Growing up, I was definitely a Disney kid. However, unlike what I have heard in discussion/lecture I never thought anything about the characters skin color in the cartoons/ movies. To be honest, the main messages that I received from Disney were ones about hope, dreaming, fairytales, and simple fun. I never read into anything, nor thought anything about the nature of my skin and what that meant in relation to others. In fact, from movies like Mulan, I learned that women can be powerful and just as good as men in whatever they put their minds to. Additionally, from Beauty and the Beast I learned that first impressions are not always right. Mainly, the old adage, "You can never judge a book by its cover." Never once did it cross my mind that Belle was a foolish girl for accepting the "abuse" that the Beast dished out to her.
Being older now, I do understand the arguments being made against Disney and I do think that they are valid. However, at the same time apart of me still believes that children are really too young to completely understand what adults see as racism.
4 comments:
In response to this post, I agree in that I also never viewed the Disney movies as being racist before. I simply watched the movies for my enjoyment, and I truly believe that as a small child I was not able to understand what many adults see as racism, or the lack of diversity, in the Disney characters. In addition, it seems that the Disney movies have gotten better over time; movies have come out such as: Lilo & Stitch and Mulan, which portray racially diverse characters.
I was very sad when I had to think about Disney being racist. However, if you look at Mulan, Jasmine, and some others they are different races. Therefore, Disney is not entirely racist. Though the older ones tended to focus more on the white race, I did not realize it as a kid. Such things as race did not occur to me, I was just in it for the stories.
I agree. I can understand how adults could see Disney movies as being racist, but I don't think that they are and the issue of race and Disney movies had never occured to me until it was mentioned in class. As a child you are too caught up in the magic of being a princess and the adventures taking place to even notice the race of the characters. If Disney is guilty of anything I think it is that it portrays women in an unrealistic fashion. The women are always skinny and gorgeous like Barbie Dolls. While this also doesn't bother me because it is a children's movie, if anything that is the argument I would back up.
I honestly have always seen Disney as a racist. From when I was a child, I noticed that the closest characters to my race, Black, were either animals or Alladin. I would say Alladin because of the poverty strick colored male. Even though they were clearly Arabic, I connected more with them. I dont think they have progressed; I think they have become less obvious....
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