Thursday: I have the greatest idea for Friday’s blog post! Friday: Oh, that’s probably a really dumb idea. Well, let’s do it anyway.
This week I saw a promo post for a HoCoLocal event that truly creeped me out. After some research I learned that it’s quite a common thing. I can’t claim to have discovered anything new or shocking and yet it still bothers me. Rather like the woman in this cartoon by the late (and brilliant) James Thurber.
This is Rachel Anne Accurso .
She is the creator and lead performer of Ms. Rachel Music for Littles, an extremely successful program which appears on YouTube.
This is not Rachel Anne Accurso:
What we see here is an actor who works for a company called Courtney’s Character Corner. Personally, I find the idea of a Ms. Rachel impersonator rather horrifying.
Why?
We’ve all seen performers in costume suits hired to entertain children at parades, parties, and so on - - but in my experience they are embodying fictional characters.
Ms. Rachel is not a cartoon or a fictional character. She is a real human being with considerable educational training in early childhood education and music. Ms. Rachel Music for Littles is not the kind of commercial operation concocted by a studio or network where a performer is selected to “play a role” and the character “Ms. Rachel” is owned by them.
Rachel Accurso created and performs this herself. This is an important distinction.
As adults we may be used to professional impersonators in the realm of entertainment. But performing for children is an entirely different experience and should come with child-sensitive boundaries and responsibilities. I would suggest that even young children understand that Snoopy in a costume suit is not real in the sense that their dog at home is real. But presenting a carefully curated facsimile of a real human being puts a still-developing child in an uncomfortable position.
Who do I trust? Who do I believe? If this person walked up to me in a park and wanted to go for a walk with me: are they safe in the way I know Ms. Rachel is safe?
I would find it equally appalling to see “character” companies trading on the innate credibility of people like Mychal Threets or even Mr. Rogers, for instance. Just because someone is extremely popular with kids doesn’t mean it’s okay to market their likeness for your personal profit - - especially without their consent.
And yet. When I did a quick Google search I discovered that there are tons and tons of Ms. Rachel impersonators for hire. It made me feel quite stupid. This was yet another lesson in discovering that just because something was new to me did not mean it was a new thing overall.
This makes me sad.
To be clear, I don’t know whether or not Rachel Accurso has given her consent to this. I suspect not. I did try reaching out to her via Instagram but her social media accounts are not open to private messages. All things considered, that is probably a good thing.
But I think this practice is deeply wrong. I don’t know if there are any laws that address this kind of image theft. Even worse, it’s clear that our society is moving ever more quickly towards rampant theft of other people’s creations and likenesses.
We care a lot about healthy food for our children as well as healthy environments and playthings. This isn’t healthy. It’s just junk that won’t truly nourish their imaginations or feed their souls. Most of all, it’s a lie.
Please do not submit comments here. This function will be disabled shortly. Use the link above instead. Thanks!
ReplyDelete