I really enjoyed Isabel's lecture this past Monday.
I grew up with Disney movies as a child and I never had really noticed what some of the messages that these movies were sending out until Isabel's lecture. As a child, you never notice these things, and well you really can't notice them...but subtly, messages are implemented in your head. Most of the princesses in the movies are white, have super tiny waists, and are damsels in distress. The princes are also white and a strong, masculine persona. Many of the princesses are stuck doing cleaning jobs (Snow White, Cinderella), depicting that that is a woman's job. The stories end "happily ever after" having the princess attained her goal of finding a male figure. During lecture, there was something brought up about Beauty and the Beast that scared me. It was something along the lines of there Belle being there to tame the angry Beast and make the prince come out of it. Beast is verbally abusive and violent, but the movie depicts that its okay, and that it is Belle's job to save him. This implies that women must take care of men, regardless of how they treat them, because it is thier job to take care of them. That just shocked me. There are all these little things that were hidden that I never noticed.
And well, yea, some people are like "oh, no little kid pays attention to this" and well, yea, i didn't really, but it does affect children in some way or another. I used to babysit this girl that grew up on Disney, and well... she showed racist characteristics. When we would play barbies or other games, she always had to be the light skinned and blonde dolls - they had to be the princesses. The villans were the darker haired or darker skinned barbies. No joke. And when we played LIFE on the computer, I chose a darker skinned couple, because well, i wanted the darker skinned couple, but she wouldn't let me choose them. She gave me the brown haired couple, second best to the blonde haired couple that she had. I dunno, these little things bothered me... related to Disney or not, i don't know, but its influenced by something.
Disney has gotten better though...and has racial variety in thier movies, such as Mulan and the Hunchback of Notre Dame, where the heroes are minorities, or not "the most beautiful" people.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree with what you are saying. I grew up on Disney movies, and still continue to watch them (Aladdin being my favorite). But it is very true that the characters in the films are incredibly stereotyped or homogenized. Hardly any of the heroes are minorities, or if they are, are “whitened”. Many people believe that these are simply cartoons and don’t impact the children. However, I agree that even though I personally love these movies, it ingrains certain desires within children. Kids would rather look like their predominantly white heroes Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty than embrace their own identity.
I agree with you also. I grew up on Disney movies as well and never noticed, or paid attention to, the stereotypes in almost every single movie. I do believe they are getting better too, but like it was brought up in lecture, when Lilo and Stich was made and the Hawaiian women were more full figured-is that a stereotype also? I think as long as they begin to animate other races that relates to real life, such as not every white female being skinny and every white male being muscular, Disney would be improving.
Post a Comment