Author: Wendy Wang Wang

In this week, I have reviewed an online article talking about the ability of children anthropomorphise obejects when they were younger and how they identify things are weather alive:

And here are my noes:

P4
• baillargeon scott, & Bian, 2016: infants treat any non-human agent that displays animate motion patterns as human-like but gradually understand what is alive and what is not
• How children anthropomorphise inanimate objects:
-infants can categorise animates and inanimate by the end of the first year (Rakison & Poulin-Dubois,2001)
-infants can categorise animals and vehicles through dynamic information rather than morphology or color (Caramazza & Shelton, 1998l Leslie, 1994; Mandler, 1992; Premack, 1990)

P8
Young children tend to accurately categorise animals as animate and artifacts as inanimate but struggle to classify plants as living.

P13
• there are a number of cues that have been shown to trigger anthropomorphism and animate judgments toward non-human agents. (Based on how children anthropomorphise, and treat agents as depictions of social agents.)
• 1. Gaze following: following the gaze of an agent is in itself low-level anthropomorphising.
-p15: 2. Goals and intentions:
-p19: Mental States
-p23: Morphology plays an important role in children’s judgements of animacy.
-p23: Learning: A prior research examined weather children can learn from non-human social partners.
-children can recall the non-verbal behaviours such as eye gaze, body positioning and vocal intonation presented by robots. Therefore it’s an essential part of the design.
–robots can trigger the ability of children to improve the language ability through emulating themselves, children can attribute their perceptual abilities to robots to learn novel information.
-p25, imitation: both human and non-human agents can lead to over-imitation in children.
-p26; children are more likely to treat a robot as knowledgeable if it behaves contingently by engaging and looking at them through the communication.
-p27 conclusion: people react to inanimate objects as how they react to people in the same situation. There are a lot of ways to trigger anthropomorphic behavior in infants such as emulating, studying and following their eye-gazing.
-children anthropomorphise robots is dependent upon both the robot’s behaviours and whether the robot has human-like morphology.

“Anthropomorphic behaviors in infants”（婴儿的拟人化行为）是指婴儿在与非人类的对象（如毛绒玩具、动物、物体）互动时，会赋予它们人类的属性或意图的行为。
简而言之，这种行为体现在婴儿把非人类对象当作有生命、有意图的伙伴来看待。比如：

假装玩耍：婴儿可能会把玩具熊“喂饭”，或者和它“说话”，就好像它是个真实的朋友一样。
互动：婴儿会对玩具笑、说话或安抚它，就像它真的能感受情绪一样。
解释物体的行为：比如，如果一个玩具掉了，婴儿可能会说“它生气了”或者“它想走开”。
这种行为是婴儿早期社会认知和情感发展的重要表现：
社交技巧：婴儿通过对物体拟人化，练习与他人互动的模式（比如照顾、安慰）。
同理心：这有助于婴儿发展对他人情感的理解。
想象力：通过给非人类对象赋予人类属性，婴儿在探索和理解世界的过程中发展了象征性思维和创造力。
这种拟人化在儿童发展心理学中很常见，通常在2到4岁左右的假装游戏（pretend play）阶段特别明显。

In this week, I have focused on reading an online journey about the anthropomorphic characters in pre-war and computer animations, and I have made some notes for my thesis proposal:

P247: 6th century Greece, anyhropos=human, morphē=shape or form,
-anthropomorphic personification = animated aesthetics [Patrick Power (2008: 37)]
–animation is evolving, while the frequency of anthropomorphism never had been destabilised. Especially there used to be a strong anthropomorphic approach to test out the matching functions and visual possibilities.
-computer animation helped the anthropomorphism to reach an extraordinary level.
-these characters function as narrative agents to deliver informations in the digital worlds, creating ‘fullness’ through their existence and residency.
-contemporary consumer-brand culture
–main stream computer animated film are more broader than the pre-war era animation on the anthropomorphic side. Where audiences can identify human traits in animal figures directly with a mix of fantasy and reality.
-the connection between the digital constructs of anthropomorphism and diegetic world.

P248
-article argues how computer animated film exploited the non-human morphe elements of its character.
-aesthetic exploration, dilution, exaggeration, satirising of the machinations of the human condition through devices of allegory and analogy, symbolism and signification.
-‘pragmatic’ solutions, ‘anthropocentric’ explanatory concept. To show how humans are able to make sense of the deeply enigmatic and often hostile world in which they inhabit through the ascription of human connotation.

