Another Stereotype of the Month entry:
Another Stereotype of the Month entry:
This is a much milder version of the Mr. Boffo cartoon dissected in Mr. Boffo Portrays Eskimos Using Ice Cubes to Keep Warm. Again, it shows Eskimos in fur-lined parkas. Again, it implies Native people are dumb for accepting their traditional lifestyles and environments.
The only blessing this cartoon can come up with is a bikini-clad woman, which of course is a phony one. Moreover, the landscape is so intolerably cold that the Natives are happy when it's only -10 degrees. Imagine how happy they'd be if they could actually light a fire or go outside without parkas.
Why doesn't the cartoon satirize people in Vermont, Iceland, Siberia or other places known to be cold? Because the Inuit (Eskimos) are associated with coldness—with freezing and suffering miserably because they're too primitive to do anything else. They aren't associated with having rich oral traditions or art, or even with successfully earning a living under harsh conditions. Like all "primitive" people in cartoons, their "primitiveness" is something for "civilized" people to laugh about.
Related links
Eskimos: the ultimate aborigines
Native comic strips vs. comic books
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