Only a Fairytale?

1
Only a Fairytale?

• The Perpetuation of Race, Class, and Gender
  Stratification in Disney Animated Feature Films

2
Disneys Ubiquity

• Corporate magnitude
• Take-over of fantasy images for children
• Domination of childrens media
• Disney channel
• Full-length feature films on DVD and VCR
• Domination of childrens décor choices
• Domination of clothing and costume choices for
  children

3
It Makes a Difference

• The research is very clear on certain points
• Pro-social television viewing leads to pro-social
  behavior, including sharing and inclusiveness of
  children from different backgrounds in play
  groups.
• Violent television viewing leads to
  desensitization of children to violence and the
  idea that using violence as a conflict-resolution
  strategy is acceptable.

4
But Disney is Good!

• Unquestionably, the values portrayed in Disney
  films are good.
• Follow your dreams
• Honor your parents
• Tell the truth
• Be loyal to your friends
• The themes of innocence and magic pervade.

5
Disney is good, but.

• Disney films were created at specific historical
  moments in the United States.
• Those who created the films were upper class
  white men whose reality provided the context for
  the stories.
• At these moments, various forms of racism,
  sexism, and classism were unexamined, and often
  still are.

6
Early Films and Racism

• In most of the early films, there is little to no
  racial diversity. All of the characters are
  white (or are animals).
• Snow White
• Cinderella
• Sleeping Beauty
• Pinocchio

7
Early Films and Racism

• Nevertheless, race is subtly represented.
• The characters who are evil
• Have darker skin tones
• Have darker hair
• Have accents
• This is also true of the characters who represent
  the serving class.

8
Early Films and Racism

• When racial diversity is present, people of color
  are represented according to stereotypes held by
  the dominant culture.
• African-American circus workers in Dumbo
• Crows in Dumbo
• Native Americans in Peter Pan
• WWII context gives the ringmaster in Dumbo a
  German accent.
• (This is the guy who whips and imprisons Dumbos
  mother.)

9
Early Films and Sexism

• In all of these films, gender stereotypes,
  particularly those concerning women, are
  affirmed.
• Snow White
• Cinderella
• Pinocchio
• Dumbo
• Peter Pan

10
Early Films and Sexism

• These stereotypes about women include
• Passivity
• Lack of intelligence
• Concern for their looks as a high priority
• The quest for marriage
• Focus on cleaning
• Pettiness and competitiveness among one another

11
Early Films and Sexism

• The good women in these films are
• Young
• Pretty
• Easily led
• Motherless

12
Early Films and Sexism

• The bad women in these films are
• Older
• Unattractive
• Seeking power for themselves
• Not the mother

13
Early Films and Classism

• Nearly all of the films represent the upper class
  as the heroine or heros family of origin.
• The exceptions are the puppet Pinocchio and the
  elephant Dumbo.
• The struggle in the princess films is about the
  girls ability to assume her rightful place.

14
Early Films and Classism

• Representations of people who are NOT upper class
• Focus on the goodness of those who
• Accept their place in the social system
• Work hard
• The seven dwarves
• Geppetto
• Focus on the evil nature of those who
• Lust after riches that are not their lot in life
  to have
• Try to become rich quickly
• Cinderellas stepmother
• Stromboli in Pinocchio
• The cat and his compatriot in Pinocchio
• The ringmaster in Dumbo

15
What about Today?

• It could be argued that all of these films
• Represent fairy tales which date from feudal
  times
• Were produced before the Civil Rights Movement
  and the other social upheavals of the 1960s.
• The problems of social stratification were not
  part of public consciousness, the way they are
  today.
• Lets examine a few of the later films to check
  this out!

16
Later Films and Racism

• List of films considered
• Beauty and the Beast
• No racial diversity darker color does not seem
  to indicate evil or subservience.
• Little Mermaid
• No racial diversity darker color is associated
  with the evil character of Ursula.
• Aladdin
• Should be no racial diversity all characters are
  Arab. However, light-skinned Aladdin and Jasmine
  sound American, the light-skinned Sultan sounds
  British, and the evil Jafar is dark-skinned with
  an Arab accent.

17
Later Films and Racism

• Lion King
• No racial diversity. All the characters are
  animals. However, race coding is still present in
  accents and coloring. The good lions have golden
  manes. Scar, the bad lion, has a black mane. The
  wicked hyenas have either black, Latino, or
  unidentifiable accents.
• Pocahontas
• Racial diversity is present. The characters are
  Native American and white European. The
  sympathies lie with the Native American
  characters, and the evil characters are white.

