Content Analysis for Cultural Competency

Analyzation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

 “Children’s books teach children about who is important, who matters, who is even visible. Consequently, carefully choosing quality children’s books is an indispensable educational and child-rearing task” (Electric Literature, 2019). This classic story was originally written in the 1800s and later adopted by Disney Enterprises and turned into a movie. The illustrations of the book lack diversity and only one character is depicted to have strong and dark features. The Royal Huntsman was drawn and described with dark hair and sharp features making it seem that anyone with darker and sharper features are bad and should be avoided.

Snow White is described with porcelain skin hence her name Snow White. She was the fairest and prettiest in the land, thus hinting having fair and light skin is beautiful.

The whole story is based off of the Evil Queen, or her stepmother being jealous of her beauty. This goes along with the stereotype that all stepmothers are evil. This stereotype is depicted heavily in Disney movies and books. The Evil Queen wants to be pretty and the fairest in the land. This is showing to the readers that beauty matters and it is an important factor to being wanted and respected in the world. When Snow White stumbles upon the cottage that the dwarfs live in, she notices how dirty the cottage is. She mentions in the book that “Maybe if I clean up around here, I can earn my sleep” (Disney, 2003, pp. 1–3). This depicts that women need to be cleaning a house to earn where they stay. Women have been suppressed for many years and have been told they are only good for cleaning and taking care of children. She later then falls asleep in their cottage, wakes up the next morning and makes them breakfast before the dwarfs go to work. One they are at work, Snow White then tidies up more and stays home while the men of the house work. This can portray white entitlement because Snow White broke into their house, but they didn’t seem to mind.

Snow White in the book gets tricked by the Evil Queen and gets put into a spell that can only be reversed by a true love’s kiss. This shows little girls that they need to be saved by a man and also give them the unrealistic view that their true love will be waiting for them. This has caused many problems pertaining society’s views and thoughts about consent. The prince kisses Snow White while she in unconscious and without her consent. This book is culturally outdated due to it’s time that it was published.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the Cultural Competence Continuum

 After analyzing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, based on the Cultural Competence Continuum, this story falls under Cultural Denial/Indifference. When showing that Snow White instantly cleaned the house and then furthermore cleaned once the men of the house went to work, encouraged that women should stay home and do the cleaning and cooking. In the continuum it mentions under this characteristic, “encourages assimilation and the suppression of difference” (Cross, 2013). Snow White did not have an educational value, nor did it express that women should not be suppressed by staying home. Many princess stories and Disney stories in general show that women are the ones that need to be saved.

Instead of fully banning princess stories, as and Educator I should inform my students the problem behind these stories and come up with alternate ways that the princess could be her own hero. “The Disney Princess brand suggests that a girl’s most valuable asset is her beauty, which encourages an unhealthy preoccupation with physical appearance. The brand also implies that girls should be sweet and submissive, and should expect a man to come to their rescue in an act of love at first sight” (Haines, 2016). We need to raise the confidence of children and have them understand the life is not going to be like fairy tales but that does not mean their life isn’t great and special like these princesses. This also goes along with self-advocacy and being culturally and socially aware. Since these stories are not very culturally diverse, those who come from different races might not feel appreciated and can fell less than others. “Self-advocacy helps kids learn by creating solutions for challenges in school” (Lee, 2021).

Reference:

Cross, T. L. (2013, February 14). CULTURAL COMPETENCE CONTINUUM – CHARACTERISTICS. CULTURAL COMPETENCE CONTINUUM. http://www.eri wi.org/download/conference/2013-conference/20_h_WhyDoesntEveryone_chart.pdf

Disney, R. H. (2003). Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney Classic) (Little Golden Book)(0002-Random House ed. ed.). Golden/Disney.

Electric Literature. (2019, March 18). The Golden Ratio of Sexism in Children’s Literature. https://electricliterature.com/the-golden-ratio-of-sexism-in-childrens-literature/

Haines, R. (2016, June 24). Why Disney princesses and ‘princess culture’ are bad for girls.

Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/24/princess-culture-is-bad- for-girls-now-theres-proof/

Lee, A. M. I. (2021, March 1). The importance of self-advocacy for kids who learn and think differently. Understood. https://www.understood.org/en/friends-feelings/empowering- your-child/self-advocacy/the-importance-of-self-advocacy

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Select a piece of children’s literature, young adult literature, an informational article, or a textbook used in classrooms. You can find the reading material or text in your own collection, at your local public library, or online as an e-book. Using the “Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias in Children’s Books,” evaluate the selected reading for bias.

Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books – Teaching for Change

In a 250-500 word matrix, conduct a text analysis using the article’s nine guidelines to identify bias in your selected material. In your analysis, assess the degree to which surface culture and deep culture are addressed and the cultural values that are presented in the text. Additionally, explain how you applied each guideline to evaluate the text for bias in order to create more relevant learning experiences for all students.

Following the text analysis matrix, in 150-250 words, describe where you think the text falls on the cultural competence continuum and why. Reflect on what the text or analysis revealed about your own personal biases. Include at least two resources to help deepen your own understanding of cultural, ethnic, gender, or learning differences. Identify the action steps for competently and respectfully addressing student performance issues that may appear to be affected by individual and cultural differences.

Support your text analysis with 2-3 scholarly resources.

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