From the very beginning of our lives, the roles that boys and girls are supposed to fit into are pounded into our heads. Without even knowing it, the classic Disney movies we all know and love are guilty of putting us into categories, and if we do not fit those categories, well then we are not good enough. All the princesses of the Disney movies are young and beautiful. They all have flowing hair, makeup, long eyelashes, and are skinny. They are seductive and helpless. Any character that does not have these traits are always ugly, and a witch or the "bad" character. These messages are put into our heads when we are young. When I used to watch these movies when I was younger they seemed perfectly fine. I did not see anything wrong with them, it was just the way movies were, and the way life was. However looking back at them now I see what is wrong with them. Not all the "good" people in life have beautiful skin, hair, and makeup, are perfectly skinny and act like a perfect lady all the time. As a matter of fact, people who seem to be perfect to the eye are very ugly on the inside. They are conceded and selfish. Disney movies don’t show this though. Not only do they do this to females, they also have the same attitude toward men. Men in Disney movies are always muscular, brave, proud, good looking and get all the attractive women. Men are taught to look at women as objects of pleasure in Disney movies. Yes, Disney movies are fun to watch and may be our fondest childhood memories, but if you think about it, you will see the real message of Disney. below are some links for videos on the topic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uatrgO5Omfw&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWMCt35oFY
The video we watched in class only touched on the subject of intent briefly. Do you think that these themes and images in Disney movies are intentional? Also, these are fairy tales and the source material for these stories is often very old. Should children's entertainment be held to a level of ultra-realism when adult entertainment cannot even accurately depict the real world?
ReplyDeleteDo you feel the message is changing and expanding beyond the typical Disney fairy tale? Is it getting better or is it still hopeless? After all just looking at Pixar movies, which is part of Disney, you have different types of characters such as cars, toys, monsters, bugs, etc.
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