Прифанкованный социолог Джон Леви Мартин деконструирует лор Бизитауна Ричарда Скарри (и я люблю это).

🪰 ТЛДР: более доминантные животные занимают более оплачиваемые профессии, и это формирует у детей представление о классовых различиях и социальном неравенстве как о предзаданных вещах.

🐴 Вот кусочек из рецензии раз:

To oversimplify greatly: Martin constructs a sophisticated empirical analysis of nearly 300 children’s books, and finds that there is a marked tendency for these texts to represent certain animals in particular kinds of jobs. Jobs that allow the occupant to exercise authority over others tend to be held by predatory animals (especially foxes), but never by “lower” animals (mice or pigs). Pigs in particular are substantially overrepresented in subordinate jobs (those with low skill and no authority), where their overweight bodies and (judging from the plots of these books) congenital stupidity seems to “naturally” equip them for subservient jobs. Here, see this additional image from Scarry’s book, showing construction work being performed by the above-mentioned swine.

In effect, Martin’s point is that there is a hidden language or code inscribed in children’s books, which teaches kids to view inequalities within the division of labor as a “natural” fact of life — that is, as a reflection of the inherent characteristics of the workers themselves. Young readers learn (without realizing it, of course) that some species-beings are simply better equipped to hold manual or service jobs, while other creatures ought to be professionals. Once this code is acquired by pre-school children, he suggests, it becomes exceedingly difficult to unlearn.

🐘 Вот кусочек из рецензии два:

Politics seem to take place at the very fringes of this world, and its consequences seem to just happen to people. For a person whose day is defined by a routine — get up, bathe, eat, open the flower shop, sell the flowers, close the flower shop, go have a drink with some people, go home, eat, sleep—where is there time to be “political”? How could the people of Busytown ever come together to stop something that threatened them all, when their lives are so defined by their particular identities? Busytown seems to have far more community spirit than most places human beings inhabit, but it’s still difficult to know how they would fix a vast problem that required all of their effort. In Busytown we are all workers, and workers’ lives are defined by their work

🐤 А вот сам текст: John Levi Martin — What do animals do all day? The division of labor, class bodies, and totemic thinking in the popular imagination.