Formal Writing Assignment #3: Ethics in Design
Professional ethics, or what constitutes proper professional conduct, varies from profession to profession. Sometimes issues arise about what such conduct is or
should be, given changes in the profession or field, or changes in the cultures in which the profession or field exists. Therefore, learning about ethical issues in a
particular profession or field can shed light on that field’s concerns, practices, and values, as well as how a profession or field is situated in wider cultural and
global contexts. For this paper, you will research and analyze a current ethical issue in your profession or field. You will then argue for the issue’s importance to
the field (or some major element of it), presenting information about the issue and its context to an audience unfamiliar with the issue so that the audience can
understand more about your profession or field.
Essay Requirements
Cori Connolly
“Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.” Animation is a real subject and the work that is produced through animation has
over history been somewhat controversial. The subject of an animation could possibly offend, disturb, or hurt someone and this causes problems within the animation
world. What is appropriate to be shown to audiences and how it impacts the artist career?
Films, shorts, series of animations have been constantly evolving over the years. Yet looking at some of the work that has been produced over time brings up
controversy in if the subject matter is appropriate for people. Stereotyping, racism, sexual orientation, and even age have been a target hit by animator’s creations.
But if this is what is asked of the animator, can they actually express their concerns to the client for the material that they are making? Animation is considered
creating the impossible and bringing images to life. Yet animation “…continuously touches upon issues of race, sexuality, politics,” and the cultural beliefs of
people. (America) The broad capabilities of animation were tremendous; the use of expression was limitless only to the animator’s skill level. In the past there were
boundaries in how much the animator had control of what he/she could do, due to the era where money was more important than the context of the work being produced.
However due to the recent times there has been a better work ethic in which the freedom to create what animators want has been more prominent. Never the less because
of the animation industry being mostly for entertainment, money still holds a key role in what the animated cartoons should be. So the ethics of what is right and what
the client wants is still evident.
Is it all right to create controversial animations? Where is the borderline between what is acceptable in society versus what a client would want? And maybe to the
average person you can ask why is this a controversial issue? Its because animators who are looking for potential work might limit the potential clients they want due
to the nature of previous cartoons. What you create is how you present yourself in the animation field. It’s a cultural clash mixed with societies current views with
the world. This affects the field because it opens the door to breaking cultural boundaries and where do we stop? Stereotyping blacks as illiterate or using vulgar
language to bring humor to a few people. Professionally this could ruin someone’s reputation, ban the animator from working on projects, hurt the audience and have it
offend the very people it was designed to be for. A freedom we all have is to represent our beliefs, our morals, and ourselves. We cannot tell people to not create
something just because we don’t culturally believe in it. And in animation we don’t get to chose what to animate based on what the client told us or director
instructed us to do. Animators have the ability to create masterpieces although some works are criticized it is the profession that they have.
“Would like to add an animator that was effected due to this”
Censorship
Various cartoons dating back to the 1940’s have been censored due to the nature of the film. Censorship comes in many forms such as theaters and rental stores not
allowing to rent or provide inappropriate material. “The most degrading form of censorship occurred in the 1950’s when individuals were prevented from working in the
animation industry and other areas of film production because of political beliefs they might have held.” The animators where soon blacklisted because of the political
belief they held in the Communist party. And although in the current day it isn’t that there is an actual set list of animators who are banned from the industry. In
this growing industry where technology allows anyone to see things in an instant through the computer this allows public critiques attacking the person indirectly.
While the animation is on the line, potential people looking for an animator to help aid them in there job could possibly look the other way due to there inappropriate
and contradicting work.
Examples
“The Princess and the Frog” A recent Disney film was created in 2010. It was to feature the first ever African American princess. “Yet the controversy was about the
fact that this princess would turn into a frog and brought back past issues of a frog in the early 18th Century black actors had to hop around like dogs” (419) The
issue of an African American turned into an animal is up for interpretation. Along with the character itself there is the overall setting of New Orleans implied during
the 1920s jazz age. “This was inevitably the time of Segregation, a period in which the black and white races were split and people wonder as to how this is
appropriate for the Disney Animation Studios to allow children to see it in this kind of setting.” (
“To further understand why Tiana agrees to kiss Naveen (and go green), we must, in turn, come to a better understanding of this quixotic figure himself, as
well as what he represents (or, is meant to represent) within the context of the film. Arriving on a ship from his home country of Maldonia, Prince Naveen, a brown-
skinned, dapper young man with a bizarre accent (clearly foreign yet unclear in origin) literally jumps onto the New Orleans scene, immediately cavorting with the
locals and exuding joy at the sounds of jazz. While it is clear that Naveen is a foreigner, it is, again, unclear exactly where he is from.15 While sporting an Indian
name (in Hindi, “Naveen” means new, which would technically make him Disney’s “new prince”), his accent and diction seem more European—“Is beautiful, no?”—and he
clearly understands French, translating the French lyrics of the Creole firefly Raymond’s song for Tiana. Similarly, his term for the frog prince—“fraggiputo”—seems to
invoke a European-esque lexicon. Bearing in mind the (segregated) context of the film and the fact that he is to stay at Charlotte’s house during his visit to New
Orleans as the “personal guest” of her father, the implication would seem to be, to paraphrase Fanon (1952 [1991]), that Naveen is ‘extremely brown’ rather than
black.16”
Example 2
In the New York Post there was a cartoon that was a scandal that went nation wide controversies. The cartoon depicted a monkey being gunned down by two police
cops. It was to humor the terrible tragedy of the woman who was horribly maimed by a woman. The death of the pet was believed to be the reason for this picture. Yet
many believed it was to symbolic President Obama as the fact that in the 17th Century African Americans were depicted as animals specifically primates. “The cartoon
in today’s New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the
cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this when in the cartoon they have police saying after shooting a chimpanzee that “Now they will have to find
someone else to write the stimulus bill.” “Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American
president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?”
