I will admit I was very wary of this assignment at first. You see I am one of those people who prefer to be assigned a particular reading and told exactly what I am supposed to do. This was too much freedom. Then I went onto this website. I actually ending up reading a few articles, just because I found them so interesting and informative. This really is a great sight and I have picked up quite a bit from spending some time on there. I decided to blog about the article Unlearning the myths that bind us by Linda Christensen. This article really struck a chord with me on a personal level for a few reasons. One, I grew up watching a lot of the cartoons and movies that she writes about, and as children we played princess, looking for our prince to make us happy so we could live happily ever after. Even when playing barbie dolls there was always a Ken doll that barbie would end up with so they cold get married and live in the big barbie house. Now as an adult, I have nieces that watch those same Disney movies, dress up as the same princesses and play the same way. Nothing has changed in over 30 years. It's still all about finding that price to make you happy. Not about being a strong independent woman who can make herself happy. I know Disney is trying to make a move, with movies like Moana, Mulan and Frozen, but they still portray those underlying themes somewhere in the movies.
Christensen opens with "Our society's culture industry colonizes our students' minds and teaches them how to act, live, and dream, This introduction hits young children especially hard. The secret education, as Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman dubs it, delivered by children's books and movies, instructs people to accept the world as it is portrayed in these social blueprints. And often that world depicts the domination of one sex, one race, one class or one country over a weaker counterpart." In her class, Christensen begins by having her students watch Popeye the Sailor meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves. Students are asked to watch with a "lens" on, to watch for things like racism and sexism, instead of just watching the cartoons that they love to watch. Students noticed a few things in this particular cartoon. First, all of the "Arab" thieves look and are dressed exactly alike, like people of the non white race do not have any differentiating characteristics. Then there is Olive Oil, the woman who is always in peril and can never save herself. She requires her strong man to come to her rescue. At one point Popeye puts a collar on her and drags her around. That's a wonderful message to send to young women.
Next they begin to look at Disney movies. You know, the movies we all grew up watching such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid. What's sad is I love these movies and now I don't know that I will be able to look at them the same way since reading this. The following clip sums up all of the movies pretty well:
One student, named Elijah says " I've noticed that women can't do anything without a man, and women are supposed to cook and clean and make the man happy. It happens in the world we live in today. A lot of women are dependent on men to make them happy. " And it is so true. There are so many women out there who think their lives are not complete unless they have a man by their side. I'm not saying its wrong to BE happy WITH a man but to rely on anyone to make you happy is absurd. Yet that's exactly what these cartoon are portraying. Never mind the way they portray people of color. Christensen states that "by the time we look at people of color in cartoons, the students have already noticed that the majority of their roles are as villains". One example they used was the The Lion King. I actually never noticed this, but it is true, Scar and the hyenas, who are the villains in the movie are much darker and have black hair, compared to Musafa and Simba, who are considered the good lions.
It's almost as if Disney wrote the S.C.W.A.A.M.P concept themselves. Don't get me wrong, I still love and treasure those movies, but I will never be able to look at them the same way again.
Danya, Your blog is an eye-opener. I watched the Disney clip...ugh..and yes I have probably seen all of them with my kids. In the back of my mind, you always knew the underlying theme: princess meets prince, there's rescuing involved etc. The short clips in that video really brought that to life. What I never even realized or gave any thought was the fact that every adult woman in those movies is portrayed as cruel and unattractive both inside and out. The list is long: Cruella, Ursula, Maleficent, Cinderella's stepmonster, the wicked queen, and so on. What are we teaching our youth?
Not sure if this will help but..here's a gentle reminder that there have been some pretty bad male villains also.... Remember : Gaston (Beauty and the Beast), Jafar (Alladin), and Scar (Lion King). I wonder if these characters have that same impact though.... I did a little more research on Disney: If you google the earlier Disney creations, there are some pretty shocking productions that will make you cringe....lots of stereotyping. Thank you for posting...it helps me to reinforce the need to create dialogue with our children and hopefully discourage these types of portrayals of our society.
Thank you for your comments and your insight. Its funny that you bring up the villians because in the article they did talk about how all of the villians are portrayed as darker than the heros. They are literally darker, darker skin, darker clothing, darker lighting when the villians appear on the screen. It's like they are saying that light (or white) is good and dark is bad. I really enjoyed this article, although it made me sad that some of my favorite movies were so racist and sexist.
Danya, I happened to read this article in Dr. Bogad's other class, Digital Media Literacy, and the class reached similar conclusions. What we were able to dissect from Christensen's article was that originally Disney was telling females that they needed to be dependent on a man to be happy while telling males that they needed to be strong, handsome, and, in a way, arrogant (about their appearance usually). I think the article and Lisa bring up an interesting point about how the older women are portrayed, and when I went back to rewatch some clips with these female villains, I noticed a reoccurring theme: these women were after what the younger girls had-- beauty because that meant they received the attention of the men around them. In Disney's movies, we see the way that beauty gets the female to where "she wants to be"-- beside the prince, in power (though we rarely get to see if she is bestowed any power herself).
I think the examples that Lisa brings up about the male villains is interesting, though when I think back to their portrayal, I see another theme: they all succumb to an untimely end (Gaston dies after fighting the beast and falling from the castle rooftop; Jafar becomes trapped in the genie bottle after trying to get too much power--he later dies in the sequel; and Scar is pushed off Pride Rock into the fire below while challenging Simba). In their respective movies, I think the male villains are held within their gender stereotypes just as the female villains. The male villains and male protagonists want to have power and be the strongest of them all while the female villains and the female protagonists strive for beauty and to be married.
