) man saving a beautiful (white) woman from a savage death by the hands of her (black) tormenters.  The “Baby Burlesk” image of civilized Africa is basically a city made of wood, dirt, and trees.  The short concludes with Shirley, the former damsel in distress, bossing around her mighty husband.

Shirley is depicted as desirable in “Kid ‘in’ Africa” not only because of her provocative clothing (diaper shorts that show off her legs), but because of the cannibals’ way of preparing her as a meal.  Instead of being hauled off into the bushes to be immediately devoured, which is what seemingly happens to her African guides, she is cooked slowly while the chef calls his buddy from afar to join him in devouring a rare meal, a beautiful golden haired girl.  This idea of getting the most out of a rare thing has sexual connotations in the eyes of mature viewers.  A grown man would watch “Kid ‘in’ Africa” and agree with the cannibal’s way of attempting to savor Shirley because of what he would do if he came upon a beautiful woman; build a sexual relationship without scaring the girl off for good.  While his daughter laughs at Diaperzan riding the elephant, he might chuckle and say to himself, “That’s what I would do if I were a cannibal.”  “Kid ‘in’ Africa” alludes to men’s natural desire to find and cling to a fantasy girl, a desire that obviously only exists in the adult audience.

Feb 15

Seduction of the Innocent website

Here’s a link to the website I showed you in class today, all about Seduction of the Innocent, Frederic Wertham, and the comics panic.

Particularly notable and helpful to you might be this page, a timeline of the major events of the moral panic, including links to many PDFs of magazine and newspaper articles mentioned in Hajdu.

Feb 15

How Shirley Temple Civilized Africa

Shirley Temple being taken by Cannibals in "Kid in Africa"

A part of the “Baby Burlesk” series, the ten minute short, “Kid in Africa,” released in 1933, parodies the “Tarzan the Ape Man” movies by telling the story of a young girl, played by Madame Cradlebait, who is determined to civilize cannibals in Africa. Starring Shirley Temple as a missionary, Madame Cradlebait, the short opens with the arrival of the young blonde followed by several young black children who play the role of her servants and carry her luggage (which reads, “Civilize the Cannibals or Bust!”). Shortly after finding a place to nap, Cradlebait and her servants are attacked by a group of cannibals, portrayed by more young black children wearing face paint, who eventually capture the missionary and put her into a giant pot to prepare her for supper. Luckily, the heroic Diaperzan hears Cradlebait’s cries for help and summons his elephant to ride to her rescue. Diaperzan scares off the cannibals and saves the missionary. Soon after, the jungle has been civilized and a town has blossomed, complete with a traffic controller and a filling station. Wearing dressy clothes, Diaperzan says he will play golf this afternoon, but Madame Cradlebait reminds him he must wash the dishes. The short ends with Cradlebait having civilized Diaperzan as well, as he wears a frilly, pink apron while being subservient to her.

Opposed to other “Baby Burlesk” shorts, Shirley Temple’s role in “Kid in Africa” is a lot less flirtatious, as John Kasson describes the parts she frequently plays. The only thing that stuck out in my mind as coming close to crossing that boundary was the costume that Temple wears, her khaki “diaper” is very short and shows a lot of leg. Other than that, “Kid in Africa” is very tame in regards to flirtatiousness.

I did, however, find evidence to support Kasson’s claim that the humor of these shorts relies on adult knowledge playing against childhood innocence. A young cannibal calls another to come eat the missionary, to which the line, “if there’s anything I love, it’s true missionary,” is said. I believe that this line is a reference to the sexual position by the same name, and would be a joke that only an adult audience would be able to understand. The humor lies at the child not knowing what he is saying.

Feb 15

1 Comment

Comic Book Surge in India

According to an article in the Times of India, there has been a recent surge in new comic books and comic book popularity in India. At Comic Con India, it was reported that at least 22 new book launches are expected this month. Some of these titles include familiar Western heroes, such as the Watchmen, but many Indian publishers are putting out their own original stories with their own characters. The article claims that the surge is a “growing niche” but it has not yet “arrived”, meaning that it is still a growing movement, and has not become completely mainstream yet.

In class, we discussed comic books from the 1950’s and explored the themes and content that made them unpalatable to parents and other authority figures back then in the United States. They were concerned about the adult story lines, violence, and disdain for authority. As comic books became more popular, this backlash gained traction, and led to comic book burning and bans from state and local governments. It will be interesting to see, as comic books become more popular, how parents and other adults in India respond to this new form of entertainment. India has a history of placing high importance on family values, which comic books, especially those containing Western characters, may not always embody. As the world becomes more globalized, this concern over Western ideals taking over their children may be lessened, but it will still be interesting to see whether this surge leads to a moral panic.

 

Little girl reading comic book

Image from PopGun Chaos

Feb 14

Eminem

 

Eminem wanted poster

Eminem wanted poster (poster.net)

When the white rapper Eminem, formerly known as Marshall Bruce Mathers III, came on to the hip-hop scene in 1998, he quickly became every parents’ worst nightmare; he was overtly homophobic, excessively violent, and blatantly misogynistic, but most importantly, in a hip-hop culture largely dominated by African Americans, he was a face that middle-class, white children could relate to.

For a mere fifteen dollars, which could easily be saved up from allowance and lunch money, any kid (myself among them) could purchase one of Eminem’s albums on their own, despite the Parental Advisory sticker on the cover of the album, which was supposed to prohibit children under seventeen from buying the album but which was loosely enforced.

Much like the moral panic of the 1940’s and 50’s surrounding comic books, the controversy surrounding Eminem and his impact on children became a national talking point, with much of the public split between whether he should be considered a poetic genius or whether he was simply corrupting the minds of the youth. Just as comic books were thought to have been “the direct contributing cause of many incidents of juvenile delinquency and to the imbedding of immoral and unhealthy ideas” (144), so too were Eminem’s vulgar lyrics, though perhaps with a bit more merit.

Following the release of Eminem’s second album, The Marshall Mathers LP in 2002, the Eminem controversy boiled over even further as Eminem began to receive criticism from an audience he had not expected: kids. Students at Sheffield University decided to ban their own radio station from playing any of Eminem’s songs because, according to Dan Morfitt, the head of music at the station, “three people out of a student community of 20,000 complained.” This event, similar to the comic book burnings cited by David Hajdu, begs the question of whether kids themselves were actually offended, or whether the decision to ban Eminem was actually just “the puppetmastery of reactionary adults exploiting children too sheepish to defend their own enthusiasms” (119).

The controversy surrounding Eminem hardly hurt his sales, however, as he went on to be the best selling artist of the decade, proving, just as comics had during their golden era, that the more parents hate something, the more kids can’t get enough of it.

 

 

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