“作为视觉和行为熟悉性的叙事代理人，动画中的拟人化角色确实允许通过对心理、意图、行为、社会文化层级的夸张、扭曲、讽刺，以及通过比喻、象征、象征主义的修辞手法对人类状况的阴暗面进行审视和讽刺。因此，这样有意义的拟人化角色作为‘实用的解决方案’，成为了一种‘以人为中心’的解释概念。它帮助人们理解并解释他们所处的这个既深奥又常常充满敌意的世界，并通过人为的联想来加以解释。”

(这段话指出了为什么人们会倾向于通过“拟人化”的方式去理解复杂和陌生的世界，因为它既能让我们在心理上接受并熟悉这些现象，也能够帮助我们去解释和“驾驭”那些看起来深不可测甚至敌对的世界。)

–>political animation films
-anthropomorphism adds attribution of human like qualities to non-human characters, and so they move seamlessly in an animated space to connotate implicit meanings. Animators kept reviving them to evoke audiences empathy and compassion.
与动画中拟人化的能力（作为视觉现象或拟像）相关的，是赋予非人类（通常是动物）角色以人类特质的含义集合。这种特质的赋予让这些角色能够有意地行动，并在动画空间中无缝地融入其中，一直被理论化为角色设计的一个基本要求。拟人化是一种再现策略，不断被动画师复兴以激发观众的认同、兴趣、同理心与同情心，从而更好地观察所看到的动画形象。
这段话的意思是：

1. 拟人化的角色设计不仅仅是让角色更具有人类特质，它也承载了大量的“意义”或“隐含的意义”。
2. 这种做法是为了让观众能够更容易地在心理上接受和同情角色，让角色可以自由地行动，并且让观众能与之产生共鸣。
3. 从认知角度，这是一种叙事和情感上的“通道”或“策略”，动画师通过不断运用拟人化，唤起观众的兴趣、认同感和同理心。
4. 最后引用了Torben Grodal的观点来支撑这个说法。1997:89

Cognitivist Torben Grodal (1997:89), for example, argues that:
When watching a visual representation of phenomena without any centring anthropomorphic actants (characters), we often ‘lose interest’ owing to lack of emotional motivation or the cognitive 感知的 analysis of the perceived, a fact which many makers of experimental films have discovered when presenting their films to a mass audience

Anthropomorphic actants help to build emotional motivation, cognitive analysis of the perceived. Especially this had been proved by experimental film makers.
–>the build up of gags

251:
-the assumption of human activity is the blueprint of non-human objects are being altered by computer animated film, as the latter focused into the morphe as an essential for, It takes the centre stage, and formed the magnetism of the morphe itself. (Beyond traditional performance styles)
-examples: cars 2
-anatomical coherency/ projection of emotion, personality, charm
-support our emotional investment over the course of a feature film

• in computer animation, the anthropomorphic character tend to build up their authentic form of the non-human, but also shed any acquired human like characteristics or identity, which embraces their true morphe.

252
–Therianthropic comes from the Greek “thēríon” (wild animal or beast) and “anthrōpos” (human being).
It refers to the blending or transformation between human and animal forms.

255
-animated film unravels the tensions and connections between anthroposophy and morphe, the animate and inanimate, subjects and objects.
-focalization describes the angle of vision ‘from which the life or the action is looked at’.
-it helps to create a world that is aesthetically and stylistically anecdotal, a virtual reality emphasises the anthropomorphic individual’s activities, movements and viewpoints.
-the anthropomorphism in the computer animated film era enfolded in a wider discourse of fictional world creation, transmission and representation.
-its diegetic consciousness is inflected by it’s morphe, which is as a non-human to build up the world.

256
“…function of the anthropomorph as a focalizer of the action in soliciting such narrational modes.”
–>翻译：
“因此，每个片段的视觉体验源自于事件在叙事层面上的即时性，并通过拟人角色作为行动的聚焦者的功能，激发了这种叙事模式。”
解析：
这里强调，拟人角色不仅是故事的参与者，也是推动叙事的焦点，让观众更深入地体验故事。
–morphe eyes central to how the scene is transmitted, their own specific focalizes angle of vision is animated to be the spectator;s own viewing position as a privilege.
–virtual camera in computer animation: it can be operated in anywhere it chooses, an intangible and abstracted presence (Jones, 2007:236). Due to its status as physical apparatus, it permits the relocation of subjectivity onto the anthropomorphis ‘eye’ in the direst instance, it brings an animated self-consciousness to a non-human character. Also, it could define time and space, or ethereally beyond it.

