Crossing the line? Doctors say Disney movies fuel strabismus stigma
Cross-eyed characters in children’s animations have become stereotyped as stupid or scary, they have found.
Hollywood needs to take a long, hard look at its portrayal of characters with strabismus, researchers say.
A US paediatric ophthalmologist says animated movies are likely exacerbating the social stigma already felt by youngsters with the condition.
Dr Michael Puente, an assistant professor from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, is on a mission to change this after his students watched 125 children’s movies and identified 46 characters with strabismus, of whom only one was depicted positively.
Writing in the journal Pediatrics, the research team noted that a quarter of characters with strabismus were presented as frightening, such as Uncle Ugo in Luca and Dave the octopus in Penguins of Madagascar.
