"Movies can and do
have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of
entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood."
-Walt Disney
A quote from The Man himself. The father of children's classics that will go on to thrive throughout the decades to come. To a child watching classics like the Lion King, Peter Pan, or Alice in Wonderland, all that is evident are the basic principles of good vs. evil. The rest stands for something bigger than themselves-a hope to hold onto...the magic of the perfect fairytale and Always rewarding "Happy Ending". In films like The Little Mermaid or Sleeping Beauty, the young girls are portrayed as the pinnacle of innocence- damsels in distress in desperate need of rescue from the unrealistically perfect prince charming. This is why I disagree with Walt's stance on Disney movies portraying certain ideals and objectives of normal adulthood. Which appears to be especially true being that these ideals are constantly and quickly changing in respect to what is culturally excepted. What messages are exactly being transmitted to children through such magical and glorified movies such as those produced by the Disney Company? Girls are helpless, men are strong, and the two eventually coexist living out the rest of their lives in perfect, undoubted harmony. I love romantic movies more than anyone and expect nothing less of a happily ever after ending. Is that the doing of the ideals passed onto me as a child though? Possibly. Not to say that this lifestyle is in no way possible, however my point is that some of these classics set us up to believe with all of our hearts that things like love are made of perfection. Any kind of love, romantic or familial, is hard work and there are bumps and unfortunately dead end roads along the way. As for the part that I mentioned about the girls portrayed within these films as being helpless, I am 100% behind feminist empowerment and young girls taking charge of their own destiny rather than awaiting a rescuer. We need to better embody strong female characters in order to show future young ladies that it is possible to not only rescue themselves but that they also have the power to be someone elses hero.
I agree we need to start seeing more female characters. I think that also goes to show the age of Disney. When Disney started men played the dominant role in society. Now since times have changed, we need to see the same within children's movies!
ReplyDeleteGloria, Thank you for getting out there this critique of the the Disney princesses. I was having to play the believing game with that part of Colin Stokes talk-- I was with him on most of it-- but about the Disney Princesses I have many of the same critiques as you do. He has more writing about this on his blog, which I hooked up on our Annotated List. If you haven't already, you might respond to him there.
ReplyDeleteI think we also have to keep in mind the time period in which these movies were made. Back then women were to stay at home with children and have dinner ready at 7 when the dad came home for work the were supposed to be seen and not heard and this was just how it was so Walt was not wrong back then to the people watching the movies and I think is misunderstood now.
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