There's Discourse Afoot: Tumblr User Calls Lilo of Lilo & Stitch a Brat, Everyone Reacts
Folks have been asking what @Kalei_Works and I meant in this drawing I did the other night, in our critique of Lilo & Stitch. So here's the full reason as I posted it on Tumblr, best as I can explain! pic.twitter.com/uBfld1u0wv
- SquigglyDigg (@SquigglyDigg) April 6, 2020
A tumblrina decided to put up on the tumblr an essay about why Lilo & Stitch is the worst Disney movie (in a nutshell: Lilo, a six year old traumatized child, is a brat and not punished accordingly), and a friend added on that the film wasn't reflective or respectful of Hawaiian culture. Then, for some reason, White Feminism Tumblrina decided to post her discourse on Twitter.
It didn't go well.
Users were quick to point out the casual racism of the original post:
Y'know what, that Lilo & Stitch callout post illustrates something that Black & Brown folks been saying for infinity-time.
Black & Brown kids do not get to be kids. They're held to adult standards demonized from the jump. Not allowed trauma, mental illness, or ever be sad/angry. pic.twitter.com/7SMqgMb7eY
- ✊🏾Vita Ayala🇵🇷🏳️🌈 (@definitelyvita) April 11, 2020
The way Lilo & Stitch is explicitly about compassion in response to children who lash out due to trauma and the hot take is that Lilo is "a brat" and should have been symbolically abandoned (???) to teach her a lesson https://t.co/d6QXk0N9eC
- Jenny Nicholson don't talk to me about Sonic (@JennyENicholson) April 11, 2020
This is by far the worst take on LILO ever. This is peak Karen. #karenoftheday
Definitely written with the lens of whiteness and privilege https://t.co/radaAzfjvo
- Bryson The Not Speaking Moistly Gaytive (@ArnallLabrador) April 11, 2020
The message of Ohana in the film isn’t ‘you have to love them because they’re family’, it’s ‘because you’re family we won’t leave you’
It’s not emotional blackmail to ensure abuse, it’s a comfort to children scared of abandonment.
- Ama (@nekoama) April 11, 2020
Everything about that Lilo and Stitch callout post is laughably juvenile and frankly just wrong but the thing that legitimately concerns me is this idea that a marginalized character, a POC, a girl, a child no less, can't be flawed or messy because it'll "set a bad example"
- Jen Bartel (@heyjenbartel) April 11, 2020
A lonely 6 year old brown girl is processing the loss of her parents while her older sister (who is also grieving) has to become a mother to her with no support and the threat of family separation.... and ur takeaway is that Lilo is a brat, lol ok. https://t.co/HDqUG9EG9K
- Jen Bartel (@heyjenbartel) April 11, 2020
*rolls dice* lilo from lilo and stitch *spins wheel* considered problematic now *turns over cards* for her age appropriate response to grief
- moth dad (@innesmck) April 11, 2020
THREAD: lilo and stitch is of disney's finest films as a very honest portrayal of familial trauma, and lilo should legally be allowed to beat the fuck outta that white femoid colonizer mertle whenever and wherever. (1/8910294838)
- boy on boy girl on girl (@yimmygee) April 10, 2020
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8