The Three Little Pigs Perpetuates the Three M’s: Model Myth Minority

By Jasmine Franklin

As young children, the idea of success was drilled into our minds; work hard, get good grades, go to a good high school which will get you into a good college and will land you a good job with good pay. Then you can call yourself successful. This idea of success as based solely on how hard you work and how much you plan for the future is flawed because it does not take into consideration your background, your privileges, or your experiences. Fairy tales such as the Three Little Pigs contribute to the toxic messages of success, more specifically the expected success of Asian people as the Model Minority in connection to the expected laziness and unsuccessfulness of Black people. The Model Minority Myth “characterizes Asian Americans as a polite, law-abiding group who have achieved a higher level of success than the general population through some combination of innate talent and pull-yourselves-up-by-your-bootstraps immigrant striving.” This points us to the question, “How does the idealization of “hard work” narratives in Joseph Jacob’s the Three Little Pigs perpetuate the Model Minority Myth in the U.S., specifically racial stereotypes used against Asian and Black people?” The idealization of hard work narratives in the Three Little Pigs perpetuates the Model Minority Myth regarding racial stereotypes by justifying harm as the only alternative to hard work. The narrative perpetuates this toxic message in three ways: 1) the two opposite extremes of hard work or death 2) the idea of every pig for themselves rather than teamwork, and 3) how labor is idealized on a hierarchical scale, presenting the idea that your success is solely in your control and how you take advantage of the material means of production. This is important because it helps us understand the negative effects, such as tension, it has on the relationship between the Asian and Black communities.

In Joseph Jacob’s version, “The Three Little Pigs,” three young pigs are sent by their mother into the world to fend for themselves. The first little pig builds their house out of straw, the second out of sticks and the third out of bricks. The wolf comes to the straw house first and these infamous words are exchanged:

The wolf is able to blow the first two pigs’ houses down and eat them, however, he is not able to with the third little pig. After failing to blow the third pig’s house down, the wolf tried many different ways to lure the pig out. However, the third pig was clever and planned ahead and was able to outsmart the wolf every time. The wolf became fed up and decided to go through the pig’s chimney but the pig set up a boiling pot and in fell the wolf for the pig to eat for supper. In the end the prey became the predator and the predator became the prey.

The two extremes in the Three Little Pigs of hard work or death perpetuate the stereotypes in the MMM of hard-working Asian people and lazy Black people by ignoring interlocking systems of oppression, namely capitalism and racism, which support the idea of hard work leading to success as a fiction, a myth, or better put, a lie. On one end of the extreme, there is death, which is described when the wolf “blew the house down, and he ate up the little pig[s]” (Jacobs, 69). On the other side of the extreme is a good life as a result of hard work which is portrayed through the ending words in which the third little pig “lived happily ever afterwards” (Jacobs, 72). This moral perpetuates the unfair idea that if you do not work hard there will be dire consequences and it is nobody else’s fault other than yours. This idea is detrimental when applied to minorities’ realities because it completely neglects the circumstances of peoples’ lives and the forces, like capitalism, working against their success that are out of their control. 

In Jason Kirby’s article, “The Crisis in Capitalism,” an award nominated columnist and editor at Maclean’s argues that capitalism is a system working against the success of poor people, predominantly people of color. Kirby notes that, “American capitalism has not lived up to its promise to a lot of people” (Kirby, 68). Kirby goes into depth about the inequalities and failures within capitalism as he writes, “in terms of wealth, the top 10 percent of Americans hold nearly 70 per cent of all household wealth, up from 60 per cent in 1990, leaving the bottom 90 per cent with a shrinking size of the wealth pie, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve” (Kirby, 69). Kirby quotes Robert Reich, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who served under both Clinton and Barack Obama. Robert states, “Most people in America have given up on the idea that they or their children are going to do better in the future. That was the essence of the American dream under capitalism, and it has disappeared” (Kirby, 68). Robert’s statement supports the idea that capitalism is a system built to keep the rich rich and the poor poor; it is a system built to keep minorities in their place at the bottom of the class and education system. The Three Little Pigs allows audiences to completely ignore these systems of inequality, such as capitalism, by making the idea of hard work or death as simple as black and white. This simplification excludes the oppressive outside pressures that play a role in success which perpetuates the MMM idea that Black people do not work hard enough like Asian people do. In reality, hard work does not always mean success in a society built to ensure certain people do not succeed.  

