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Kubo, Beetle, Moon King

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mother (Fryberg 464). When exposed to images depicting Natives in this purportedly positive light, Native Americans reported not only lower self esteem, but a diminished view of possible selves. The similarities between the stereotypes of Natives as described Fryberg’s study and Asian Americans in Kubo and the Two Strings as well as the mediums through which these stereotypes are perpetuated for both ethnic groups is concerning. While Kubo and the Two Strings may intend to honor Japanese culture, it is yet another culture piece depicting Asians as “frozen in the past”; by reminding Asians in the audience of the limited ways in which they are seen by mainstream society, they are harmed. Through this subtle yet detrimental misrepresentation, …show more content…

The film was directed by Travis Knight, a cis white man, and all the main characters (Kubo, Monkey, Beetle, Moon King, The Sisters) were cis white actors and actresses. Although eager to showcase East Asian culture, the film ironically stifles the voices of the Asian community, overriding them visually, linguistically, and socially with choices made by white men. Thus, the film forbids Asian communities from representing their own culture, coating it with white interpretation, and demonstrating how, as Professor Hobbs stated in her February 15 lecture, “our [racial] identities are never our own--we never have complete control” because “white supremacy constitutes the ground on which we walk” (Jiménez …show more content…

Every human character depicted in the film was pale-skinned, and sported a long, bridged, thin, and pointed nose--which in itself speaks to our society’s oppressive standardization of eurocentric beauty standards and body types --several differences manifested between the antagonist and protagonists. While Kubo, Monkey, and Beetle, the heroes of the film, all display relatively large, lightish brown, and barely slanted eyes, The Sisters, the unredeemable, immortal villains of celestial hell, possess heavily slitted black eyes, slanted at an exaggerated 45 degrees. While Kubo has a head of textured brown hair, The Sisters sport long, straight, jet-black locks. Thus, the film portrays attributes associated with lighter, more European features as positive, and counters this with an extreme portrayal of attributes associated with darker, undeniably Asian features as demonic. Such juxtaposition between racial features and societal connotations reinforces the popular belief that the “whiter” you look, the better and more desirable of a person you are (Hobbs

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