257
–the point of view (eye) of anthropomorphic characters created through virtual camera becomes a navigator of the virtual space.
–breaking with the normal conditions of human subjective experience allows the audience to achieve an open flow of ‘hallucinogenic 引起幻觉的’ perception that can be said to be experienced by objects that are situated in their position of uncontaminated objectivity .
-a pure vision from the object without being distorted by the human objectivity.
• Giuliana Bruno (20o2:56) virtual tour ‘cine city’ the spectator is shifted from a contemplative to a mobilized anthropomorphic state in a virtual space

• Gilles Deleuze ‘gaseous perception’ 258

气态化（gaseous）指的是动画电影中通过多主体视角、动态的、去中心化的场面调度，营造出一种流动感和不确定性。
这种风格打破了传统的人类中心叙事和固定视角，使观众体验到拟人化角色的“非人性”本质。

-Ratatouille & Bee movie
-involving multiple sequences
-spetacles derives from a boundless shifting composition and the connections between multiple diegetic points.
-William brown (2012:268): the gaseous movies focus on the unsold perspectives, escaping from human perceptions, emphasising the momentum of subjectivity as both de-centring force and chaotic impact.

259
“With human characters and their perspective featuring as merely a component of the image, the attraction of computer-animated film anthropomorphism, then, involves the spectators’ ability to momentarily reject their own ánthrōpos, cross species, and take an embodied (rat’s-eye or bee’s eye) tour of the virtual world in the skin of another kind.”
• 在动画中，人类角色和视角往往只是画面的一部分，因此计算机动画中的拟人化吸引观众的地方在于：观众可以暂时放下自己的“人类身份”，跨越物种，像老鼠或者蜜蜂那样“代入”，以“非人类的皮肤”去体验虚拟世界。

“Through the animator’s exploitation of non-human morphē over that of the figure’s human connotation of ánthrōpos, the anthropomorph of computer-animated films ultimately becomes the pinnacle of putting ‘perception into things’ into ‘matter’, the pure vision of a non-human eye (Deleuze, 1986: 83).“
• 通过动画创作者将“非人类形态（morphē）”置于“人类特征（ánthrōpos）”之上，动画中的拟人化角色最终成为了“把感知放进事物中”的巅峰，即转化为“物质”，成就了一种“非人类之眼”的纯粹视角。

260
The passage highlights how computer-animated films use “plasmatiness”—a term rooted in Eisenstein’s ideas of fluidity—to emphasize the dynamic interplay between anthropomorphic characters and their fictional worlds. This allows human and non-human elements to merge, shift, and constantly reconfigure, creating new power relations and fresh storytelling possibilities. (Eisenstein, 1988: 21)

这段文字强调了计算机动画电影如何利用“流动性”（plasmatiness）——源自艾森斯坦的流动性概念——突出拟人化角色与虚拟世界之间的动态互动。这种方式使人类与非人类元素得以不断交融、转换和重组，从而创造了新的权力关系和全新的叙事可能性。

-it allows film makers to express the digital world without impediment, in a range of proximities and observation points, by letting the spectator to see things differently through the inhabiting and embodiment of space and place.
-the fictional world is turned into an open, multi dimensional state of omni-directionality in which no angle is privileged.
-Eisenstein’s notion ‘plasnaricness’.
Anthropos and morphe can intersect and collide to form new power relations and anthropomorphic constructs.
-dynamic digital space has been included by the anthropomophism

-the “plasmatiness” of digital animation (where boundaries between human and non-human, animate and inanimate, can constantly shift) allows the spectator to experience the virtual world as fluid and constantly changing.

Rather than passively watching, the spectator actively navigates the space, shaped by the anthropomorph’s shifting viewpoint.

In this week I have finished an online article focusing on the anthropomorphic characters and their influence to children, and I have made some notes for my thesis proposal:

Animated Movies with Animals as Major Characters: A study of Its Impact on Children Aged 5-8 Years

P378: children may learn less accurate information about real animals when exposed to unrealistic or anthropomorphized portrayals of animals in media.

