To read and understand this blog you must read from the top and work your way down. Start with Does Happily Ever After Really Leave Us Happy, Disney's Gender Representation, Disney's Representation of the "Other" and the the Conclusion. My bibliography is under the conclusion section.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Does Happily Ever After Really Leave Us Happy?
Our society spends a vast amount of their leisure time occupied by the media, one way or another. With Disney having so much power in the media it is no wonder that almost every female, young or old, has a favorite fairy tale story. For generations Disney has entertained us with romantic fantasies. A good majority of these stories involve a beautiful girl, a handsome man and a happily ever after ending. But the question that has arisen is, does happily ever after really leave us happy?
The concern regarding Disney has recently become more prevalent because Disney is regarded as one of the largest transnational media conglomerates (Mickey Mouse Monopoly). Disney, not only, owns much of the media but owns so many various forms of it. When referring to their media this includes television, newspapers, movies, theater, radio, internet sites, cable systems, music studios, sports teams, magazines and yes naturally their theme parks. It is said that the media molds us into individuals. Although each of us interprets things differently, Disney is planting the seed. The “seed” leaves a lasting impression on us pertaining to stereo typing, race, class and gender. So being that Disney is the dominate story teller to our children, this gives them a lot of power on our youngsters' imaginary worlds.
Disney's Gender Representation
Take, gender representation for example. It has hardly changed at all over the past sixty to seventy years for Disney. The typical Disney Princess or damsel in distress has a tiny waist with big hips, along with a big bust, tiny wrists and long eyelashes. As for her behaviors they are seen as sexual, with coy expressions and using body language to be seductive. Not only are these representations in human characters but can often be found in animal or inanimate characters as well. One example is Babette, the feather duster, in Beauty and the Beast (1991). Lumiere is trying to kiss her and she is saying no but clearly really meaning yes -leading him to eventually get what he wants. Another is, Tinker Bell in Peter Pan (1953) when she looks in the mirror at herself and sizes up her hips. Jasmine had to seduce Jafar in order to distract him to allow the Genie to escape. And in Little Mermaid (1989) the suggestion that body language will get you what or who you want.
Note that these impressions are not formed instantly, but over time. So creating characters with this same body frame eventually leads little girls to believe that this is how society expects women to look like. And in order to be a Princess and find a Prince you need to look and act as they do. This leads right into the female characters’ often weak role.
Most of the Disney Collection storyline’s portrays the princess as helpless and relying on the dominate male to save her. They never allow her to be smart or strong enough to save herself. Although Jane in Tarzan plays a strong woman she needs to be saved by Tarzan. Also Ariel in the Little Mermaid needs to be saved by her Eric and her father. Snow White needs to be woken by a kiss from the Prince. The list is never ending. So, combine all these ideologies and what is a young impressionable innocent girl to think?
The next gender representation that Disney lays out for us is the idea of the housewife. Snow white cleans up the seven dwarfs’ house so they will allow her to stay. Disney portrays her as a young female completely isolated from people at home. She enjoys cooking and cleaning. Her only friends are animals in the forest. In 1950, “Cinderella is forced to work as a maid in her own home by her step-mother and seems to accept this role with a surprising amount of equanimity” (Good Girls & Wicked Witches).
Disney is not only being scrutinized for their feminine gender representation but the male gender as well. Note the “prince” and or hero is always handsome, strong and smart always getting the girl in the end. For example take Beauty in the Beast that has been seriously criticized by many child psychologists. The Beast represents an abusive partner. He yells and screams at Belle, he has a horrible temper, he throws Belle’s father out of the castle and rips her family apart. Yet somehow Disney has the audience rooting for them. Belle should just overlook all of her abuse and look for the good inside. This sends a bad message to little girls about abusive relationships.Disney's Representation of the "Other"
After looking into multiple Disney films there seems to be a stereotype that the writers are portraying. Most of the writers for Disney are men in which they have been socialized by today’s society (Mickey Mouse Monopoly). When they sit down to write these scripts for Disney movies their internalized thoughts of the norms and values of today are bound to surface into the films. Some people think these stereotypes are done on purpose but it doesn’t matter if it intentional or not because the affect is always the same. Here I have made a chart showing the races portrayed in Disney films:
Let’s go into detail about these examples. In some films they may use animals to represent African Americans but in other films a characters voice is just as strong as a symbol as physical looks. In the movie Lion King (1995) the hyenas’ voices are representing African Americans and Latinos. Shenzi’s voice is the voice of Whoopi Goldberg and Banzai’s voice is the voice of Cheech Marin (IMDb). Banzai is the leader of the hyena pack and he speaks with a think Mexican accent (IMDb). Shenzi is another henchman of Scar.
If we take a look into Disney’s usage of animals as characters we will find deeper meanings. Disney uses Chihuahuas to represent a Latino character. In the films Oliver and Company (1988) and The Lady & the Tramp (1955) a Latino character is represented by a dog. In Oliver and Company (1988) the character is named Ignacio Alonzo Julio Federico de Tito which could be seen as exaggerating the Latino name. There is a scene in the movie Oliver and Company where Tito is stealing a car. This could be giving children a sense that Latino people are supposed to know how to steal cars.
