Positive Stereotypes in Disney...a bad thing?

While reading Martin Norden's "'You're a Surprise from Every Angle': Disability, Identity, and Otherness in The Hunchback of Notre Dame," I was very surprised by his opinion of a stereotype in Disney.  Norden seems to think that even the use of what can be considered a positive stereotype is something Disney should avoid.  He writes, "By reducing the Hugo narrative to a Beauty and the Beast level, the filmmakers thus fell back on one of the most enduring beliefs about "good" [people with disabilities]: that they possess an inner beauty that compensates for their less-than-perfect exteriors.  Though presumably well-intentioned, such a simplistic belief represents stereotyped thinking at its most insidious..." (Norden 166).  Norden's negative language here implies that he is against Disney's use of this stereotype, even though it seems to imply something positive about people with disabilities.  I suppose its fair to say that any stereotypical thinking is something that society should avoid, but in this case I don't think Disney should be criticized.  I can't think of any circumstances in which children believing that deformed people are kind would be a bad thing, except for maybe if they are somehow hurt from approaching someone who is deformed in reality who is not very nice.  Disney tends to use stereotypes in their films to make things simpler for their young audience, and this stereotype does not seem like a bad one at all.  

Yet, if you still think that even this stereotype should not be used by Disney, it should relieve you to know that apparently children do not pick it up from the movie.  The 2010 Pacific Standard article "In Disney Films, Disney is Far from Beastly" by Tom Jacobs describes a small experiment done on children to study the influence that beauty stereotypes portrayed by Disney had on them (Jacobs).  Children from ages 6 to 12 were split into two groups; one half watched Cinderella and the other half watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Jacobs).  After the showings, the children were shown pictures and asked questions such as "How nice do you think this person is?" (Jacobs).  It was discovered that children "'reported an overall greater desire to befriend an attractive peer... [and rated] the child [in the photograph]...as nicer relative to an unattractive peer...no matter which film they had just watched'" (Jacobs).  While it is sad that this is the case, it appears that these children's desire to befriend more beautiful people was no affected by Disney films.  Of course, this study was a small one and is not sufficient to constitute a pattern, but it does suggest that Disney might not have the negative impact on children that many critics claim it does.  

Works Cited

Jacobs, Tom. "In Disney Films, Beauty Is Far From Beastly." Pacific Standard. Pacific Standard, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.psmag.com/culture-society/in-disney-films-beauty-is-far-from-beastly-25119/>.

Disney characters spotted at my local pumpkin patch!

What do Disney's characters have to do with Halloween?  As far as I can tell, nothing.  So why are over 10 disney cutouts on display at my local pumpkin patch?  

My guess is that the people running the pumpkin patch thought having a Disney theme would draw in business from families with young children.  And it seems to be working, given that the only people there were parents with young children, except of course my friend any myself, but there's nothing wrong with revisiting your childhood memories!  

I wonder if the pumpkin patch was within the law by having these cutouts on display, given how tightly Disney keeps control over its products.  Of course I can't imagine that anyone would report them or that Disney would even care.  In any case, it was a fun to see the characters make an unexpected appearance the pumpkin patch!

Disney's cultural controversy: petition to trademark Día de los Muertos

 

Can you imagine if Disney had trademarked the word "Christmas?"  Or "Easter?"  Or "Halloween?"  This seems like a silly and completely unrealistic question to even consider, but in May of this year Disney filed a petition to trademark "Día de los Muertos," a hispanic holiday celebrated on the first and second days of November which honors the lives of family members and friends who have passed away (Rodriguez).  Disney's petition was inspired by a film they're making about Día de los Muertos (Rodriguez).  This hispanic community, understandably, was in an uproar about Disney's petition, and one hispanic cartoonish drew the rather terrifying image of Mickey Mouse above (Alcaraz).  The second week after filing the petition, Disney withdrew its application, but claimed that it was due to a title change in the film, not the backlash of the latino community (Rodriguez).

While the people of the hispanic community think that Disney is trying to trademark a part of their culture, I have a hard time believing that Disney would be so silly as to try and do that.  I think Disney's action was likely an effort to protect themselves from being sued after the release of their new movie.  Every company has to file to trademark the name of a product before releasing it so that they don't get in trouble later for using something that they didn't have the rights too.  This is probably what Disney was doing here, but, unfortunately, due to the nature of the petition, it did not reflect well on the company.  Luckily for Disney, I think they did a pretty good job of keeping the publicity of the petition scaled down, as I found it in the news by chance when I was searching for Día de los Muertos.  Hopefully this event will not damage the success of the movie, which should be interesting, as they are trying to make a children's movie about the "Day of the Dead," two things that don't usually mix well.

Works Cited

Alcaraz, Lalo. "Walt Disney, Inc. wants to trademark ‘Dia de los Muertos’ (toon)." Pocho. Pochismo, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. <http://pocho.com/walt-disney-inc-wants-to-trademark-dia-de-los-muertos-toon/>.

Rodriguez, Cindy Y. "Day of the Dead trademark request draws backlash for Disney." CNN. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. <http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/10/us/disney-trademark-day-dead/index.html>.

Is the Disney princess ready to be a hero?

When I saw this post on Facebook earlier today I immediately smiled at the excitement in this little girl's face and it brought back happy memories of my own princess phase.  However, as I read the caption, "That moment when she meets her hero," my excitement faded a little.  Is a Disney princess really who we want young girls to look up to as their hero?

Part of me thinks that it shouldn't matter who our heros are when we're young children because our heros are likely to change as we mature and grow up.  On the other hand, we learn a lot of important lessons when we're very young, so the influences in our lives at this age do have a big impact.

I googled "disney effects on children" and my webpage immediately filled up with negative titles, such as "Top 10 Ways Disney Corrupts Children" and "The Negative affects of Disney on Children."  It seems to me that the majority of articles on Disney, including the ones that we read in our class such as "Mickey Mouse History: Portraying the Past at Disney World" and "The Little Mermaid," are criticisms of Disney.  If Disney is an overall negative influence, which is a much longer debate than I can cover in this blog post, then we certainly should not be encouraging young girls to look up to these princesses as heros.

However, although they are less common, there are also articles describing Disney as a positive influence.  One positive article that I especially liked is "Ten Things Disney Princesses Taught Me" by Lauren Cochrane.  Lauren emphasizes 10 Disney princesses and presents the positive lessons that she thinks they teach.  Some of her interpretations offer the exact opposite view as those posed by critics we've read.  For example, in her piece "The Little Mermaid," Roberta Trites argues that Ursula equates love to a kiss, essentially suggesting that love is just a matter of physical attraction.  However, in her analysis of Aurora, Cochrane argues Sleeping Beauty teaches that a simple kiss can very powerful, which she says is an especially important message because "sex is more mainstream" in today's society.  Although these two points are referring to different movies, it is interesting to see how different their interpretations are.

There is no right or wrong interpretation of the Disney films, as the interpretation will change from person to person based on what past experiences they bring to the table when viewing the films.  Yet, even if you think that Disney is the upmost positive influence on a child, I think "hero" is too strong of a role for a Disney princess.  I don't doubt that the Disney movies can teach children lessons, but I think the role of hero should be reserved for a more substantial role model than an animated character in a children's movie.  

Do you think the Disney princess is ready to be a hero?