-Anthropomorphism may not be suitable for educating children but useful for helping children with social and moral lessons (Mierek, 2010).
-The use of animal characters instead of humans help to make tough themes less intimidating (Burke & Copenhaver, 2004,2002) and avoid any kind of identification of gender or ethnicity that may leave any kind of impact on the minds of children
• ‘The movies are interesting because of their features which have been created with cheerful and colorful nuance, uncanny animation and interesting story’ (hasanah,2019)
• Anthropomorphic animals help children in learning the social and cultural patterns but also help them in acquiring the language.
• Children unknowingly picking up language and sound system presented by animated movies.

• P379: research significance: focusing on the impact of both factual films and anthropomorphism in animated films on children, and the good and bad effects.
• P380 majority of the subject chooses animal character comparing to human character in the animation film.

• P382 most evident reason of anthropomorphic characters in animation is due to their relationship to the fantasy foundation, as animation allows for a level of flexibility that is not achievable in real life.

• p383 animals provide a level of flexibility that strict humanism cannot.
• Children’s stories normally represent contentious issues at the heart of our culture. So children take the, seriously through anthropomorphise characters and learning from them.
• Children’s movie help to develop empathy for others and become less egocentric. They help to foster emotional intelligence and moral growth through the storytelling. They include teaching cultural heritage and other people’s traditions, where they can establish a positive attitude toward diverse cultures.
• It helps to develop children’s imagination and experience.

• P383-p384: the history of animal story can be traced back to the seventeenth century, they gain importance from teaching children language system and understanding the world.
o Peter the rabbit (1902): consequence of disobedience. Potentially leading the right behaviour of children.
• Anthropomorphic stories can challenge children’s capacity to discriminate between fact and fiction.
• Children can learn about love, forgiveness, patience, trust, and acceptance from the Winnie the Pooh books.
• Even if the anthropomorphic characters contain discreetly mental health or undiscovered disorders, children normalise them and dispel the stigmas that today’s society has imposed.

• P385: several episodes of Tom and Jerry eared academy awards for best animated short project, such as Yankee Doodle Mouse (1942), The cat Concerto (1946), Johann Mouse (1952).
• ‘From their sweet conflicts, it is understood that happiness is in sharing happiness.

• P386-p387: research in the last two decades show direct effect on aggressive behaviour (Paik & Comstock, 1994; Wood et al, 1991) due to televisions:

1. the negative impact on children when they watch animated movies featuring animals, especially those with violent content. Research shows that exposure to violence in cartoons can increase aggressive behavior in children, making them more likely to display aggressive attitudes or behaviors. This aggression can also extend to real-life interactions with animals, distorting children’s understanding and causing them to view animals through unrealistic, male-centered perspectives.
2. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that children who watch violent cartoons or movies often become tense, angry, and disobedient. Other negative effects include insensitivity to the pain and grief of others, increased susceptibility to violent behavior, health problems, and a lack of empathy. Therefore, the text recommends that parents should be cautious in selecting cartoons for their children to avoid negative impacts on their behavior.

To understand more of how anthropomorphic animals help children to understand the world and meanings behind the story, here is what I have read:

Here are a few of my notes:

P205: “Books that use animals as people can add emotional distance for the reader when the story message is powerful or painful.”

As Anthropomorphic animal characters provide emotional distance, allowing readers (including children) to engage with complex or painful topics in a more approachable way.

P206: foundation of literature: powerful enough text ( as anthropomorphism can be used as a catalyst) no matter between which kinds of characters. Forming issues and solutions in an alternative life…

P207: The Process of Anthropomorphism
-Transmogrification
• anthropomorphism permeates the adult world.
• When we are standing close to the metaphoric fire, the use of animals has long provided intellectual and psychological distance and allowed us to critically explore that which we would not be comfortable exploring directly.

In the free time of this week, I have mainly read the online article journal: Becoming the Animal: Political Discourse in Animation through Anthropomorphic Characters, and made some notes for my thesis proposal with my own review:

P6: anthropomorphic animal is a tool used by animators to define a character effectively (Jardim, 2013)
P9: Pakistani animated movie in which political issues are discussed through anthropomorphic characterisation
P12-13: animated films have used animal representation to allude to particular issues relating to politics and society by means of ‘political carnivalesque’ which depicts how animated films are representing animals as a catalyst to address political issues and challenge authority in an indirect manner.

