<em>Babies</em> Documentary is Cute, But Problematic at Schema : more than ethnic

Babies Documentary is Cute, But Problematic

Months ago, I saw a trailer for a documentary called Babies, which follows the everyday lives of 4 babies from different parts of the world from the time that they are born until they each start walking. I will be honest, I already knew I was going to dislike what this film represented before I even walked into the theatre.

One of the film's subjects is an African baby, from Namibia, who lives in the bush. I will never deny the fact that people all over the world have a variety of life experiences, but I was selfishly upset that they would choose a baby from the bush when there are so many African cities that no one ever gets to see. I was thinking that a movie such as this would draw a large international and mainstream audience, and that this would have been the perfect chance to dispel and combat stereotypes, rather than reaffirm them. Of course, I hadn't actually seen the movie yet, so I was cautiously optimistic that it would prove me wrong.

It didn't. Right from the beginning my issues with the film began to mount. First off, the babies seemed to be presented in order of perceived socioeconomic status and quality of life, starting with the African baby, followed by the Mongolian, the Japanese, and the American. From the get-go, there were intense meta-messages seemingly reaffirming the enlightened American experience in juxtaposition to a rough "third world" existence. The babies were presented in contrast to one another, during play, while feeding, and at times just exploring on their own; in doing so, this already placed an inherent value judgement on the activities that each baby would perform and be involved in.

Without giving too much away about the film, there was one scene in particular that infuriated me. Each child was shown playing and interacting with the animals in their lives. The first three children were all shown playing with cats, and it was cute and everybody sighed. Then the African child came back around. Tell me why they showed him interacting with flies and not an animal like the rest of the babies? Now, you might say that perhaps there were no friendly, or fairly domesticated animals in his life to allow for such interaction - except that prior to this moment, it had been shown that there was in fact a domesticated dog interacting with his family. Unfortunately, no one will remember this fact. What they will remember is that while the other babies were playing with their cats, the poor African child was staring at flies.

The African children were also subject to hypersexualization, as they were shown being curious about and playing with their penises. I found this appalling, because despite the fact that all children discover and may be curious about their genitals, and that all other sections of the film were comparisons, the African children were the only ones shown touching their penises. This hypersexual image is one that persists in media surrounding blacks, and the film only served to heighten that stereotype.

These weren't the only things I found problematic, but they were some of my main issues. It frustrates me because I think that a lot of people will take this film at face value and may not ask these kinds of questions, or challenge these assumptions, simply because they have never been presented with another point of view. Don't get me wrong, even though I had a lot of issues with the film, the babies are pretty cute.

If you have seen the film and have something to say, I would love to hear from you. Maybe you absolutely loved it. You don't have to agree with me, I'd just like to hear your opinion.

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Hi Kwaku
I agree with your account of babies. When I saw this film, I was shocked, although I admit I also had preconceived expectations. Babies offers audiences an innocuous representation of "real life" for 4 children, and simultaneously tries to universalize and individually-situate their experiences. I think that such an intention is a good thing, because it does not solely offer complete contrast or complete similarity. However, Babies also fails to critically reflect on what forces shape babies lives, and the cultural conceptions of "babyhood" itself. Of course, not every audience is interested in a sociopolitical critique of babyness or the hierarchy of nationality/race... So maybe Babies is right up your alley. It definitely appeals to the "maternal instinct" ingrained in women and the cooing of the audience (myself included) reiterated that.

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Babies Documentary is Cute, But Problematic

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