RE: Berenstain Bears racist, sexist and transphobic?
Michael > January 16th, 2022, 06:43 PM
Well, I don't have an opinion on the question - although I'm sure I could form one if I spend enough time thinking about it. But these books came out at a time when many publishers had very strict standards. And it's probably fair to say there was subtle racism and sexism embedded in those standards.
Whether there was a (secret) central committee that figured out what the standards should be so that women and minorities were always kept in their places, or it just resulted from society being so broadly dominated by older white men, I don't know. I suspect there was probably some behind the scenes collusion but not with the kind of orchestrated deliberation that movies and TV shows sometimes suggest.