Over the past few months I've seen a lot of people upset over what children's shows and movies are displaying. From Mr. Ratburn on Arthur marrying a man to Hallie Bailey playing Ariel in the upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. All over the country people are getting upset over these "controversial" things.
As a society, we need to remember that these things are not made for adults, they are made for children; and not just white straight children, but all children.
Growing up, I did not have a doll that did not look like me until I was about eight or nine. All of my Barbies and Bratz dolls had blonde hair and blue eyes. I honestly don't remember seeing a doll that did not look like me until my cousin who is half Hispanic got a Bratz doll for her birthday, a Bratz doll with dark hair and brown eyes.
Her name was Yasmin and I remember my cousin being so excited because she had a doll that was different from the rest of ours. It's not that my family didn't want me to have dolls that looked different, there just weren't many available.
I honestly don't know how old I was when I fully understood what it meant to be gay/lesbian/bisexual, etc. That wasn't a failure on my parents end, either, it just wasn't a common thing where I grew up. I had a few family members who were part of the LGBTQ+ community, but it wasn't something that anyone ever really discussed.
The TV shows and movies I grew up watching never had any representation. Advertisements for Barbies always had "Barbie and Ken". Neither ever had an advertised same-sex relationship.
TV shows and movies we grew up on did have people of color. I remember watching Family Matters, That's So Raven, Lizzie McGuire, and then later on Corey in the House and Everybody Hates Chris.
Many people my age and some a little older grew up on the same shows, yet some of them have an issue with Hallie Bailey playing Ariel, as if they've never seen a person of color in a lead acting role.
Some could argue that even though there were POC being represented through these TV shows, most of the shows available to us had a predominantly white cast.
When people get all worked up about their children being exposed to a same-sex couple, or a POC playing a certain character, that makes me believe that we need more representation. We especially need this representation in media made for young children. Exposing them to different lifestyles is not corrupting them, in fact not exposing them to real situations is what will end up corrupting them.