People ask me all the time if Rolf is my favourite character from EEnE. Ill be honest. No. Rolf annoys me for a lot of reasons. I guess thats why hes not my fave character because theres too many flaws for me to excuse. Sure. Characters are not supposed to be perfect. Theyre more interesting and relatable if theyre not. However, there are unforgiveable flaws with Rolf. As a modern day immigrant, some of his so-called quirks bother me on a personal level. It would be far worse if he were representing a specific racial group. Thank Lord Krishna that hes not. Still. Hes a terrible terrible example for how foreigners SHOULD be represented in the media. He may not be an immigrant parody like Oskar Kokoshka from Hey Arnold! (yknow the Eastern European guy who is illiterate and lazy and relies on his American wife for his source of income... did I mention hes a con artist who has a gambling problem? Hes pretty much the lazy immigrant stereotype), but in a way Rolf still is a parody in a sense. What Antonucci did was create Rolfs race as ambiguous in order to prevent another Lupo the Butcher controversy. What Antonucci didnt realise is that by making Rolf a hodgepodge of cultures, he now stands as an icon to represent ALL immigrants — mainly from Europe. Though conveying the classical image of the European immigrant from the Gilded Age and less of the modern day immigrant (which mostly consists of Latin-Americans, Asians and Middle Easterners), hes now a blend of all of these. Hes confusing like the Europeans from the late 19th and early 20th century; he doesnt want to assimilate like the Mexican immigrants of today; and some people have told me on my Ask Rolf account that very much like the Asian population, hes the Model Minority because he works hard, even if he lacks Social Security and his family — documented or not — wont be able to work for union, health or retirement benefits. Now I was tagged Model Minority in Japan and I dont believe in it. Its a myth. My point is it seems rather faulty — does it not?—to have him represent 11 million and counting when everyone is different? Think about it. By not having him belong to a specific racial group, hes not offending anyone, and yet, it seems even more problematic to have him be a mesh of every modern day immigrant. It didnt use to bother me, but now that Ive thought about it I realise this is a mistake. Yes, it would be 10x worse if he were like the foreign tenements of Arnolds boarding house... Mr. Hyunh to represent all Asians (I dont think anyone realises hes supposed to be Vietnamese but hes kinda a demeaning stereotype of Asians in my opinion), and Oskar to represent all Europeans, mainly Eastern Europeans and so forth. Though I appreciate that Hey Arnold! was attempting to contribute some diversity in their cast of characters, what happens frequently in cartoons is that the foreign characters are not only misrepresented culturally as stereotypical images of how Westerners see them, but they usually only serve the purpose of comic relief and nothing more. Most of these foreign cartoon characters are simple-minded, silly, not educated, and speak in thick, stereotypical accents. Their characterisations are usually not developed and they lack little substance, not to mention theyre usually not face characters meaning theyre always minor or secondary characters. Never protagonists. So thats why I have a problem with Rolf. Though probably one of the most developed secondary characters after Jonny and Jimmy (Im so glad People of Colour got a little representation in EEnE — especially Jonny — hes ambiguous and not a stereotype), I still feel that Rolfs purpose of foreign comic relief is no better than the minority characters of Hey Arnold! Why cant there be a foreign cartoon character whos not silly and is for once a Face Character? Wouldnt it be nice to see an Asian character in a cartoon whos not smart and shy? Or a Mexican character who doesnt wear a sombrero and work at a taco restaurant? Thats what Im saying. Thank you for trying to incorporate some cultural diversity, but the stereotypes are unforgiveable. Its better then, if people dont represent culture at all if you cant even do it right. I like seeing diversity in cartoons as much as the next person, but if there isnt going to be accurate representation, Id rather not see it at all. The main problem I have with Rolf is not his ambiguity though, its actually the fact that people use him as an example to represent their own comical foreigners. The way he speaks for example. Now everyone thinks every foreigner talks like that. Im not about to name drop, but Ive witnessed an influx of foreign characters in the EEnE fandom — all of them versions of Rolf — surprise surprise. The misrepresentation was an abomination to say the least. Although