The Three Little Pigs encourages individual success, perpetuating the MMM by putting different pressures on individual Asian and Black students in schools and creating tension among the two communities. The fairytale starts off with the words, “There was an old sow with three little pigs, and as she had not enough to keep them, she sent them out to seek their fortune” (Jacobs 68). The story did not say “to seek out their fortune together,” and as the fairy tale continues it is obvious each pig went on their different paths and only one pig ended up alive in the end; this idea of the success of the individual or a certain community over others perpetuates the MMM and is also explored in the article, “Demystifying Americanness: The Model Minority Myth and The Black-Korean Relationship,” written by Se-Hyoung Yi and William T. Houston who are professors in the Political Science department at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. They claim the Model Minority Myth, which “stratifies different racial and ethnic minorities and encourages them to compete with and marginalize one another,” is a result of trying to reach “true Americanness” and sustains the strained relationship between African Americans and, specifically, Korean immigrants (Yi and Houston, 72). To help explain how these tensions started, the authors use the 1960s article, “Success Story, Japanese-American Style,” by William Petersen who was a professor of sociology at University of California Berkeley. “He attributes the success of Japanese Americans to their willingness and eagerness to internalize the dominant norms and culture in the United States, which other racial and ethnic minorities and even some Whites had yet to emulate. At the end of his article, he drew a stark contrast between Black Americans and Japanese Americans” (Yi and Houston, 73). This was written during the Civil Rights Movement where Black people were painted as violent, a stark opposite to Asian people, which contributed to the tension between the two communities. Not only does the Model Minority Myth, perpetuated by The Three Little Pigs, create tension between the two communities on a broader scope, it creates stressful experiences for Asian and Black college students. In his article, “The Model Minority and the Inferior Minority Myths: Understanding Stereotypes and Their Implications for Student Learning,” Samuel D. Museus, a professor at the University of California San Diego, goes into depth about how the Model Minority Myth puts immense pressure on Asian Americans students in school because they feel they need to reach peoples’ high expectations. On the contrary, he explains how African Americans have internalized the stereotypes surrounding the Inferior Minority Myth, which puts pressure on them to disprove this stereotype in the classroom or keeps them from participating. The detrimental effects the Minority Myths have on Asian and African American students in school is also argued in the article, “Internalized Model Minority Myth among Asian Americans: Links to Anti-Black Attitudes and Opposition to Affirmative Action,” written by Jacqueline Yi and Nathan R. Todd who work in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois. In this article, they prove through their experiment findings that there are lasting effects of the internalized Model Minority Myth in the Asian community and this myth perpetuates racial inequality within college. They argue that this myth directly connects to anti-Blackness and resentment or opposition towards affirmative action. As a result of encouraging individual success over making sure everyone succeeds, as perpetuated in The Three Little Pigs, minorities are isolated and pinned against each other which helps uphold the existence of the MMM.

The idea that your success is in your control in the Three Little Pigs perpetuates the MMM idea that if Asian people can be successful, so can other minorities such as Black people, and if they are not successful, it is solely their fault. More specifically, the story implies that since the last pig was able to beat the wolf, the other pigs could have too if they had put more effort and planning into their houses. These ideas are also unknowingly perpetuated in the article title “A fractured fable: The Three Little Pigs and using multiple paradigms,” written Jamie L. Callahan, a professor at Northumbria University, and Andrew C. Hurt, a professor at Purdue University. In their article they use fables and fairytales, including the Three Little Pigs, to teach the concept of paradigms to professionals. They connect each of the four primary paradigms, “functionalist, interpretivist, radical humanist, and radical structuralist,” to each of the characters in the fairy tale in order to make their ideas more accessible to their audience (Callahan and Hurt, 27). The first little pig is the interpretivist paradigm and is described as seeing “the world as not having “real” structure and not governed by one absolute truth or set of laws” (Callahan and Hurt, 31). However, this pig’s perspective can be interpreted as not having a plan and not following the specific rules of success which is the reason his house fails. The second pig represents the radical humanist paradigms, “The pigs and non‐pigs are living under the control of the pig stereotype that has been generated by an elite group, in this case, wolves” (Callahan and Hurt, 32). This can connect to the Model Minority Myth and how Asian and Black people need to conform to a stereotype of success. In contrast, the authors describe the last pig as the radical structuralist paradigm, and how “His brick home symbolizes a structure where “all pigs can flourish” and it is a structure that can stand up to the oppressive forces around it” (Callahan and Hurt, 33). Although this seems like good messages, it can also wrongly inform issues such as the Model Minority Myth; perpetuating the idea that if one pig can do it, all pigs can, so there is no excuse. They conclude the article by explaining how fairy tales can help us understand ourselves and our own lives through different perspectives. To contrast this deep analysis of the Three Little Pigs, an article written by Barbara A. Bradley, Kelli Thomas, and A. Allen Bradley Jr., who are a part of the National Science Teachers Association, titled “A Home for Three Little Pigs: Preschool students learn about engineering through designing and testing homes” simplifies the story into specific steps; Day 1: Meeting the Three Little Pigs, Day 2: Researching and Planning, Days 3-4: Creating a Prototype and Testing, Days 5-8: Creating and Testing Houses, Day 9 – 10: Hosting an Open House. Throughout the 10 days of the project, the teachers helped the kids plan their houses step-by-step which ultimately led to their success. This taught the kids the importance of planning, but it also taught them that lack of planning would lead to failure as it did for the first two pigs. “Students learned about the engineering design process as they thought about the structural failures experienced by the first two pigs and success of the third pig” (Bradley and Thomas and Bradley Jr., 46). Although this project is understandably made simple for children, it is important to note that success and failure of this project are solely based on structure and the building of the houses rather than the situation the pigs were in. This project teaches the kids that success is in their control, simplified to black and white, and that there are no outside forces working against that success. This perpetuates stereotypes such as the Model Minority Myth which in turn informs anti-Blackness. These two articles, although written with good intentions, reinforce the negative stereotypes in The Three Little Pigs to their audiences, whether the audience is young kids or adults. 

In conclusion, the Three Little Pigs perpetuates toxic racial narratives such as the Model Minority Myth and anti-Blackness in the U.S. by reinforcing the ideas of hard work or death, the individual over the community and success as solely in your control. These narratives then create tension and distance between the targeted communities when really, unity is the only answer to overcoming them. To mend this issue of these toxic narratives, it is important that fairy tales such as the Three Little Pigs are called out and exposed for their harmful messages in order to transform the narratives into positive ones.