DD&Co #15

Jørgen Andreas Bangor jorgenb at ifi.uio.no
Sat Apr 29 01:19:17 CEST 1995


Cdoberman:
>If it's wrong to portray ethnic stereotypes in the U.S., then it 
>should be wrong everywhere.

<ironi>

And maybe it should be wrong everytime. You know the Barks story
"The Lemming With the Locket". There are some really sterotypical
Norwegians there. I think it is rather insulting to be portrayed
that way.

</ironi>

To be a bit more serious. This policy about cencoring is Walt Disney's 
(the company), and noone, probably not even themselves, knows why this 
is done. Some people on this list think, and they are probably right, 
that the people who cencor stories are doing this just to show that 
they are needed -- to keep their jobs.

Why is this cencoring only being done with stories that are published 
in the U.S.? One very simple reason is that Gladstone are publishing 
about sixty issues (including albums) a year. Only in Norway there 
are published about 150 issues a year. Then you can add Sweden, Finland,
Denmark, Iceland, Germany etc. etc. These are Egmont countries. Then
you can add the Netherlands and Italy who have their own production.
See my point?

Then there are some cultural differences. I can't speak for every 
European, of course, but there seem to be some very big differences 
between Europe and the U.S. in how people react to things. Being insulted 
by stereotypes is not usual here, and suing other people or companies for 
just anything isn't usual at all. I'm viewing Americans in a very 
sterotypical way now, of course...

In my opinion something shouldn't be wrong everywhere just because some
Americans think it is wrong to do it in the U.S.



   Jorgen



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