The next race that is falsely represented in Disney films through images is African Americans. In Disney films it is evident that African Americans are represented by vultures, monkeys, gorillas, and hyenas. In the film the Jungle Book (1967) African Americans are portrayed as the apes for example King Louie. In the film there is a scene where King Louie is singing to the boy and the lyrics to the song suggest that the ape or black man wants to be like a normal man.
I wanna be a man, mancub
And stroll right into town
And be just like the other men
I'm tired of monkeyin' around!
Oh, oobee doo
I wanna be like you
I wanna walk like you
Talk like you, too
You'll see it's true
An ape like me
Can learn to be human too
In the movie Aladdin (1995) Disney represents Arabic communities to be this hostile place which is not entirely true. For example in the beginning of the movie the song that is playing is suggesting that the place is barbaric. Now there were two different versions of this song that were presented to Disney. Disney decided to go with the song that the majority of the Arabic community thought was racist (Mickey Mouse Monopoly). Here are both sets of lyrics:
Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where it's flat and immense
And the heat is intense
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home
[Original first verse (1992-93):]
Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where they cut off your ear
If they don't like your face
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home
When the wind's from the east
And the sun's from the west
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down
Stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another Arabian night
Arabian nights
Like Arabian days
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
In a lot of good ways
Arabian nights
'Neath Arabian moons
A fool off his guard
Could fall and fall hard
Out there on the dunes
Conclusion / Annotated Bibliography
Disney films are a big force in creating children’s childhood culture. It gets the most success through its images of innocence, magic and fun (Mickey Mouse Monopoly). Its animated films are praised for their natural family entertainment. Oddly enough, Disney films are approved by teachers and parents and especially children even though there might be these subliminal messages. Many children have grown up with Disney. Disney has a way of getting people and children to think there is only one “ultimate fantasy” (Mickey Mouse Monopoly). Even products of Disney have a big influence on children development. H.G. Furth and S.R. Kane did a detailed analysis of a single but extended episode of pretend play on the part of three girls to demonstrate that such play not only develops social skills but also shows how the girls are able to incorporate various cultural stereotypes, roles, and traditions into their play (Good Girls & Wicked Witches). By watching all these movies it unconsciously tells the children that they have to play through the movie. When you don’t allow children to explore themselves and create imagination you are ultimately depriving them of what the need to develop as a person. Examples such as those mentioned above point out that psychological observation of normal children at play offer substantial backing to the notion that children develop a definite sense of gender-appropriate roles at comparatively young ages (Good Girls & Wicked Witches).
Annotated Bibliography
Bell, Elizabeth, Lynda Haas, and Laura Sells. From Mouse to Mermaid: the Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1995. Print.
This book is relevant because it uncovers the politics, gender and culture throughout the Disney films. This source provides evidence for my project and will allow me to provide good examples.
Davis, Amy M. Good Girls and Wicked Witches: Women in Disney's Feature Animation. Eastleigh, U.K.: John Libbey, 2006. Print.
This book was relevant because it discusses how human female characters have been represented during the first 70 years of Disney animation. The book also looked at the construction of female characters and their representation of femininity. It provides evidence how Disney films both reflect and shape the attitudes of society.
Lyrics, Albums, Songs, Artists and More Music | LetsSingIt. Web. Nov. 2010. .
I used this website to get the lyrics to two songs for my blog. The first song was Swingdance from the Jungle Book. This song shows how King Louie is singing as though he was an African American wanting to me a normal person. The next lyrics are from the song Arabian Nights from the movie Aladdin. The song Arabian Nights had a racial meaning behind it and Disney chose to pick the racist version anyway.
Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power. Dir. Miguel Picker. Media Education Foundation, 2002. Free View Documentaries. Free View Documentaries. Web. 05 Nov. 2010. .
This documentary was relevant because it explored Disney’s representation of gender and race throughout Disney’s films. This film provided great examples and real clips from the movies for support. The film also had interviews with numerous professor and even children to again support their research.
Olfman, Sharna. The Sexualization of Childhood. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2009. Print.
This source was somewhat useful. It had a small section about how Disney is a commercialized threat to creative play in young kids. It also discussed how Disney has an influence of young children’s path to self realization.
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 03 Nov. 2010. .
I found this website useful to help with finding out more information on the Disney movies I was looking into. I used this site to look up the characters, and the voices of the characters. The website also gave me a biography about the characters as well.
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. November 2010
I used the video clip “Jasmine Kisses Jafar” from the movie Aladdin because it shows how Jasmine seduces Jafar to distract him from seeing Aladdin sneak in.
I used the clip of a song in the Jungle Book. This song shows how King Louie is singing as though he was an African American wanting to me a normal person. This allowed my audience to listen to the song while looking at the lyrics.
I used the clip of a song from the movie Aladdin. The song Arabian Nights had a racial meaning behind it and Disney chose to pick the racist version anyway. This allows my audience to see the original version of the lyrics and redone lyrics while listening to the song.
I used a video clip from the movie Oliver And Company to show how Disney gives Latino characters a bad image. There is a scene in the movie where Tito suggests stealing a car. This could be giving children a sense that Latino people are supposed to know how to steal cars.
I used the video clip “Lion King Hyena Funny Moments” from the movie the Lion King because the hyenas’ voices were representing African Americans and Latinos.
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