Although Giroux presents a lot of evidence to support his claims about Disney, I find it a little hard to believe. Disney is a major corporation and is very influential in the world today. Most movies that are aimed toward younger audiences have something to do with Disney. I just don’t think it is possible that such a successful and influential company is based on sexist and racist ideas. Also, Disney was founded in 1923. Women were still oppressed by men and very few people accepted minorities as equals. Disney himself and movies of that day and age did most likely have underlying racist and sexist themes but that is just due to the time period in which it was developed.
I agree with this completely. I believe that the underlying racism and sexism in earlier films could have been due to racism and sexism in society at the time. To an adult of this time period, it was probably normal to see these themes in these movies. Because racism and sexism isn't present in today's society, or at least it shouldn't be, people will look back on these Disney movies and discredit them.
ReplyDeletePeople with opposing views will disagree with you because some of the most famous Disney Animated Films, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, were made in the 90s, a time when there wasn't supposed to be racism or sexism. I just believe that analysts are nit-picking and analyzing this way too deeply. Even if these themes are present, kids don't pick up on these underlying themes.
This is a very interesting way of thinking about it, I'll admit it didn't occur to me the time period that these films would have been produced during. Although, you are absolutely right, back when they were producing these films things such as racism and sexism were much more prevelent in our society. Although in Giroux's article he argued more so against the movies such as Pocahontas (1995), The Lion King (1994), and Aladdin (1992) which were produced just a couple decades ago.
ReplyDeleteThere are always going to be many sides to one story, and Giroux took a stand by trying to defend his thoughts on the "issue". Though many of us do not agree with him, the fact that we were all born right as these movies were being produced, and we watched these movies over and over and over agian as children, and consider them a part of our childhood; perhaps we are a little bais with our feelings on this issue.
I too found this article to be unbelievable, however I do not follow your argument. Just using a few of the the movies that Giroux referenced, Pocahantas, Little Mermaid, Lion King, these were fairly recent movies. Pocahantas was made in 1995, Little Mermaid in 1989, and the Lion King in 1994. By this time, the women and civil rights' movement was coming to a close, if not closed already. I looked it up and the movies that were made before the 1950's, therefore subject to more influence based on the times, are: Cinderella (1950), Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs (1937).
ReplyDeleteI hate to say this because I want to prove Giroux wrong, but the influence of the culture should have had no effect on the 90's movies listed above.
http://www.disneymovieslist.com/disney-movies.asp
I agree with your agruement completely. The only thing is that since Disney was made in 1920s there might be an underlying message in some of these movies about race or sex discrimination that children would not pick up on. There is a chance Disney wanted to include his beliefs or ideas in his movies and did it in a sneaky way that people would really have to analyze to figure out. Even though this is only a possibility there still is a chance of this. However, personally I agree with you response
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