政治狂欢化（political carnivalesque）
“政治狂欢化”是文学理论中常用的一个术语，最早由米哈伊尔·巴赫金（Mikhail Bakhtin）提出，用于描述通过幽默、夸张和颠覆等方式，临时性地推翻或挑战既有的社会秩序和权威。
“政治狂欢化”指的是动画电影通过拟人化的动物角色，利用幽默、夸张、象征手法，间接地去揭示政治问题并挑战权威。
• animals as a catalyst（动物作为催化剂）：通过动物形象引导观众思考政治议题。
• indirect manner（间接的方式）：通过幽默或荒诞手法，而不是直接攻击。

Allude 暗指
-p13: the animal is ingrained in the meaning.
Humankind is in an eternal struggle to gain knowledge about the animal and through animation, humans give
animals meaning.
–animals = catalysts for conveying social and political messages through iconography.
-p14: “Animators exploit the animal form in such a way that it weakens the true identity of the animal culturally, rendering it a mere ‘brand’.”
–> 动画创作者通过某种方式利用动物的形象，从文化层面削弱了动物的真实身份，把它变成了“品牌”或符号。
（这里意思是：动物形象在动画中被符号化了，不再是真正的“动物”。）

P15: -The technique of “intertextuality” in animation is
quite a useful term to study if one is finding the relation between satire and animation.
-animation is a way to infuse life in drawings and make them move
–anthropomorphism might be helpful to study the social and psychological aspects that have been assigned to a particular animal or object and their reflection on humanity.
–Walt Disney was the first person to incorporate political messages in children’s animation within
the backdrop of the cold war between USA and Russia in the 1950’s.

P16: the use of fantasy in animation decrease the level of severity of social and political situation.
-stereotype is basically one of the ideologies in the American animated films. In real life, they are rather binary and consist of an amalgamation (mixture) of many stereotypes.
-the American society is very adamant in keeping these stereotypes alive by broadcasting them onto the minds of children and they want them to grow up watching and relating to them in their practical life as well. (Through repetition)

“false hope” in animated movies
Animated movies often depict a narrative where a disadvantaged, impoverished protagonist unexpectedly gains power and becomes a societal hero. While this storyline may be especially appealing to children, it can also foster feelings of inferiority among those who are poor, as it suggests that they can transcend poverty through personal effort alone. However, in reality, capitalist societies tend to maintain social hierarchies that keep the poor in their disadvantaged positions. Consequently, this message of hope can be misleading and ineffective when applied to real life (Booker, 2010).

inferiority 劣等

P17: humor and political messages in animation
Political messages embedded in animated movies can sometimes lose their impact because the fantasy and humor elements may overshadow the intended message. Satire and humor can operate on both explicit and implicit levels, but an excessive focus on humor might dilute the political content and reduce its seriousness (LaMarre, Landreville, Young & Gilkerson, 2014). Therefore, creators must be cautious in selecting the type of humor used, especially when dealing with sensitive topics such as religion and ethnicity, as humor in these areas can sometimes backfire and create unintended negative consequences. P27: Adueinces could get offended for the purpose of
satire is to mock and challenge society and authority (Murphy, 2011).

subsides：减弱

P17: humor is a “multilayered enigma” which can be explored in two ways: firstly it depends on the skill of the
person who is incorporating humor to deliver a serious message in form of rhetoric and secondly
it is subjected to the wits of the viewer and how clever they are to understand its deeper meaning.

Humor possesses the power to grab the attention of the viewer in the most receptive way as compared to other forms of rhetoric 花言巧语, particularly in conveying a serious message (Podlas, 2011).

humour in animation makes strict and harsh reality more digestible and acceptable. The fantasy elements make the matter hypocritical 伪善的 and pretentious虚夸的.
‘If someone is not familiar with the social issues of America, their interpretation of American animation would be different from someone who is familiar with these issues of gender and ethnic bias.(p18)’

The relationship between comedy and satire is strengthened when issues related to political correctness are presented in a humorous way through exaggeration and criticism, they disclose the incompatibility 不协调 within our social system. The intention of the animation, oftenly is to offend by means of political correctness (Dejean, 2016).

动画的意图往往是借助政治正确的外衣来冒犯或挑衅

– P20
Qualities research based on the study of literature based on the theoretical frameworks of Anthropomorphism in Animation, Social and Political Issues in Animation and The Role of Audience in Animated Movies.