Ive tried to ignore it, my dark T spectrum wouldnt allow me to rest and I had to say something. A pet peeve of mine when it comes to foreign dialect is people emphasising accents and the redundancies of yes/no? tagged at the end of every sentence. OK. Some people wrote me in fan fiction (yeah like Im a character) and emphasised my accent. And I was offended not because I had an accent but because my accent was emphasised from an American ear. My accent may not sound the same to me as it does to you. Therefore, emphasising accents can be racially stereotypical because youre writing the accent how it sounds to YOU and not how the accent may sound to people who speak that language. So some people wrote me with a Hindi accent — but how a Hindi accent sounds from the Western perspective rather than how it sounds to people who may speak Hindi. Thats why I never write Rolf with an accent. Why would I? Why need to emphasise? We know he speaks with an accent. Emphasising is stereotyping, no offense. The yes/no is also a major pet peeve of mine. I dont think people realise that SOME foreigners speak that way mainly because in most foreign languages, when you form a question, one way to do it is to raise the pitch of your voice at the end of a declarative sentence, and another way to do it is inverting the order of the subject and verb of a declarative statement. The subject may be placed at the END of the sentence. For example, in Spanish it may look like Regresa a las seis Carlota? Does Carlota return at six? The verb regresa comes before the subject Carlota. Questions can also be formed by adding Yes/no? tags at the end of the statement. You work on Saturdays, no? In other words, no in most foreign languages would be the equivalent of right in English. So in my language it would be more like You work on Saturdays, dont you? or You work on Saturdays, right? but when translating to English, the closest equivalent sounds like no. Yes is tagged on only if youre asking a rhetorical question and the answer is yes. You initiate yes because you dont expect a response, youre basically answering the question for the person youre asking. Rolf like the pigskin parade, yes? English translation: Dont answer that question cause I already answered it for you. Yes, I like the pigskin parade. Its really a statement: Rolf like the pigskin parade but when you raise your pitch at the end it sounds like a question. Its rhetorical. Its not meant to be answered. Double Edd-boy shower with his hat, yes? Dont answer, cause I already said the answer is yes. Its a fact. I dont know how else to explain it, but yeah. Thats why some foreigners tag on yes/no to end of declarative statements. In their language the verb comes before the subject but in English the subject comes before the verb. So it just sounds like yes/no is at the end, its really at the beginning of the sentence in their language. Yes, Double D Edd-boy shower with his hat. But in English, the yes comes after because English is backwards. Still. When writing foreign characters, people tend to tag on yes/no at the end of EVERY sentence, even when its not declarative. Big mistake. You dont tag on yes/no to statements that are not declarative. Or if youre not asking a rhetorical question. I dont read fanfiction, but sometimes I do see people write Rolf this way in EEnE literature and it drives me mental. Even when hes not asking a rhetorical question or forming a declarative statement, people tag on yes/no and interchange them. I see people tag on no to the end of declarative statements that need a yes or tag on yes to rhetorical questions that need a no. So if you dont understand how to use it, please dont do it. I, as a foreigner whose first language is not English, do not really speak that way. Every now and then, but because its a blatant foreigner stereotype to speak in yes/nos I tend to avoid it as much as possible. In fact, when writing Rolf, I rarely use it at all unless the time calls for appropriate declarative statements. Other than that, I try not to use it frequently because it is a Pet Peeve. People assume, because of cartoons, all foreigners speak this way. Not every foreigner is a Rolf, thats my point. Im certainly not, and I wont pretend to act like him or speak like him. I am my own person. OK. I know. Im being an ornery critical donkey, but Im just really tired of seeing foreign characters misrepresented, and people using Hey Arnold! and EEnE as examples to create their own foreign cartoon characters. Ive said it before and Ill say it again but I really do hope there will be a cartoon someday that accurately represents minorities without dishing out cultural stereotypes. End rant.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 19:49:33 +0000
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