Growing up I watched tons of Disney movies. Some of my favorites were The Lion King, Toy Story, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. As little kids we all enjoyed these movies and at such a young age were not able to analyze deeper messages than the good looking guy ends up with the good looking girl and everyone is happy and usually ends up dancing in celebration.
I have taken several courses at Towson University that have analyzed Disney culture including MCOM 101 and African American Literature 234. In this article racism in Disney movies is discussed. In Aladdin apparently the narrator refers to someone as a “dirty arab” and the Heinas in The Lion King represent people living in the ghettos. The Heinas have african american and hispanic personas implying that these racial groups are perdominately living in the ghetto. These messages are the kind that go right over a child’s head but still have an effect. Messages like this enforce stereotypes to children at very young ages.
As we discussed in class a common theme in Disney movies is the woman needing to be rescued by a man. As a child this seems to be an innocent happy ending but if you look deeper into many disney movies it is not. In Beauty and the Beast the beast is abusive to Bell and yet in the end she forgives him and changes his cold cruel heart into a soft and caring one. Even Disney movies now have the same message. For example in Dispicable Me the Villan Gru has a cold mean heart and uses three adopted girls to execute his grand plan of steeling the moon and when he no longer needs their services gives them back to the home for girls. After he realizes how much the girls mean to him he ends up saving them from his nemesis Vector and regaining their trust and love. This instills in young children that when someone does something wrong or abusive to you that it is ok to forgive them and you can change someone through love which is not the right message. Disney movies are typically cute and fun to watch even for adults but they have created a culture that is undeneyably both racist and sexist.
jstedd1 