-comparative case-study of two animated movies, from local and western context
• interviews included

P23 result of the study
-table 1 findings from literature review
-table 2: interviews
-table 3: comparative case study

TABLE 1 Literature
P24
Human explain the animalism of anthropomorphic characters through giving them meanings by using metaphors. Each of them is being presented based on the relationship with humans. They reflect our social structure (holiday, 2016).

P25
–humour is to easily describe the strict reality, satire is to mocking the hidden authority and social hierarchy
-political issue has been delivered through the help of symbolism

P26 targeting audiences
-audiences need to understand humour in the artwork, and be aware of the relating cultures.
-serious issues communicated through the use of humour may also backfire. Audiences could get offended for the purpose of satire is to mock and challenge society and authority (Murphy,2011)
• media regulation has altered the amount of humour and satire can be added into the film.
• Adult centered humor can expand its viewership. Male characters are always the one to deliver the adult humor (Akers, 2013)

TABLE 2 Interviews
-p28: animator: animal symbols can enhance the entertainment and fantasy
Film Professor: each animal tends to be associating with a particular attribute of humans. They can be a safe allegory of political references.
Example: snowball the pig in animal farm, it’s based on a Russian political figure but nothing has been said directly.
-p30 (animal characters are being deployed as a tool)： animator: avoid the harsh way of depicting truth like how the political issues have been reported in news, documentaries and so on. Also the use of anthropomorphic characters can help to pass the censorship.

Film professor: the targeted cultural group by the animation might be hurt through a negative connotation. For example, the cartoons created visual depictions of prophet Muhammad in 2025 has hurt the culture and religion of Muslim community.

P32 (Strategies to target audiences)
Animator: it’s been settled down in the stage of pre-production.
Film professor: implications should be merged into a successful film.

TABLE 3
P33
3a: comparing tables
(the donkey king & zootopia)
• underdog for donkeys and rabbits as they have dream to break their stereotypes.
• Mangu the donkey has been selected to rule the land which he found it’s difficult through his foolish self. As the same, judy has been selected to become the first rabbit police officer in the metropolis zootopia, but only been assigned to do the least important work comparing to the other predators.
• Animals are then being mysteriously kidnapped in the town.
• Both protagonist fix the issue by rescuing those animals are being kidnapped. Those negative stereotypes relate to dangers and troublemakers have been attributed to the violent predators in the film.
-These films have tried to reflect issue in the society, such as gender bias, Pakistani political situation. By giving characters a good ending by covering the satirical side of the narrative, to express through a light way for audiences to deeply think about.

P37
3b: contrasting tables
(the donkey king & zootopia)
• doneky king is focusing on the Pakistani culture and different groups of people in the society to reflect the hierarchy and unfairness. The fox character has been attributed the crafty and cunning stereotypes in the movie, and been portrayed as a villain. The story shows the external influences impact the Pakistani politics in the end through villain controls most of the energy through the ring.
• Zootopia using animal symbols to reflect the gender and ethnic bias globally. The fox in this film is challenging the stereotype by turning in to a hero with judy in the ending. As the apparently polite mayor has been exposed to be the true villain, it alludes to the corruption of power in the city.

P40
–‘it is important that the image have more than one meaning and is open to interpretation of the viewer.’
-cartoon evolved into animation, as so more symbols are used to allude the real issues, and animals are become the most popular one in the animation industry.

The animated animal has become a universal symbol (Wells, 2008).

-The satire has built up controversy and violent cases such as :

• Jyllands-Posten Prophet Muhammad Cartoons (2005)
  • In 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 editorial cartoons that included depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.
  • This deeply offended many Muslims because Islam generally prohibits images of the Prophet Muhammad, considering it blasphemous.
  • The publication led to widespread protests, diplomatic tensions, and in some cases, violent riots in several Muslim-majority countries.
  • Note: Denmark as a country didn’t go to war with Muslims, but the controversy created a serious international diplomatic crisis.

• Iran-e-Jomee Cockroach Cartoon (2006)
  • This is another example of a controversial cartoon in the Iranian newspaper, created by Mana Neyestani. It didn’t depict a human subject but rather used a cockroach to make a point—apparently representing someone speaking in Azerbaijani.
  • This was also perceived as offensive and sparked protests.
  • It demonstrates that even symbolic or non-human representations can be considered insulting depending on cultural and political contexts.