18
Later Films and Sexism

• Beauty and the Beast
• Belle is a different female heroine. She likes to
  read and wants more than just this simple life.
  However, the story of her relationship to the
  violent Beast promotes acceptance of violent
  behavior for the hope of a positive outcome.
• The only other women in the story (who are
  portrayed in a sexualized manner) cannot
  understand why Belle is so choosey.
• The end result Belle marries the prince.

19
Later Films and Sexism

• Little Mermaid
• Ursula represents the same old wicked witch
  middle-aged, ugly, power-hungry, and evil.
• Ariel is sexualized in dress and with the idea
  (even though it is from Ursula) that women dont
  need a voice to win a mans love.
• The end result Ariel marries the prince.

20
Later Films and Sexism

• Aladdin
• Jasmine, like Belle, is an example of a woman of
  the 90s. She will only marry for love, and she
  spurns Aladdins attempts to take care of her.
  There are no other women in the story except for
  the market wives who portray homemakers.
• Jasmine is portrayed as sexually desirable.
• The end result Jasmine marries the prince.

21
Later Films and Sexim

• Lion King
• Simbas mother is a victim of domestic violence
  after her brother-in-law kills her husband.
• Nala is a fiesty little female lion cub who grows
  to be a brave lioness.
• None of the female animal characters are
  sexualized.
• End result Nala marries the prince.

22
Later Films and Sexism

• Pocahontas
• Pocahontas is a self-determining woman.
• She resists her fathers choice of marriage for
  her.
• She loves John Smith, but refuses to leave her
  people for him.
• She is portrayed in a very sexualized manner.
• End result Pocahontas does NOT marry the prince.

23
Later Films and Classism

• The economic situation of Beauty and the Beast is
  that the Beast is a prince who has behaved badly
  and is being disciplined by the only person with
  the power to do so a witch.
• Belle is from the working class and her reward
  for her goodness is to marry the prince (once he
  has reformed, of course.)

24
Later Films and Classism

• In Little Mermaid, Ariels father is emperor
  under the sea.
• The only contender for his power is the evil
  Ursula.
• Ariel marries within her class, although not
  within her species!

25
Later Films and Classism

• Aladdins context is an empire ruled by a sultan
  in which there is a wide range of lifestyles.
• Aladdin begins in desperate poverty.
• He ends in luxurious wealth and power.
• He shows no sign of ameliorating the poverty of
  the class from which he came, even though he now
  has the means to do so.

26
Later Films and Classism

• The Lion Kings economic setting is tribal. The
  leader of the tribe, Mufasa, is overthrown and
  murdered by his brother Scar.
• Scar gets his friends, the evil and violent
  hyenas from the elephant graveyard to enforce his
  rule.
• When these thugs are allowed to rule, the land
  and the people starve.
• Only when the rightful king returns does the land
  prosper again.

27
Later Films and Classism

• Pocahontas
• She is from a position of power within the tribe,
  as the daughter of the chief.
• However, the Europeans are there with eventual
  intentions of exploitation of the people. They
  bring superior weaponry, and, as we know,
  eventually rob and murder Native Americans to
  gain their resources.
• There are intimations of this in the story, but
  these issues of economics and class relations are
  unexplored.
• In this film, however, the folks with more access
  to resources are actually the bad guys.

28
Conclusions

• For all of these areas race, gender, and class,
  there are some changes between the older films
  and the newer films.
• However, the trends continue. Race is stereotyped
  more subtly, gender is modified to include
  spunky women who still marry the prince, and
  the response to class issues is still to maintain
  the status quo.

29
Conclusions

• The outcome of this analysis is simply state that
  racism, sexism, and classism are so much a part
  of our culture that even our best childrens
  media reflects them.
• Additionally, when the producers of this
  childrens media have managed to create a global
  empire that has captured the market for this on
  every continent, we must stand in awe at the
  power of this major socialization agent.

30
Conclusions

• Finally, we have to admit that this phenomenon is
  not limited to Disney they merely exemplify it
  in this analysis.
• Parents are the ultimate mediators between their
  children and media.
• Rather than exclude children from media, however,
  the most powerful thing parents can do is to
  participate with the children in watching these
  shows, and to talk about what doesnt agree with
  your values.