Christensen's article made me aware of the way Disney forces its values on women and girls, but I was not quite as aware of the similar forces being placed on men and boys until a peer in Digital Media Literacy brought it to my attention.
Your comment that "Disney wrote the SCWAAMP concept themselves" resonates with me aside from one fact. Most of the Disney movies we know and love have arisen out of age-old fairy tales written by Hans Christian Anderson and the Grimm Brothers which continues to show the emphasis that cultures have placed on "specific gender roles." Instead of choosing to challenge these roles, Disney chose to reinforce them.
I thought of you and your other class I was reading this article, and how you were telling us that you are watching these movies through different lenses. It's amazing what looking at something from a different perspective can change the way you have perceived something your entire life. Thank you for your comments and your insights, I truly appreciate both
I also have heard about the other class from friends that have taken it and I'm still not sure if it's the last class I need for my master's program, so I still my take it! I did not ever look at these movies for anything deeper and think "how did I not notice" so many things that seem so obvious and blatant once they are pointed out. Is this more of the "Colorblindness" that Armstrong and Wildman brought up and if we use "Color Insight" will it change how we view and think of these cherished movies? I also wonder how other people of other cultures and races feel about these movies? I enjoyed the video clip that you included, but it has made me want to delve deeper into this topic. Hopefully I will regain access to the site as I believe we can use it for the year. I would like to read the rest.
Danya, Your blog is an eye-opener. I watched the Disney clip...ugh..and yes I have probably seen all of them with my kids. In the back of my mind, you always knew the underlying theme: princess meets prince, there's rescuing involved etc. The short clips in that video really brought that to life. What I never even realized or gave any thought was the fact that every adult woman in those movies is portrayed as cruel and unattractive both inside and out. The list is long: Cruella, Ursula, Maleficent, Cinderella's stepmonster, the wicked queen, and so on. What are we teaching our youth?
ReplyDeleteNot sure if this will help but..here's a gentle reminder that there have been some pretty bad male villains also.... Remember : Gaston (Beauty and the Beast), Jafar (Alladin), and Scar (Lion King). I wonder if these characters have that same impact though....
I did a little more research on Disney: If you google the earlier Disney creations, there are some pretty shocking productions that will make you cringe....lots of stereotyping.
Thank you for posting...it helps me to reinforce the need to create dialogue with our children and hopefully discourage these types of portrayals of our society.
Thank you for your comments and your insight. Its funny that you bring up the villians because in the article they did talk about how all of the villians are portrayed as darker than the heros. They are literally darker, darker skin, darker clothing, darker lighting when the villians appear on the screen. It's like they are saying that light (or white) is good and dark is bad. I really enjoyed this article, although it made me sad that some of my favorite movies were so racist and sexist.
DeleteDanya, I happened to read this article in Dr. Bogad's other class, Digital Media Literacy, and the class reached similar conclusions. What we were able to dissect from Christensen's article was that originally Disney was telling females that they needed to be dependent on a man to be happy while telling males that they needed to be strong, handsome, and, in a way, arrogant (about their appearance usually). I think the article and Lisa bring up an interesting point about how the older women are portrayed, and when I went back to rewatch some clips with these female villains, I noticed a reoccurring theme: these women were after what the younger girls had-- beauty because that meant they received the attention of the men around them. In Disney's movies, we see the way that beauty gets the female to where "she wants to be"-- beside the prince, in power (though we rarely get to see if she is bestowed any power herself).
ReplyDeleteI think the examples that Lisa brings up about the male villains is interesting, though when I think back to their portrayal, I see another theme: they all succumb to an untimely end (Gaston dies after fighting the beast and falling from the castle rooftop; Jafar becomes trapped in the genie bottle after trying to get too much power--he later dies in the sequel; and Scar is pushed off Pride Rock into the fire below while challenging Simba). In their respective movies, I think the male villains are held within their gender stereotypes just as the female villains. The male villains and male protagonists want to have power and be the strongest of them all while the female villains and the female protagonists strive for beauty and to be married.
Christensen's article made me aware of the way Disney forces its values on women and girls, but I was not quite as aware of the similar forces being placed on men and boys until a peer in Digital Media Literacy brought it to my attention.
Your comment that "Disney wrote the SCWAAMP concept themselves" resonates with me aside from one fact. Most of the Disney movies we know and love have arisen out of age-old fairy tales written by Hans Christian Anderson and the Grimm Brothers which continues to show the emphasis that cultures have placed on "specific gender roles." Instead of choosing to challenge these roles, Disney chose to reinforce them.
I thought of you and your other class I was reading this article, and how you were telling us that you are watching these movies through different lenses. It's amazing what looking at something from a different perspective can change the way you have perceived something your entire life. Thank you for your comments and your insights, I truly appreciate both
DeleteI also have heard about the other class from friends that have taken it and I'm still not sure if it's the last class I need for my master's program, so I still my take it! I did not ever look at these movies for anything deeper and think "how did I not notice" so many things that seem so obvious and blatant once they are pointed out. Is this more of the "Colorblindness" that Armstrong and Wildman brought up and if we use "Color Insight" will it change how we view and think of these cherished movies? I also wonder how other people of other cultures and races feel about these movies? I enjoyed the video clip that you included, but it has made me want to delve deeper into this topic. Hopefully I will regain access to the site as I believe we can use it for the year. I would like to read the rest.
ReplyDeleteVictoria, thanks for your input here as well.