How media perpetuates bias and erodes empathy

There is a popular cartoon show for children on a major entertainment platform that portrays a fictional barber who is renowned for transforming unattractive beings into beautiful versions of themselves. The show, which features food-themed characters like cupcakes, milk, and bread, includes an episode where Butter, a male, white stick of butter with blonde hair, complains about being too pretty and asks the barber to make him ugly to avoid unwanted media attention as a celebrity. The barber, known for his skill, attempts several tricks to create an unappealing appearance. First, he places a watermelon seed between Butter’s eyebrows, a scene accompanied by a silhouetted Buddha statue and South Asian music. When that attempt fails, the barber tries adding dark facial hair, which only transforms Butter into a charismatic cowboy. Finally, he uses a green plastic bamboo strip from cheap sushi, accentuating stereotypical Asian features. Ultimately, combining all three changes successfully makes Butter ugly. Other episodes feature equally troubling stereotypes, such as a dark Goldfish cracker depicted as an outlier and a perpetually angry black cookie female assistant. These are insensitive and problematic portrayals of certain communities.